Pizza Meine Liebe
Phone 03 9482 7001
Pizza Meine Liebe is found in what is fast becoming a rather boho hip part of Northcote. The place itself is retro quirky in a milk bar-ish kind of way - mismatched crockery, laminex surfaces, vinyl/wooden seating, old school counter tops and fitout. You’ll need to make a booking as this place fills fast on a nightly basis - two sittings, at 6pm and 8pm (grr…starting to dislike this worrying trend of two sittings and revolving customerhood). That being said, it gave us the perfect excuse to move on to the Wesley Anne for a brew (or two) afterwards.
But back to the food.
With four hungry mouths at the ready, we decided the best way to sample what was on offer was to order four smalls and have a quarter each. Pizza’s were staggered in their arrival, which is a good thing considering our table was TINY (or should we nicely say intimate?!? ;-)). Either way, the pizzas were bloody fabulous. Thin tasty crust, non-greasy/oily and fantabulous toppings. I so hate that pre-cut ham and salami crap used by most pizzerias. It is good to find long shavings of prosciutto, or hunks of buffalo mozzarella. And basil - actual full leaves and not the dried desiccated stuff. Mmm…this place has got it going ON.
First up was the Queenslander **cough Hawaiian cough**, a tomato, mozzarella, speck and roasted pineapple combo. As you can plainly see in the photo above, the pineapple is the real deal - hefty chunks cut straight from the fruit and not out of a can. The speck was nicely crisped on the edges too, offering a beautiful salty smoky flavour. Mmm. Did I mention how good the crust was?
Second was the Streisand (get used to the quirky names here), which was topped with seasoned potatoes, asparagus, rosemary, caramelised onion and a cheese (though the type escapes me!). This white style pizza was absolutely moreish - the double play of carbs just a match made in heaven as far as I’m concerned.
The Ozzi payed homage to the Aussie, with a twist. Tomato, mozzarella, speck, and egg, with the addition of chilli and peas ?!?. This one got a few votes for best pizza of the night. Personally, I am torn - they were all bloody good for different reasons.
The final of the four was the Buffalo Margherita - a mix of tomato, buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil and speck. Absolutely gorgeous in it’s simplicity.
A shared chocolate and cherry pizette with vanilla ice-cream was a wonderful way to finish off the meal. The thin pizza dough was crimped into a little casing which housed a wonderful melt of dark chocolate (perhaps with a dash of nutella?!), topped with halved dark cherries. A big dollop of good vanilla bean ice-cream (I’m suspecting Jocks) melted deliciously alongside.
Service for us was friendly and efficient on the night, though I have heard some grumbles that it can be sketchy at times. But I didn’t experience this - so I give them a thumbs up.
Further news to hand - they are planning to open a take-out only venture in the next four to six weeks, which will be located only a few blocks away. The menu will be different from Miene Liebe though - simpler and more traditional. Let’s just hope pre-cut ham is not part of that simplicity!
Written by mellie on
February 27th, 2007 | Tags: pizza, restaurants | Category: Uncategorized
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February 27th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Looks great! Will have to pay them a visit sometime. I am picturing the four of you taking a corner each of that gorgeous dessert and pulling.
February 27th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Hey there Cindy - uh huh, you must definitely pay them a visit. There are quite a few amazing vegetarian options available - a traditional margherita (tomato, mozza, basil), a mushroom (tomato, mozza, sauteed ‘rooms, garlic, parsley), an eggplant (tomato, fior di latte, eggplant, pesto, sundried tomatoes), and the best, the italian flag (tomato, mozza, parmesan, green olives, sundried tomatoes, chilli). Look forward to your blog about it
February 27th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Great place.
(Crockery fan comment: I have the cup that goes with that dessert plate set. It’s an early cappuccino style, wide and flattish. The pattern is one of my favourites.)
February 28th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Hi kitchen hand - you really can’t beat good crockery like that. Do you have any idea of it’s heritage? (maker/year etc)?
March 1st, 2007 at 5:46 am
Hey there Mellie -
thanks for the comment on my site. Am already planning a return visit to yeah Maan myself!
I check out your site a lot and love your photos. They are incredibly professional. Do you do it for a living or are you just incredibly skilled at this stage? I always feel I have to rush my photos when I am with others, as they already think I am mad. How do you do it???
March 1st, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Hi mairead - no worries re: comment on your site. I was just so glad to find a review of Yeah Maan, a place I have wanted to try for ages.
And thanks for the lovely compliment. I am far from a professional. I have a trusty 3 megapixel point and shoot camera (Sony DSC-P8), which I whip out at practically every meal. Most of my friends are used to it by now. Some sigh with resignation (hehe), and others actually remind me to take photos when I get too distracted by the food! But I must admit that I have developed the skill (out of necessity foremost) to snap the food quickly before it gets cold
But a few tips - I hardly ever use a flash as it tends to make the food look flat. Where possible (even if it is low light), brace your arms against your side or rest them on the table so you don’t get camera shake.
Dont’ be scared of tilting the camera on an angle to get an interesting shot.
It’s all about the food - so shoot it. Get in nice and close (sometimes this can only be achieved by a proper SLR with manual focus - but it’s just knowing the capabilities of your camera).
I do have an SLR, but I hardly ever use it. It is too big and too conspicuous to take to a restaurant. People really get worried when you whip out big guns like that.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Well maybe after the initial rush Meine Leibe has lost its mojo. I’ve now been there twice in the last six months and it’s gone downhill. The staff have always been too cool to treat you like you pay their wages but that’s sort of ok. Last night our waitress (who was nice enough) couldn’t get a single order right. She didn’t know the menu and had to be walked through it. We ordered two glasses of wine and got one. She had no system for remembering who ordered what and needed help each step of the way. Then I found the 2 cm long piece of hard sharp plastic in my food! At least it’s not a toe nail I thought and at least the kids didn’t swallow it and choke. But the piece de resistance - when I showed it to one of the staff they looked at me with the ‘trouble maker stare’ and said “Oh it’s just a peice of plastic, nothing to worry about” As I waited for my replacement dessert we got the hurry up as there was another booking, well OK but if we’d been served in a timely way we’d have left sooner. Really disappointing, bad service, adulterated food and too many silly toppings. Not going back
December 11th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Hi Justin - ooh, that’s really sad to hear! It was one of my favourite pizza haunts (depsite the fact I haven’t visited in about 8 months or so), and it’s a shame to hear it has gone downhill.
Sad news indeed.