Papa's Pizza and Pasta, Mona Vale Rd, St Ives

Papa's Pizza and Pasta, Mona Vale Rd, St Ives

Sunday 30 December, 2007

Tonight we all met up at the St Ives Shopping Village for dinner at Papa's. I've never eaten there before and it was buzzing with locals. The dining space spills out into a large open area and almost everyone was sitting outside on this balmy evening.

This is OK before sunset. After sunset the open air carpark fills with local P-platers. They hang out here and wander in and out of McDonalds all evening. There's got to be another place the local teenagers can go.....

Papa's is an Italian joint with a wood fired pizza oven. Next door is Wyld Ivy - what used to be known as Seven Wives. Papa's menu offers a mixture of wood fired pizzas, meat & seafood dishes and pastas. The staff were lovely and very friendly and we were well looked after. The decor was rustic with wooden table and chairs and a burnt orange colour scene throughout.

We ordered some thick cut garlic bread to start and it was delivered to the table in a large basket. It was very light on the garlic. Then we ordered several large pizzas to share:

- Margherita- mozzarella cheese, tomato and basil
- Tandoori chicken - marinated chicken in tandoori masala, mozzarella cheese, yoghurt, onion and basil

Some trivia for you.....Margherita or Margaret of Savoy (born November 20, 1851 in Turin, died January 4, 1926 in Bordighera), was the Queen consort of the Kingdom of Italy during the reign (1878-1900) of her husband, Humbert I. On January 9, 1878, Humbert succeeded as the new King of Italy. She became his Queen consort and remained by his side for the rest of his reign. Humbert was assassinated by anarchist Gaetano Bresci on July 29, 1900. Margherita encouraged artists and writers and founded cultural institutions, notably the Società del Quartetto, and the Casa di Dante. She was a benefactor of many charities, especially the Red Cross. In 1889 the pizza Margherita was named after her - it has the colours of the Italian flag - Red sauce, green basil and white cheese.

The pizzas were delivered to our table piping hot from the oven and looked impressive. The Margherita was the stand out - it was simple and the flavours shone. The pizzas were cut lazily so they weren't even - each piece was a different size - not by a fraction but by a significant amount.

For a local family pizza joint this is good value and the pizza is pretty good.

Papa's Pizza and Pasta - Shop 17/ 166 Mona Vale Rd, St Ives - 9988 3200