October 22, 2021
Is pizza or spaghetti the best breakfast?
Having devoted much serious thought to this, you think pizza just slightly edges out spaghetti.
Should you eat it hot or cold?
Cold.
Is pizza the best food in the universe?
No, that’s going too far. But it’s among the best foods.
What is the key to a great pizza?
The crust.
And so when Babacio invites you to try their black crust pizza, you drop everything. This is important.
Is it more important than anything else like world peace or global warming?
Yes.
Is it more important than dogs?
No.
You take the familiar elevator and are warmly greeted when you enter. This is your third visit and the all-important greeting has improved each time.
You’re seated by the outer edge of the outdoor balcony on a mild evening overlooking a pure Hong Kong view and feel fine.
The pizza crust is ultra-black, chic looking. It is covered in molten Mozzarella di Bufala Campana (that’s flown in fresh weekly) with a stripe of excellent tomato sauce (almost certainly made from pureed San Marzano tomatoes). There are sesame seeds along the cornicione, the rim of the crust. It is amply covered in sliced French truffle.
They give you a knife. You cut a slice. You lift it and it holds the all-essential NY fold, not flopping under its own weight. It is delicious, to a typical pizza dough as porter is to a pilsner. In fact, it reminds you a bit of excellent pumpernickel. The black color comes from imported Italian vegetable charcoal powder.
It’s accompanied by a truffled salad which is just great. The truffles are definitely in bloom, not flavorless or unscented as is sometimes the case.
You drink a fine, round 2019 Bread & Butter Pinot Noir from California.
Babacio exults in pizza and exalts pizza. Their truffled black pizza and truffled salad are outstanding.
Rating (on a scale of 0 to 5)
Food overall: 5 (in this case, specifically the truffled black pizza and truffled salad)
Ambience: 4
Service: -
Overall greatness: 5
Restaurants are intuitively rated within their particular realms. So Michelin restaurants, pizza places and stand-up sandwich joints are judged against like restaurants, not each other. A 5 for a high-end restaurant is not meant to be the same as a 5 for street food.
From my website, here’s how I rate food: “I believe the quality of a restaurant’s food is vastly more important than any other factor. Even if I love a restaurant’s food, I’m very conservative about giving out 4’s or 5’s. I reserve 4’s for food that is uniformly excellent. Preponderantly excellent tends to get a lower score. 5’s are for food that is uniformly stunning.”
This meal was comped.
Babacio
5/F, Carfield Commercial Building, 77 Wyndham St, Central, Hong Kong