Overview
Pizza purists will likely choke on their chewy wood-fired crust when they discover that Auckland's newest pizza joint has a pie topped with yoghurt and strawberries. But then, Proper Pizza isn't exactly trying to follow the Napoletana pizza rulebook; the company's marketing spiel claims that it creates pizzas "that no New Zealander has ever seen nor tasted before."
Born out of Kosova in southeast Europe, the chain arrives in Auckland courtesy of Stuart Deeks, who also brought Esquires Coffee to New Zealand. Auckland's first Proper Pizza can be tracked down on O'Connell Street in the CBD.
Like your average pizzeria, Proper's dough is hand-kneaded every day — the difference comes with a sesame seed-coated crust. From there, the company states that it uses "the very best of New Zealand's cheeses" and a signature tomato sauce enriched with "exotic spices".
Elsewhere in the toppings department you'll find everything from pepperoni and black truffle to iceberg lettuce, Marmite, apple crumble and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. And you thought pineapple was controversial?
Those after something more traditional will be happy to see that the humble margherita still makes an appearance. Though if you'd prefer to create your own masterpiece, the pizzeria also offers a 'design your own' feature with the choice of five ingredients (tuna is about as wacky as it gets here).
Size-wise, you can take your pick from 20, 30, 40 and 60-centimetre pizzas. The whopping pie is advertised as Auckland's biggest pizza, which is a fair call.
Find Proper Pizza at 12D O'Connell Street, Auckland CBD.
Image: Proper Pizza.