Friday, May 25, 2012

Perth pizza: Hero's Pizza North Perth and Crust Gourmet Pizza Subiaco

When Mr Bite and I were dating but not living together, we settled into a routine around when we saw each other and what sorts of things we did.

(Yes, even back then we were like an old married couple.)

In a standard week, we saw each other on Tuesday night, Friday night, and Saturday day and night through to Sunday morning, at which point we parted ways until Tuesday rolled around again.

Because I lived by myself and Mr B did not, we generally met at my place. This meant we were eating dinner at my (now our) house up to three nights per week. So that I didn't have to cook on each of those nights, we established a routine quite early on that saw us eat out or order take-away at least one night per week.

Hero's Pizza - The Vegetator

Favourites were Thai, Japanese, fish, and one particular pizza place not far from us, Hero's Pizza. Hero's Pizza markets themselves as making "fresher, healthier, tastier pizza" and we tended to agree with their claims. They also go easy on the cheese, which makes me happy.

When we moved in together, we gradually moved away from restaurant and take-away food and these days we mostly eat at home. Generally I don't mind that, and even prefer it, although Thai a bit more often would be nice too!

Hero's Pizza was retained as a take-away treat around Mr Bite's birthday, but then the store nearest to us closed down. In one of those amusing twists of fate, the store shut because the lease expired and wasn't renewed. The new tenants? A Curves fitness centre. I still smile when I drive past.

In the lead up to Mr Bite's birthday this year, we thought we would try an alternative local pizza place, Crust Gourmet Pizza, in case they could fill Hero's shoes. I can tell you the exact date we visited - the 18th March 2012 - because Johanna helpfully reviewed Crust Pizza on Green Gourmet Giraffe the very day we had planned to go. Her review showed the pesto aioli that comes drizzled on top of the Vegetarian Supreme pizza, allowing us to know to steer clear of that.

Crust has several stores in Perth, two of which are relatively close to us. There are six vegetarian pizzas to choose from, plus a vegetarian calzone, which is quite an impressive range. It's also possible to design your own pizza, a concept that appeals to me greatly. When we visited, though, we decided to order off the menu for our first try. Usually when we order pizza for just the two of us, we get one large to share and I pair my pieces with salad, so customised pizzas would have required half-and-half ordering and it started to get messy.

Our choice? The Vegetarian Supreme minus the pesto aioli!

Crust Gourmet Pizza - Vegetarian Supreme

This comes with eggplant, artichokes, baby spinach, capsicum, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes on a tomato base. In standard form it also includes the pesto aioli and two types of cheese, which seems rather excessive. We asked for no aioli and no bocconcini, which left mozzarella for Mr Bite to eat and me to pick off.

Unfortunately, I think we would have been better ordering our own pizzas and/or customising things to our own tastes, even if it meant purchasing two pizzas instead of one. We both found this version a bit lacking, and wondered if the seasonings and flavours had been in the pesto aioli that we omitted - certainly without it, there wasn't a lot of flavour and we weren't able to identify any herbs in taste or appearance. It was also too cheesey for both of us, and by the time I tried to remove most of the cheese from my pieces I had removed most of the vegetables too.



In the end, not a resounding success. I would like to try Crust again with either a customised (and cheese-free!) pizza or with their 'Healthier Choice' baby spinach pizza minus cheese, but for now we are giving them a bit of a break.

For Mr Bite's birthday, we weren't taking any risks and drove the extra distance to another Hero's Pizza store in Perth. We ordered three vegetarian varieties, as we had Mr Bite's family over to help us eat them:

  • The Vegetator (tomato base, onions mushrooms, tomatoes, olives, capsicum, basil, mozzarella)
  • The Snow Meat (tomato base, roast pumpkin, artichoke, eggplant, capsicum, cream cheese, sesame seeds, basil)
  • The Avegers (avocado base, semi-dried tomatoes, roast pumpkin, mushroom, feta cheese, mozzarella, pepper)

The Vegetator is my favourite and I have also tried The Snow Meat before. The Avegers was a new variety that proved to be a hit with Mr B and his family, but I didn't try it as my odd tastes mean that I don't like avocado outside of desserts. 

The thing about all of the flavour varieties (in addition to their names being a little on the creative side!) is that they taste fresh. So many take-away pizzas taste oily or bland, but here there are plenty of vegetables and plenty of seasonings.

The Vegetator


The Snow Meat


The Avegers

There's also not too much cheese.

For now, I think we'll be sticking with Hero's Pizza on the rare occasions we venture into take-away. Crust deserves another try, but it may take a little while for the opportunity to arise.

