HOT: 400 Gradi Essendon, Shop 1, 110 Keilor Road, Essendon

Award-winning Italian restaurant 400 Gradi has recently opened a new outpost in Essendon and the combination of wood-fired pizza and gelateria make it a family-friendly crowd pleaser. More importantly, the pizza is still one of the best you’ll find in Melbourne. Johnny Di Francesco, chef and owner of 400 Gradi was the world’s best margherita pizza at World Pizza Championships in Italy in 2014!

I was invited to try out 400 Gradi Essendon with three adults and two kids and everyone voted with their tummies! Every dish was delicious, fresh-tasting and authentically Neapolitan.

The dining space at 400 Gradi is underneath an apartment block and the steel, concrete and glass box is not the most inspiring architecture. If you can, get a table with the banquette, right near the kitchen, so that you can peek at the pizza-making station and watch your pizza being made from whoa to go.

The menu is similar to the menu at Brunswick East and Crown, with the addition of slow-cooked meats. Just make sure you have some pizza!

They are suitably amazing and big enough for two adults to share one. Out of the oven slide discs with charred fringes and a slightly chewy base topped with high quality, fresh flavour ingredients. You can taste the sun in those tomatoes!

If you have the appetite also try the montanare fritte. These are plump pillows of deep fried pizza dough topped with the classic combination of San Marzano tomato, buffalo mozzarella, basil and parmesan ($15 for 3).

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The dessert menu offers tiramisu ($15), dark chocolate fondant ($15) and other Italian-style desserts but the kids wanted nothing but gelati.

This is all hand-churned on site and again the traditional flavours are clean and fresh. The creamy hazelnut and pistachio flavours both contain chunks of nuts while the strawberry still has tiny black pips.

For families they offer pram access and high chairs and we found the kitchen staff to be super-friendly with two little kids peering at them while they worked. They even provided the kids with little pats of dough to play with. And pizza and gelati never fail to please!

For those who live closer to the original 400 Gradi you’ll be happy to know that Zero Gradi gelataria is two doors down from the Brunswick East restaurant.

HOT Tips:

• pram access;
• high chairs;
• disabled toilet with enough space for pram;
• standard menu suitable for kids;
• plenty of street parking, free at certain times; and
• gluten-free bases are not available but you can order gluten-free pasta (and other dishes).

400 Gradi Essendon, Shop 1, 110 Keilor Road, Essendon 03 9351 6690

Mon-Wed 5pm-11pm

Thu-Sun noon-11pm