Strengthen Your Love For Pizza At Pi Pizzeria, Mumbai’s Latest Pizza Parlour

When Akhil Thakkar and Shaamil Amin were children growing up in London, they constantly frequented pizza parlours in the North Hamptons in London. These parlours were typically family run, by Italians who conversed with their customers every day, learning not just about their culinary whims and fancies, but also about their families and day to day lives. Thakkar and Amin frequented one parlour in particular, run by ‘Uncle Pepe’. Indeed, they developed such a close relationship with Uncle Pepe that when he retired he passed on his legacy and recipes to the childhood friends.

Fast forward a few years later and Thakkar and Amin have brought variations of those recipes as well as the concept of a family run-Italian pizza parlour to Mumbai. The duo have just opened the doors to ‘Pi Pizzeria’, some three minutes walk away from Khar station.

Pi Pizzeria aims to bring an authentic European pizza dining experience to Mumbai using ingredients sourced from all over Europe as well as imported technical equipment. “There’s a huge untapped potential for authentic Italian pizza in Mumbai,” said Amin. “Coming from the UK where we’ve grown up to this dining concept, we wanted to Indian market to experience the same. Compared to brands who Indianise the pizzas or serve synthetic Americanised pizza, we’ve gone the extra mile and carefully hand-picked out ingredients, importing most of them from Europe. Further, most Italian restaurants are family-run businesses with the owners interacting with customers on a daily basis. We want such similar friendly interactions with our customers and want them to offer them a genuine gourmet pizza feel!”

Into The Pizza Parlour

When we stepped into Pi Pizzeria early this week, we saw Amin’s attitude in action as he stopped by at every table to ask customers’ feedback and thoughts.

The pizza parlour itself is divided into two levels. The lower, ground level is clearly the chef’s domain; customers walking in can see – through a glass partition – an impressive, almost intimidating collection of equipment manned by chefs hard at work. Meanwhile, the upper level is the dining area. With grey, washed walls, dim lighting and brick accents, it has a rustic, laid back vibe.

Tasting The Talk

Pi Pizzeria’s menu makes it clear it’s all about the pizzas – while there are several authentic Italian appetisers, like bruschetta and dough balls and desserts like tiramisu and cheese cake, there’s an extensive list of vegetarian and non-vegetarian pizzas including classics like the Margherita, Quatrro and Florentina as well as a make your own pizza option which allows you to choose between regular or gluten free dough and a variety of toppings.

We began our meal with Dough Balls with Garlic butter and Baked Mushrooms with Pesto and Mozarella. Both were the perfect way to whet our appetites for what was to come; the dough balls were delicious, bite sized, round balls and the garlic butter was rich and creamy. Brushing the bread with a little olive oil – which is imported from Spain – elevated the taste.

The Baked Mushrooms were an unusual treat; baked button mushrooms were oozing with bubbly mozzarella and immersed in a ‘gravy’ of butter and pesto.

After the cheesy mushrooms, it seemed fit to continue with a Quattro pizza – a four cheese pie which boasts mozzarella, fontal, parmesan and feta cheese. The mixture of cheese made each bite intensely indulgent; we were particular charmed when, on picking up a slice, a waterfall of cheese ensued. Vegetarians will also enjoy the Fungi pizza, which has a deeply earth flavour thanks to  he abundance of mushrooms

The Tre Gusti, which had pepperoni, chicken, rosemary and tomatoes had a similarly earthy feel, thanks to the rosemary topping. It was while tasting this pizza that we really came to appreciate the premium ingredients; the thick slabs of pepperoni, which we’re told are imported from Belgium were spicy and smoky and gave the pizza an exotic character.

Our favourite from the lot was the Cotto pizza with ham mushrooms and capers. Again, the quality of the ingredients shone through; the ham was thick and indulgent and was complemented by the salty capers and earthy mushrooms.

Finally, we rounded off our meal with a rich, creamy tiramisu which was indulgent, but light.

To taste the talk yourself, head over to Pi Pizzeria next week.