Today we’re on a mission to discover whether Goodlife Pizza is really the home of Adelaide’s best pizza.
‘Best of’ titles are always controversial due to the subjective nature of the judging process. To be completely fair you would have to organise a blind tasting of pizzas, eaten side-by-side, each sampled within moments of them emerging from the oven. This is probably not altogether feasible.
What makes a good pizza anyway? The taste and the texture of the base and the combination and quality of the toppings – all of these factors play a part of course. Everyone has their own favourites and biases when it comes to specific toppings, though, and where you eat the pizza and in whose company can also affect the enjoyment of your meal.
Goodlife Pizza is often touted by pizza lovers as one of the best pizza restaurants in Adelaide, mentioned in the same breath as Amalfi’s, Enzo’s, Russell’s and Panacea, where I enjoyed a very decent pizza a few weeks ago.
Goodlife make their pizza using organic Lauke flour from South Australia, filtered water and fresh yeast, ageing each base for 24 hours. They use organic ingredients and free-range products where possible.
The only quibble I’ve ever heard levelled at Goodlife is regarding its pricing: Goodlife pizzas range from $13.90-$19.90 for a 1-2 person margherita pizza to $25.50-$38.50 for a 1-2 person Spencer Gulf King Prawn pizza.
That’s quite a lot for a pizza if you consider that you can get a budget Dominos pizza for $6.95 on a Tuesday. Yes, there is no comparison between the ingredients or the love, care and technique put into each pizza but are the pizzas at Goodlife really that much better?
Today, on this gloomy Winter’s day, we’re going to try to answer that question at Goodlife’s Hutt Street restaurant. So this lunchtime I’m joined by three pizza lovers: my brother, and his two friends, who are both called Andrew but who are invariably addressed by their respective surnames.
My brother has a full-size wood oven pizza oven at home, and my sister in law once made 28 pizzas and their toppings from scratch for a wood oven pizza party. So it’s safe to say that they like pizza.
After arguing over the menu — I really wanted someone to order the Spencer Gulf King Prawn Pizza — we settle back and wait for our food.
Hanging out with my brother and his mates is always a slightly odd experience. I love my brother and would protect him with my life – and vice-versa – but when we talk or, more commonly, message each other we always seem to end up fighting. We’re quite similar, I guess – both capable, strong-willed and convinced we always know best.
Today we have two of his friends with us so we have to put on our company manners and my brother is forced to make polite conversation about uncontroversial topics. So we talk about their business, me wanting to change my blog theme to Thesis (done!), mutual friends, my brother’s band’s upcoming debut, and, of course, pizza, in all its glorious forms.
Our food arrives, delivered by our friendly server, who earlier told me, “we make the best pizza” with a proud smile.
We start off with some garlic bread. It’s a massive doorstep wedge of toasted bread, slathered generously with garlic butter and accompanied by extra dipping oil.
“This is pretty good garlic bread,” my brother says, rolling his Rs for extra emphasis. “But surely the oil is overkill?”
I disagree and happily soak my wedge in the olive oil.
Our pizzas arrive next. First up is a Hahndorf Spicy Salami Pizza, served with organic Kalamata olives, organic red onions, baby bocconcini and fresh basil leaves. This pizza has a lot of my favourite ingredients – if it’s fatty and salty I’m in! – so I really, really like this pizza. The base is crispy but chewy, with a wonderful texture and ‘bite’.
Next up is one of the daily specials — a Tapenade Pizza served with fetta, green beans and red capsicum — that my brother wanted to try. This vegetarian pizza is actually a fantastic combination of strong and robust flavours and I can see myself doing mini versions of this at home on toasted bruschetta.
Next is the Swiss Brown Mushroom pizza with mushrooms marinated in organic balsamic vinegar and garnished with organic lemon aioli. Two friends that have eaten this pizza at Good Life told me it was the best mushroom pizza they had ever eaten so I had high expectations. Unfortunately, I’m not altogether convinced — I find the flavours too subtle for my tastebuds — although we are all impressed with the amount of mushrooms piled onto this pizza.
Actually, the best mushroom pizza I’ve ever eaten was at a now defunct pizza restaurant on Fredericks Road in Grange called Emilios. They did a vegetarian pizza with a thick carpet of stewed mushrooms, Kalamata olives, red capsicum, red onion, chilli flakes, oregano and garlic, which was the stuff of dreams – I can still remember the exact taste of this exquisite creation.
The last pizza is a corker and I finally get my ‘aha!’ moment. Goodlife’s Free-Range Roasted Duck Pizza features duck, shitake mushrooms, and finely chopped, fresh ginger and spring onion. The ginger and spring onion mixture has been spooned onto the pizza in little clumps, reminding me of the ginger and spring onion ‘relish’ that is sometimes served with Hainanese Chicken Rice.
Mushrooms and duck go brilliantly together and here they are enlivened by the fresh onion and ginger – it’s an astonishingly good combination, one that is common enough in Asian cooking, but one which I’ve never seen transposed onto a pizza base before. I’d asked for it with a gluten-free base as gluten-free pizza bases are notoriously hard to get right and we’re all pleasantly surprised by how good it is.
The other pizzas were good, but, discounting the admittedly excellent, organic ingredients, I’ve had and made pizzas that weren’t that far off them. But the Free-Range Roasted Duck Pizza is an original and remarkable creation that is well worth checking out.
To end we’re served some complimentary lollypops. As we suck on them, we ponder the nature of pizza and the notion of quality.
Goodlife started out with one restaurant in 2003 and have now expanded to three (the others are in Glenelg and North Adelaide, both suburbs with well-heeled clientele).
For four of us, lunch today is around $100, and we only ordered soft drinks. Looking around the restaurant, it seems clear that Goodlife caters for an older, professional crowd – this is definitely not a student hangout, which seems a shame, as I can’t help but feel that pizza should be for everybody and something that can be eaten everyday.
Don’t misunderstand me — I’m all about quality and I respect Goodlife for creating a successful business with impeccable green credentials. They have created a life for themselves that scores big on so many different levels and all credit to them. I just wish they’d have a (weekly? daily?) special so I could have lunch there all the time.
What do you think, dear reader? What’s your favourite pizza restaurant?
Goodlife Pizza
170 Hutt Street,
Adelaide SA 5000
Tel: 8223 2617
Christina Soong-Kroeger dined at Goodlife Pizza courtesy of Mushroom Growers Australia as part of Mushroom Mania.
Mushroom Mania is on for all of July and over 2,000 restaurants are participating by putting delicious mushrooms on the menu. See Mushroom Mania for details. You can also enter the Eat.Blog. Win. competition, which closes soon. All you need to do is eat out at one of the participating restaurants, order a mushroom dish and then write a short review about it on the entry page. All entries go into the draw to win a $150 best restaurants voucher. Too easy!
