Fernando's New York Slices (Margaret Drive)

I’m relieved that @fernandospizzasg offers half & half pizza options for twenty nine dollars, otherwise we’d spend an eternity attempting to sample every single pizza they’ve got to offer.

And now the final half and half pizza we had was the Prince Roni sharing the space with the cheese it up. Fernando’s special hot oil comes strongly recommended did the pepperoni pizza, but I found that said recommendation was much more appealing when applied to the ‘Cheese It Up’. Truth be told, the four cheeses in the Cheese It Up get a little monotonous, so drizzle on some hot honey to break the monotony and add a spicy yet sweet kick to your ‘zas.⠀
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Thanks once again for having us, @fernandospizzasg, than thanks for the invite @burpple!

I’m relieved that @fernandospizzasg offers half & half pizza options for twenty nine dollars, otherwise we’d spend an eternity attempting to sample every single pizza they’ve got to offer. It’s no secret that fernando and I are well acquainted, and their Mario Mushroom Kingdom is quite familiar to me. Roasted shrooms & sausages on top of a base of mozzarella & a splash of truffle oil will never go out of style, and this Kingdom reigns supreme.⠀
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The other half of the pizza was dedicated to the Trio @ Trio, which is a tomato sauce based pizza that’s topped simply with cream cheese, tomato & basil. It may be pretty simple, but it’s pretty delicious. It’s a slight tweak on the eternally popular Margherita pizza, and it’s just as delicious as the OG.⠀

Thanks once again for having us, @fernandospizzasg, than thanks for the invite @burpple!

And here it is: the long awaited review of @fernandospizzasg pizzas! As many of you may know, this is the third time I’m penning a critique of their pies, and I’m still plenty pleased with just how excellent their pizza dough is. It’s airy, slightly dense & chewy, and it holds its structural integrity well even after being sauced up. In short, Fernando’s has the ideal base to build a piquant pizza on. +1 for being consistently competent with their dough, but now we must dive into the meat of the matter.⠀
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Half & half pizzas are the norm these days, and Fernando’s is no different, letting you have the best of both worlds for twenty nine dollars flat. On this particular pie, the Where’s The Beef? and the Luigi’s Green Pesto are in a timeshare agreement, and they coexist peacefully despite being rather different. Luigi’s Green Pesto is bound to please all the herb heads out there, with a pleasantly pungent basil pesto reinforced by rosemary. The herbs are backed up by the mozzarella & provolone cheese base, as well as the toppings of cherry tomatoes, mushrooms & walnuts for a pretty wholesome pie.⠀
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Where’s The Beef? sounded pretty promising, with toppings of braised beef, caramelised onions, more mushrooms & red bell peppers. Unfortunately, Fernando’s kinda set themselves up here, as the braised beef was very sparingly applied, and led to us asking “where’s the beef?” The flavours were definitely there, it’s just a bit of a missed opportunity that the beef wasn’t.⠀
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While these pies weren’t Fernando’s strongest showing, the next few pizzas were definitely a lot more solid. Thanks for hosting us @fernandospizzasg, and thanks for the invite @burpple!

Garfield (and just about every working adult) hates Mondays but you can start your week or meal right with Garfield’s Favourite ($19 nett) from @fernandospizzasg. After my first bite into this saucy sensation, I fully understand why that fat orange cat loves lasagna. Fernando’s lasagna is probably the meatiest one I’ve devoured to date, and yet it wasn’t as excessively rich as some of the others I’ve eaten.⠀
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The beef ragu that goes into the lasagna is delectably well balanced, with the savouriness of the beef gently kept in check by the mildly tangy tomato sauce that the beef is simmered in. Perhaps the reason why Garfield’s fav doesn’t get you green to the gills halfway through is because Fernando’s goes light on the ricotta that goes in between the layers. Instead, they go hard on the parmesan on top of the lasagna for that extra Instagram-able cheese pull. Fernando’s also does a chicken version (Creamy Chicken, also $19) that’s supposed to have spinach, but other than the Creamy Chicken being slightly less intense than the beef, it’s identical.⠀
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And now for an actual starter, the Pigs In A Cheesy Blanket was appealing in both name and price at twelve dollars flat. As these were pure pork meatballs, they’re a lot juicier than normal, and they were well salted too. However, they were a lot smaller than expected, and I’m glad they apportioned five balls to a serving. It’s probably more worthwhile to get these piggies in the Single Combo, where you get these along with half a pizza & a soft drink for twenty two bucks.⠀
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Thanks for the invite, @fernandospizzasg & @burpple!

It’s no secret that I am partial to @fernandospizzasg , so when I heard that they had new items on the menu I jumped at the chance to sample them. Besides new pizzas, they’ve got a couple of new appetisers as well. Starting off healthy, we have the Central Park Salad ($14 nett), which comes with a choice of two dressings: honey mustard vinaigrette or caesar mayonnaise.⠀
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Central Park is now home to a mix of leafy greens tossed in with avocado, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, pomegranates, quinoa, roasted walnuts and absolutely addictive garlic cheese croutons. The Central Park Salad is a super salad that would put many salad shops to shame, and the healthy variety of different veg & garnishes made this one of the most well rounded & balanced salads. As for the dressings caesar mayo was the undisputed winner here. The honey mustard vinaigrette suffered from a case of severe separation and brought none of the heat of mustard, while the caesar mayo was ravishingly rich, creamy and savoury.⠀
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The NY-style Calamari ($14 nett) had great promise with the crisp, craggy batter which was well seasoned, but the squid itself was slightly past its best. It was unfortunately a bit too soft, and lacked any springiness. Perhaps we caught Fernando’s on an off day, so I’ll be back to give the calamari a fair shake another day.⠀
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Thank you for inviting us @fernandospizzasg, and thanks for organising the Eatup @burpple!

The other flavours we got included the 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗱𝗼𝗺, 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗻𝗶, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗜𝘁 𝗨𝗽. We mixed their cheese based pizzas with their tomato based ones with their 𝗛𝗮𝗹𝗳-𝗮𝗻𝗱-𝗛𝗮𝗹𝗳 ($𝟮𝟵) option. This would be perfect for sharing and to try more flavours!
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