Six Slices Pizza Bar is the newest restaurant from Andrea Cozzolino and Francesco Crifo, who also own Zero95 in Doncaster. The popularity of Zero95 and the desire to forge new ground on the pizza front, led them to open shop right at the heart of Kew Junction. Andrea won the Caputo Trophy for Neapolitan pizza at the 2016 Pizza Chef World Championships in Naples, so they certainly know a thing or two about them.

Tonight for the launch we try taster sized dishes from the menu. The Polenta Fritta, fried polenta chips, are seasoned with Italian herbs and doused in a sharp gorgonzola sauce. Hot, crispy and full-flavoured, these are rather popular. Eye fillet carpaccio is dressed with lemon oil and decorated with walnuts, baby spinach and shaved parmesan. Tender pieces of grilled octopus are teamed up with a creamy and gently-flavoured purple potato puree. The croquettes are a winner. They possess a very crunchy crust with an almost crumbly filling of cheesy crab meat, ricotta and red onion.

Polpette are Wagyu meatballs with tomato sugo and parmesan crisps. The consistency of the meatball is dense, almost smooth, but is still quite moist. The cheese crisps create extra texture and a pop of flavour. Pasta features on the menu here too. Their Black Squid Ink Tagliolini is al dente, coming with flakes of spanner crab meat, pieces of calamari and a smear of pea puree on the plate. The sauce is tasty, though with the smaller portion tried today, I wish for more of it to go with the amount of pasta.

Given their credentials, it would be a shame if Six Slices didn’t serve Neapolitan pizzas. Thankfully they do, though none are tried tonight. Instead we have their gourmet Quattro Mani-style Six Slices Pizza. A thick base, almost focaccia-sized, is topped with premium ingredients and cut into six pieces. Although it’s popular in certain parts of Italy, it’s a first for Melbourne. Each pizza is crafted such that all six slices have identical amounts of topping. There’s an iteration with pan-fried King prawns wrapped in pancetta, joined by zucchini cream and white vinegar pearls. Though not as visually impressive as the prawn, the Smoked Salmon is my favourite of the two. The combination of smoked salmon, avocado mayo, goats cheese mousse, and balsamic caviar provides plenty of flavour. For dessert you might choose to continue with pizza in the form of the Sweet Pizza, a Six Slices version with custard cream, white chocolate, raspberries, and very sweet Amarene black cherries.

Kew Junction might be a bit of an odd location, but it is in convenient proximity to bus and tram stops, and easy parking. It doesn’t feel like there have been many exciting things happening on the Kew food scene lately. From our glimpse of the Six Slices menu tonight, there is potential. I look forward to trying some of those classic pizzas too.

Six Slices Pizza Bar
117 High Street
Kew, VIC, 3101
(03) 9855 2372
sixslicespizzabar.com.au