Toni's Fully Furnished Pizza Co. - Nostalgic delight

You know how sometimes you get all warm and fuzzy inside when thinking of a good thing?

Well Toni’s Fully Furnished Pizzeria gives me that exact feeling every single time – never failing.

I’m willing to bet their signature Pesto Pizza that this is the same for countless others, ask anyone between the age of 18 and 35 in PTA, and you will see their eyes wonder and the corner of their moths turn up into a sneaky grin as they reminisce about their last meal there.

 

Luckily for all of us currently residing in the greater Johannesburg region, she has finally opened a delightfully modern decorated shop in Dunkeld. Praise!

The ambience is great and vibey, with cut out wood walls and the signature mosaicked pizza oven the centre of attention. Good wine list and not overpriced.

The menu is the same, and I hope it always will be, offering luscious gourmet pizzas, waver thin crispy crusts, topped with juicy fresh ingredients of the best quality. Every bite an explosion of flavour. What I really love about them, is that they offer all pizza’s in a pizzette as well (15cm) for the not so hungry, or in order for you to try more than one of the amazing combinations. For the very hungry, you also have the choice of half-and-half on your big pizza.

 

Dessert pizzas – sound weird I know, but if you are able to not devour an entire main pizza, and leave some room for dessert, the Belgian fold over is a must, oozing with melted dark chocolate as you slice into it.

Some more praises to add, the staff are all friendly and  knowledgeable, without lurking behind you asking if everything is fine just as you take a mouthful of deliciousness. Also, they are more than willing to add or remove anything from you selected pizza, even using vegan cheese if you ask them (this they do not have in stock though – you have to take your own, but hey, I’ve seen this happen!)

Happy days unitil we eat again…

Dukes Burgers, Greenside - More than a mouthfull

I have been a big fan of Dukes Burgers in Greenside since this quaint restaurant’s opening – the fact that I knew the chef at that time might have something to do with this  . However, after this chef took flight, the food and quality stayed the same offering luscious gourmet burgers with a selection of sides.

In my never ending search for new restaurants, I had to take some time away from Dukes, and have not been there for at least 7 months. The craving spoke, and I had to answer, so I kidnapped a friend new to JHB for lunch today.

As a vegetarian I was happy to see that all the wide variety of meat-free burger were still available.  We opted for the Lady Marmalade (rosemary roasted butternut and halumi with red onion marmalade) and the Mushroom Mafia (grilled mushroom steak and avo) as these have always been my favourites.

The Lady Marmalade had an entire butternut (true story) on the bun – perhaps a little overkill, one can only eat so much butternut!! And the Mushroom Mafia changed from being 2 beautiful juicy mushroom steaks to chopped up creamy button mushrooms, which takes away much of the gorgeous mushroom flavor that put this on my favourite burger list. However, the service is still friendly and the ambiance great as well as the choice of side accompanying the burgers.  They also offer a good variety of nice wines by the glass.