Gusta Sourdough Pizza is about a 10-minute walk from NEX mall or Serangoon MRT Station. It is both surprising and daring to open a pizzeria below a HDB block. Like will people even come to a neighbourhood to eat pizzas?
Yes, yes they do. The white women at the table next to mine told a story of how far they travelled to Serangoon. I was there on a weekday evening, and by 6.15pm or so, the interior of restaurant was full-house. (There were some empty tables at the corridor outside.)
Without researching on the pizza first, I tasted it and my first impression was – this wasn’t Italian; it felt more Japanese. The crust itself is white in colour, not brown/beige, and it is super airy and holey like Japanese bread.
Then I visited their website and indeed it stated that they use a blend of Japanese flours for the dough which is fermented for 72 hours with a sourdough starter. The pizzas are then baked in a 500°c Italian pizza oven for about 90 seconds. This is Neapolitan style pizza with a Japanese twist.
I had the Parma Ham & Caramelised Peach ($27.50), not cheap by any measure, but also the most expensive one on their menu. For good Neapolitan pizzas, the rim of the crust can arise “leopard spots” (those 50-cent sized burnt marks) but the base shouldn’t. For my pizza, some parts of the base was burnt, so the burnt bitterness came through, which overwhelmed the taste of the pizza.
More at https://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.com/2024/04/23/gusta-pizza-serangoon/
