Kiss Pizza
I was intrigued when I heard about something very different, a Melbourne pizza restaurant that also housed a hugely popular radio station, so I headed down to Abbotsford/Collingwood, to the Victoria Park railway station and indulged.
Kiss Pizza is unique, being the only restaurant in the world that includes an active radio station, on the premises. The streetfront area offers seating for about 20, there’s a fantastic relaxed outdoor courtyard for around 18 and then a back room (with see-through DJ booth) for another 16, including a couple of larger communal tables.
Kiss Pizza was built around the premise of combining a value priced and friendly eatery with the opportunity to showcase one of Melbourne’s best cutting edge music stations. They offer delicious Italian food but concentrate on thin crust pizzas, using a variety of ingredients to creating mouth-watering choices.
There are 14 listed pizzas including all of the old favourites (capricciosa, mushroom, vegetarian, seafood, margherita etc.) and a few new ones, with the option of adding any of the range of extras.
For those looking to avoid wheat, the pizzas are also available with a polenta base.
As a tribute to the music theme that encompasses Kiss Pizza, there’s also the Carl Cox Special. He was voted the World’s No. 1 DJ of the past 25 years by MixMag and visited that radio station to play some tunes and design his own favourite pizza.
It consists of tomato, cheese, sausage, mushroom, slow roasted pork belly and egg, topped with fresh prosciutto. Carnivore heaven.
With nothing over $15, everything at Kiss Pizza is very affordable. As well as pizzas they also offer four different pasta sauces (with rigatoni or spaghetti), four salads and five choices of tapas served in terracotta dishes. They’re also fully licenced so you can enjoy a glass of wine or beer with your meal.
Kiss Pizza is very friendly so visiting there is like being welcomed into the family. The crowd is a great mix of uni students, music fans, local businesspeople and those looking for a fantastic reasonably priced meal, with great tunes thrown in. It’s good food (due to chef Paolo D’Alloste – ex- Caffe ‘e’ Cuccina and Il Solito Posto), enjoyable and just lots of fun.
Make sure you head out the back to watch the DJ’s in action, admire the gallery of portraits drawn by one of the partners, Rick hanging in the front room, or just spend some time relaxing around in the shady courtyard.
Kiss Pizza – Music to my ears, tastebuds and hungry belly.
Kiss Pizza: 274A Johnston St, Victoria Park, Abbotsford.
Ph: 9419 3533
Open: Mon/Tue: 8am -3pm, Wed/Thur: 8am – 10.30pm, Fri: 8am – Midnight, Saturday: 10am – late
