When it comes to thin-crust pizza in Colombo, our options are a little on low. They're not commonly found as the franchise kinds, but luckily, we've managed to come across a handful of them that we can't simply get enough of.
Rocco's was one of the first thin-crust pizzerias to open up in Colombo and from what we know, they've been pretty consistent with serving up some dynamite pizza. So, good news y'all. You don't have to go all the way to Nawala anymore to get a slice of them, as they opened up another shop at Gregory's Road in Colombo 07.
Ambience
The ambience at the new Rocco's branch is the first stop at the falling in love process of it. Essentially just a giant white house down Gregory's Road, it's one of the best of its kind. With wooden furniture, a slight flowery hue in the air, dim lighting and fancy Italian music playing in the background, the ambience gives off the slight opening scene of The Godfather Part 1 mixed with a sense of the modern that we absolutely loved!
Given how big the restaurant is, there are very low chances of them running out of space, but, saying that we suggest going now when not many people know about it. There's a lot more privacy involved.
The Pizzas
The menu at Rocco's is huge! Ranging from a variety of pizzas to pasta to risottos, you're gonna need a solid 10 minutes to figure out what you want, we guarantee. Nonetheless, after much discussion, we decided to opt for 2 giant pizzas in half and half.
The top part of this was the Bacoroni (Rs. 1950) and the bottom is the Meat Fest (Rs. 2200). You have no idea how happy this made us, and we don't think us gushing over it for a week and a half is going to cut it.
With the perfect amount of crispiness, the crust was the perfect balance between things thick and thin and had this lovely, light char on the sides that added a tinge of smokiness to the whole thing. Plus, balanced out with just the right amount of marinara sauce, it was the literal base of what's good.
Smothered with mozzarella and heaped with just bacon bits and pepperoni and nothing else, the Bacoroni is every pork lovers dream come true. We happened to ask the waiter to make our pizzas "spicy" so, with the perfect amount of spice that came from the dusting of chilli flakes and a heap of meat, the Bacoroni is probably one of the best options you can go with.
On the other side of the circle, we've got the Meat Fest. Piled high with sliced up sausages, bacon, beef, olives, chicken and ham, this was one of the very few instances where we were left speechless by our food. Honestly, it was just meat and cheese. Combined with the crust, this is what dreams are made of. Kudos Rocco's, Kudos.
Owing to the excessive amounts of meat we ordered, we also decided to go with the Vegetariano (Rs. 1800) (top) and the Diavolo (Rs. 2000).
The Vegetariano was probably our least favourite of the lot. We're not saying it was bad, but not necessarily the best veg pizza we've had. While there was a heap of veggies including mushrooms, zucchini and olives involved, the whole concoction tasted a bit bland. But, this works really well as a sort of palate cleanser to give you a break from all the meat. Which we found to be quite nice.
However, what we mean to say is that while it was quite good on its own, it was much overshadowed by the others.
The Diavolo, on the other hand, was my personal favourite. Combined with the generous portioning of mozzarella, the pie had a gorgeous layer of pepperoni and blobs of buffalo Mozzarella. The sharp tang of the basil with the meaty, spicy pepperoni and the milkiness of the buffalo Mozzarella, we strongly suggest you get this.
*Pictured above – Orange juice (left) and Peach Iced Tea (right)
Apart from the pizza, we also happened to get an Orange juice (Rs. 550) and a Peach Iced Tea (Rs. 375).
The Orange juice was okay. Freshly squeezed with no pulp, we found it to be refreshing and sweet but just mediocre to what came next.
The Peach Iced Tea was brilliant! With a nice layer of foam and tea residue at the bottom, this was hands down, the best Peach Iced tea I've had. Sweet, but not too sweet and with a slight tanginess from the peach and enough tea infused in it to actually taste it, this is one of the biggest recommends on this list.
Service
We have no complaints here. The staff was warm and very helpful in helping us choose what to get and they managed to bring our food rather quickly.
Conclusion
We love it. The ambience was terrific and the pizzas, which had a heap of toppings was actually very, very good. We highly recommend.
