At $21.90 per pizza, is it worth a try?
It might not be durian season yet, but Tino’s Pizza Café has rolled out two new pizzas which combine the King of Fruits with cheese and baked dough crusts. Depending on your thoughts about the pungent fruit, this is a union that would either make you salivate or run far, far away.
Launched on April’s Fools Day, Tino’s Pizza Café proved that they’re weren’t kidding anyone with their D24 and Mao Shan Wang pizzas. While they believe in maintaining the “authentic taste of Italy”, the new creations with an Asian twist has piqued the interest of many Singaporeans. We just knew we had to try it for ourselves.
Tino’s has outlets in Tiong Bahru Plaza, The Centrepoint and Resorts World Sentosa. Priced at S$16.90 for the D24 pizza and S$21.90 for Mao Shan Wang, the café calls out to both sweet and bitter durian lovers (note that prices are different in their RWS outlet). All their pizzas are handcrafted and you can choose from Neapolitan (thick) or Roman (thin) crust.
D24 Pizza
Let’s be honest here – a durian pizza does sound bizarre, and we would be lying if we said that we weren’t nervous about giving this a try. But upon sinking our teeth into the D24 pizza, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the topping to crust ratio was perfect. The durian filling was creamy and not overwhelmingly sweet. The thick crust was fluffy, airy, and not soggy in any way.
And if you’re curious to know how durian and cheese go together – they go surprisingly well! The D24 pizza had the right balance between sweet and savoury, keeping us from getting jelak. Between the two of us, we polished half of the pizza each with zero crust wastage – that’s saying a lot.
Mao Shan Wang Pizza
If you’re a bitter durian fan, the Mao Shan Wang pizza is bound to be right up your street. We were absolutely struck from our first bite. Like the D24 pizza, the Mao Shan Wang topping was generous, creamy, and it did not overshadow the crust in any way. It differs in the taste department with a milder sweetness and a hint of bitterness. Combined with the savoury flavour of cheese, we were taken for a gastronomical ride. Again, no crust left behind.
Final Verdict
All in all, this gastronomical adventure left us feeling very satisfied. Tino’s Pizza Café definitely did the King of Fruits justice with their creation. If going for both pizzas is a little bit too much, we would highly recommend the Mao Shan Wang. With its depth and dimension of flavours, we felt that it had a slight edge over its D24 counterpart. But of course, your final verdict would largely depend on your preference, and whether you stand on the side of D24 durian or Mao Shan Wang.
One thing is for sure – no matter which side you’re on, as long as you’re a durian lover you’ll have to give this a try.
