Pizza Tokyo, Kota Kemuning

Tipo 00 meets tataki: Pizza Tokyo isn’t for purists, but its niche in Neapolitan-inspired pizzas with Japanese-inflected toppings makes it one of the Klang Valley’s most distinctive pizza parlours. If the crunch of a wood-fired crust matched with umami-rich meat and sauces sounds oishi to you, andiamo!

There are many tempting possibilities for toppings: Shiitake and eryngii mushrooms with black truffle paste and yuzu emulsion? Smoked salmon with leek fondue and wasabi vinaigrette? Japanese chicken curry with potatoes and carrots?

When in doubt, bet on beef: The Wagyu Tataki (RM58) headlines the menu and is the steepest-priced pie (10 of the other 13 available pizzas cost between RM26 to RM36) for valid reason. It’s blanketed with slow-roasted wagyu, smooth and sumptuous, hearty with a rich tomato sauce, stretchy fior di latte cow’s milk mozzarella, garlic confit, shaved Parmesan, rocket leaves, and premium miso sauce for a sweet-savoury flourish.

If you're on a tighter budget, the Gyuniku is no slouch for full-fleshed fulfillment, with juicy braised beef short ribs layered with scallions, sesame seeds, caramelised onions, bell peppers, mozzarella and a broken egg (RM36).

These 11-inch handcrafted pizzas straddle the line between Neapolitan-style pizzas and the regular wood-fired ones that flourish in KL. 

Pizza Tokyo’s super-fine flour and succulent tomatoes are Italian-sourced, but its dough is fermented for less than six hours (instead of longer, which might have yielded a more developed taste) and the pizza is baked for at least six minutes (instead of shorter in fiercer heat, which would have produced a more tender crust). 

The result is pizza that's still unmistakably puffy to the edge and thinner to the centre but relies more on robust toppings to keep things engaging. Easy to enjoy nonetheless, with enough oven-fuelled smokiness to make each piece a pleasure.

The flagship PT Pizza is for eel enthusiasts - sliced unagi kabayaki with caramelised leeks and fior di latte, complemented by an all-star Japanese ensemble of edamame, bonito flakes, nori, sansho pepper and Nitsume sauce, to taste exactly how you'd expect a grilled eel pizza to (RM42). Pair, of course, with Japanese craft beer.

Pizza Tokyo 

4-1G, Jln Anggerik Vanilla BE 31/BE, Kota Kemuning, 40460 Shah Alam, Selangor. Daily, 1130am-10pm. Tel: 011-6528-3533

This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com