• New place in town to taste the magic of wood-fired pizza
There’s a new place in town where you can sample pizzas made through the magic of woodfire.
Fast-casual restaurant 800° Woodfired Kitchen takes its pizzas seriously. Opened in March, the restaurant brings in 00 flour from Naples to make its pizza dough from scratch. The dough is proofed overnight and handstretched for a delicious crust, while fresh balls of Italian mozzarella are used to top the pizza.
But the true magic happens in the woodfired oven in which the pizzas are cooked. Stoked with wood that keeps temperatures up to its namesake 800°F (or a whopping 420°C!), it takes as little as 90 seconds to get a pizza perfectly cooked. The super-hot oven gives the pizza a beautifully spotted crust, which the restaurant cheekily describes as “leopard print char”.
800° Woodfired Kitchen is an international chain founded in Los Angeles by Chef Anthony Carron. Boasting basketball stars Dwayne Wade and Udonis Haslem as co-owners, the opening of 800° Woodfired Kitchen at Kinex Mall marks the franchise’s first outlet in Southeast Asia.
The franchise was brought to Singapore by Deelish Brands, the same team that introduced Fatburger. Like all franchises under Deelish Brands, 800° Woodfired Kitchen’s dishes are made with halal ingredients, with the restaurant currently undergoing the halal-certification process.
“Deelish Brands has a mission of being the customer’s number one choice for trendy halal food,” says Deelish Brands group CEO Moe Ibrahim. “This is why we’re taking brands that are loved in the West, adapting them for the rapidly growing halal consumer base, and launching authentic versions of them here at home in Singapore.”
Pizzas come in 10-inch and 14-inch sizes, with prices starting from $10 for a basic cheese pizza. Choose between the tomato-based Margherita sauce or the pesto-based Verde sauce for your base, or opt for a Bianca (white) base which is simply extra-virgin olive oil with some garlic and oregano.
Customise your pizza with the wide variety of toppings available including beef pepperoni, salami, Philly beefsteak, and prawns, plus an array of fresh vegetables and cheeses. There is even burrata, the decadent cheese made with mozzarella and cream, available as an after-bake topping. You can choose as many toppings as you’d like for your pizza, though the restaurant recommends capping it at three or four.
There are also specialty pizzas that come with pre-selected toppings. We highly recommend the Tartufo ($17 for 10-inch; $25 for 14-inch), a mushroom truffle pizza topped with parmesan and arugula that will please even staunch meat-lovers with its heady flavours.
For barbecue-lovers, the BBQ Chicken Pizza ($15 for 10-inch; $25 for 14-inch) comes with shredded rotisserie chicken, red onion, provolone, sundried tomato, and cilantro that make for a sweet and tangy combo.
Pizzas aren’t 800° Woodfired Kitchen’s only signature dish. For those looking for a more protein-packed meal, the restaurant offers Rotisserie Chicken that comes in quarter ($12), half ($20), or whole chicken ($36) portions.
Fresh whole chickens are soaked in a vegetable stock-based brine to keep the flesh succulent before being marinated in a blend of herbs and spices and then roasted. The result is chicken with crisp, golden-brown skin that’s tender and flavourful.
To accompany the chicken, the restaurant offers a range of homemade dipping sauces from staple favourites like Smokey
BBQ, Buffalo and Homemade Ranch to more exotic choices like Pesto Ranch, Truffle Ranch and Peruvian Green. Quarter and half chickens include one sauce, while customers getting a whole chicken can choose up to two sauces
To round out your meal, choose from the selection of sides available (all priced at $6 each), including Mac & Cheese, Mashed Potato, Butter Corn, and Garlic Butter Rice. We especially loved the mashed potato that was creamy and smothered in generous amounts of gravy.
There are also salads and appetisers available, including the chef-recommended Perfect Caesar ($8) that comes with homemade caesar dressing and toasted croutons, as well as the Burrata With Tomato & Pesto ($16).
If you’re looking for a sweet treat to end your meal, 800° Woodfired Kitchen also has an in-house cafe (the first among all outlets in the world to have one!) that offers coffee, tea, and a rotating selection of cakes.