Review: Wilbur's at Hackett Shops

Canberra is a funny town.  Sometimes the best places to eat are tucked away in little suburban shopping centres.  It’s only the locals that have this special knowledge, and they usually don’t let on.  So, it was armed with local knowledge that we headed down to Wilbur's at Hackett shops for a relaxed Saturday family lunch.  

Family gatherings are always a rather loud, noisy affair, expecially for my family.  So you can imagine the poor staff when in I walked and asked for a table of eight for lunch, right then and there, no booking.  The friendly waitress blanched for a millisecond and then said, sure no problem, of course they could fit us in.  Then mum, little sister, her baby boy, little brother, uncle and auntie, grandmother and Mr D. piled in - pram and all.

Wilbur's is a reasonably cosy little place, with bright red leather seats placed around a slow combustion fire place and small tables tucked into corners. Nice for a lazy coffee and newspaper reading afternoon (and the coffee is good). Of course, the eight of us were seated in a long row, hastily rearranged just for us and the pram.

Mr D. and I were hungry - a tasty margherita pizza and garlic pizza bread to share between the two of us sounded like a good idea.  We thought we would get a couple of small pizzas to share.   What came out was huge! The two pizzas were large enough to feed a small army (or at least six people).  This turned out to be a good thing, as the pizzas were delicious and I was rather greedy.  So much so, that I only thought to photograph the food half-way through devouring it.  I won’t tell you how many slices I ate. J

The margherita pizza had lots of tasty, fresh tomato topping with melted bocconcini and basil, the crust was crisp on the bottom as it should be - very, very good as far as pizzas go. The garlic pizza was covered in melted mozzarella and parmesan and was pungently garlicy – a definite thumbs up.

Wilbur's margherita pizza - $17.50

Wilbur's garlic pizza

Sharing food brings my family together – along with lots of joking, poking fun, teasing, fighting and laughing.  This is something that the newest member of our family is discovering.   My three month old baby nephew is very cute and the centre of attention at the moment.  He’s not quite at the grabbing stage yet, but it won’t be long before we have to move all the sugars and cups of coffee and cutlery out of the way when we take him out.  I can’t wait!

No doubt we'll all be coming back to Wilbur's.

Wilbur's

Hackett shops

14 Hackett Place

Hackett   ACT

Open Tues-Sun for breakfast and lunch, Tues-Sat for dinner

http://www.outincanberra.com.au/articles/newhackettcafebringsshopstolife
http://wilburscafebar.blogspot.com/

So tell me, are you greedy too when it comes to good pizza? And do you have a large family that loves to get together to eat?

Pizza - To Bake or Buy? That is the Question!

Mmmm pizza!   That delicious melted cheese seems to get a life of its own as it stretches all the way from the slice of pie in your hand to the big greedy mouthful you've just bitten off.

One of the best kitchen investments I've bought is a $15 pizza stone.  It's amazing how it puffs up the pizza base to beautiful crispy perfection.   A great recipe for pizza dough is from MasterChef Australia series 2 (one of Gary and George's classic masterclass episodes) (see the recipe).

But why go to all the bother of kneading and proving and kneading again?  Especially when some of the best pizza in Canberra is just down the road. At Debacle, the Bombay Chicken pizza (complete with a papadam and raita) is the standout for me. However, for a really authentic Italian gourmet pizza, the ultra-hip Italian and Sons wins hands down in my view.

Do you like to bake or buy pizza?

What's your favourite Canberra pizza joint?