We visited Crust Gourmet Pizza in Subiaco and Hero's Pizza in North Perth. Crust has stores Australia-wide whilst Hero's is Western Australia specific at this stage.


How often do you order take-away? And do you have a reliable pizza option?

26 comments:

  1. I've actually never, ever ordered take-away for myself, so the last time would've been years ago, when I lived at home. And actually, I think I remember the last time I had takeaway it was a pizza place, but I ordered pasta :P

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    1. I think, dear Hannah, that you are far more sophisticated than I when it comes to eating out / purchasing food! I have never had a 3 course meal and I am not sure when I last ate at a winery :P Although in saying that, I didn't order take-away pre Mr B either...

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    2. I like how you say "sophisticated" instead of "pretentious" or "snobby" ;)

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  2. I think it sounds like you had a really beautiful courtship. What a lovely start to a relationship. That pizza looks good and I'm so glad it doesn't have too much cheese because I don't like it with too much cheese either xx

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    1. Thank you Charlie - we thought so :-) I'm also glad to find another who isn't keen on masses of cheese. There seem to be too few of us!

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  3. I love pizza!!! My first job ever was in a pizza parlor with my best friend. I usually make pizza at home once every other week. I will make the typical pizza for my husband on pizza crust, but for myself I usually will use a tortilla. I like to lots of spinach, onions, and sundried tomatoes on mine. Since I have been removing gluten from my diet to see if it helps my stomach issues I found a GF pizza crust. I am going to try it out this weekend. I am excited!

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    1. I hope it goes well! We have pizza at home fortnightly too but it's sometimes nice to get the take away for a change :)

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  4. Shame about crust but I like the sound of hero's pizzas. I like crust because it is the best near us that will home deliver - but I also love cheese (if not the pesto aioli). But I really prefer the pizza I make at home - I have a lot less misses than when I get takeaway pizza - and we eat pizza at home far more than we eat it from a pizzeria

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    1. I have to say I prefer home made too - even if it somehow seems less exciting than store bought! But we probably only have take-away pizza once or twice a year these days, and I think it's probably for the best. Hero's is lovely though, it's a shame they are WA specific at this stage.

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  5. Love the names of the pveggie pizzas: The Vegetator; The Snow Meat; and The Avegers, which would be the one I would go for. I don't eat out much, but when I have its always ended being a pizzeria. Sadly , no good ones around here, or maybe I have still to find it.

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    1. The names are great - it's definitely a pizza place with attitude! I hope you manage to find a good pizzeria, they are so handy to have near by when time is short or dinner is proving challenging.

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  6. I think vegetarian pizza is my favourite. Maybe with a few sneaky anchovies :)

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    1. I've never had anchovies on pizza - maybe I should try them?! I don't think I've ever had them at all actually; my fish consumption is generally tuna or white fillets.

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  7. we rarely order take-out but when we were dating and living apart we definitely ate out a lot more! I loved hearing about your routines then!

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    1. I'm glad it wasn't just us! I guess it must be normal-ish part of that time of life :)

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  8. We rarely do take away other than fish and chips. I can't bear the oily smell from fried food 3 hours after the meal.

    I think I would like these pizzas however the American half of me would eat all your extra cheese. :)

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    1. You would be very welcome to it - sounds like a good match :) We actually never have fish and chips just for us because neither of us likes many chips. We need extra people around to help make it worthwhile!

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  9. wow, now i'm working on pizza drool-fest overload! all of those look yummy and so long as there's ample crust i'll dive in! but i will admit i'm kinda a plain jane in most things and don't usually venture out and try some of the really gourmet kinds of pizza places. sometimes i'm afraid it'll get too fancy or odd tasting, but i need to step out of my comfort zone some! hehe

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    1. Sometimes simple is best though :) I will admit to finding some of the 'newer' sorts of pizzas a bit odd - I like variety but not scary sounding toppings!

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  10. Your menu sounds fantastic…and I’m certain it was yummy

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  11. I love veggie pizzas and these 3 sound fantastic! I would never think of having roast pumpkin on a pizza, but now I want to try it out!

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    1. It is very good! Especially with spinach and sweet chilli sauce - I've made that combination at home and love it :)

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  12. Sorry to hear the pizza was lacking - it certainly looks delish. I don't often get takeaway pizza, though I had a lovely chiili con carne pizza last night at an Italian restaurant.

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  13. I can't remember the last time I had take-away pizza. S and I make them all the time, it is our go to freezer meal because we always have all the ingredients in the fridge or freezer.
    But I completely understand about the routine of seeing each other. And since S and I moved in together we get less take-away too! Now we try to have a night out at least once a fortnight because it gives both of us a break from both the cooking and the cleaning up.

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