August 3, 2007: Casa Farro

Update 31/12/2014: Casa Farro has closed down, replaced by another Italian restaurant, Guseli.

When Cindy and I got a menu from Casa Farro in our mailbox with a Nicholson Street address, there was some confusion. I decided that the place we'd sampled at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival must have moved closer to us. It turns out that that place was called Pizza Farro, not Casa Farro and it seems as though Casa Farro has been on Nicholson Street for at least as long as we've lived here. Weird. Anyway, what both 'Farro' pizza shops have in common is a focus on spelt flour pizza bases. I guess it's good for people who have problems with wheat (although apparently not for people with gluten intolerance - I don't really understand the difference), but the difference isn't really noticeable. At least to me.

Anyway, having sorted out that Casa Farro was just around the corner from us, Cindy and I decided to give it a shot. We wandered in at 8:30 on a Friday evening and found plenty of free tables. The vibe is pleasant - the walls are filled with mirrors, wooden chopping boards and other atmospheric bits and pieces. The focus of the menu is pizza obviously, but there are also foccacias, pastas and a few other (meaty) mains. There are seven vegetarian pizzas on the menu, all of which sound delicious and a few of which are at least slightly unusual (artichoke puree anyone?). I was keen to sample a pizza each, but Cindy had her eye on dessert so we just settled on a funghi pizza and a green salad (although it turns out they brought out the wrong salad - we ended up having to pick out the crisp prosciutto). The pizza was great - cheesy (both mozzarella and taleggio), sprinkled with a variety of mushrooms, some fresh parsley and a dash of truffle oil. It was perfectly cooked and sufficiently large - Cindy made the right choice, two pizzas would have been too much.

Of course, sticking to one pizza also meant dessert - Cindy was immediately drawn to the many nutella-based options and the combination of raspberry, nougat and nutella all wrapped up in a calzone was too much to resist. She was pretty impressed - particularly with the filling.

I opted for 'Nonna's Tart' - an orange-y tart served up with ice cream. It was fairly light and very tasty - an excellent (and rare) non-chocolate based dessert. Nice one Casa Farro!

Address: 161 Nicholson Street, Carlton
Ph: 9347 2112
Price: Vego pizzas: $15-$17, Dessert: $6-$10
Licensed
Website: http://casafarro.com.au/