With coronavirus measures still in place and all restaurants shuttered until further notice, finding new places to eat comes with the caveat of needing to have the food delivered to your door rather than experiencing the entire dining proposition in a more holistic way.
So was the case with the fairly new restaurant Pizzart by Dino in Limassol, which opened earlier this year. If it sounds familiar to any Limassol residents, that’s because Dino has been a staple name in the culinary scene of the city for many years, with the famous Bistro Cafe moving from the old town area to Gladstonos street not too long ago.
While the Bistro has become synonymous with high-quality salads, sandwiches and sushi, it also serves a range of pasta dishes. I say this because the addition of pizza to its original menu would not be that much of a stretch. Instead Dino has opened a second restaurant devoted to pizza on the same street as the Bistro.
For a truly authentic experience, he would need space for a fire wood oven, which is what is used, a dedicated pizza chef, fresh ingredients along with a system ensuring quality doesn’t fluctuate. Moreover, while the bistro audience can overlap with people seeking a good pizza, it wouldn’t hurt to tailor the decor and overall ambience to suit the latter in a more dedicated fashion.
The place isn’t shy about what it does nor does it try to overcomplicate things through additional menu offerings. There’s pizza and calzones, starters, salads and desserts. We went for two of the pizzas and a calzone, which should provide a fairly substantial overview of the core mains on offer.
The first pizza was a plain margarita with the addition of Napoli salami, itself nicely spiced and peppered. The second pizza, aptly named Lucifer Inferno Pizza, had pomodoro sauce, fresh mozzarella, spianata (a Calabrian salami with bits of chilli pepper), chilli bomba (a fiery chilli paste), and gorgonzola cheese. The calzone, called the Prosciutto Cotto Funghi, had pomodoro sauce, fresh mozzarella, prosciutto cotto (slightly brighter and lighter than other prosciutto variants), mushrooms and parmesan.
To answer the key questions, both the dough and the tomato sauce were excellent and will please those who bemoan the lack of attention these base pizza components tend to receive at times. Both pizzas were delightful and as close to perfection as one can expect in an authentic Italian pizza delivered to your home. Yes, the time it spends en route does not help, but short of inventing a teleportation device this can never be eradicated. To this effect, however, the restaurant did deliver them fairly briskly in around 25 minutes, a full 15 minutes less time than the delivery service had said.
The calzone was also very good, but it was a bit fillings-light in the corners and the perimeter. Its more substantial sections were lovely though, and even the more dough-rich parts of it offer themselves up to be dipped in the tomato sauce provided as a dip on the side.
One minor gripe comes in the pricing of any additional toppings or fillings you may wish to add, with cheeses and meats costing an extra 2.50 per topping. That being said, I do appreciate that these are quality ingredients and they don’t scrimp on them. All in all, I was very happy with my experience and will undoubtedly patronise them again, perhaps in person when conditions allow.
VITAL STATISTICS
SPECIALTY Pizzas and Calzones
WHERE Pizzart by Dino, Gladstonos 142, Limassol
WHEN 12pm to 11pm (delivery stops at 10:30pm)
HOW MUCH €9-13 for a pizza, €13 for a calzone
CONTACT 25 732020
