For the first time, Melburnians can enjoy pizza in a cone with the recent opening of
Pizza Tornado in Dandenong.
Pizza Tornado has recently opened in Dandenong.
Pizza in a cone is apparently big in Europe, but until a few weeks ago you'd have to cross international waters to get your pizza cone fix. Likened to a slice of pizza turned inside out, pizza cones offer portable convenience and are even more delicious than a regular flat pizza.
Pizza Tornado boasts an extensive menu with plenty of traditional and gourmet pizzas, all of which can be enjoyed flat or in a cone. You are welcome to request any unique concoction of ingredients from the selection, which is set out similarly to Subway with small trays of each ingredient behind the counter. Once the chef has put together your pizza cone, it's only a few minutes to wait until it's cooked and ready to eat.
The chef putting together a pizza cone.
As it emerges from the oven, the pizza cone is nicely crispy, topped with a layer of bubbling cheese.
Pizza in a cone from Pizza Tornado.
The inside was refreshing, rather than dense and cheesy as I had expected, with an assortment of vegetables and seasoned pesto chicken. For the most part, it was more like a warm wrap rather than a pizza once. At the very bottom of the cone was another layer of melted cheese- the perfect finish to a unique take on pizza. While pizza is not normally associated with being healthy, the variety of vegetables included made it at least nutritious. My friend enjoyed a vegetarian pizza cone, which contained even more vegetables as well as feta cheese.
The inside of the vegetarian pizza cone.
After enjoying savoury pizzas in a cone, we tried the dessert cones. Overwhelmingly sweet, the dessert cone included layers of stewed apple and Nutella. Topping it off was a hefty scoop of ice-cream with strawberry slices tucked in. As the cone was warm, the ice-cream became runny fairly quickly, but other than that it was easy to eat.
Dessert pizza cones from Pizza Tornado.
The serving size of each cone was perfect; satisfying without being too heavy. However, attempting to demolish two cones was a little too ambitious.
The great advantage of pizza in a cone is that it's easy to eat. No drips occurred and the cone didn't become soggy. While pizza is not usually a food that you can eat while walking, pizza in a cone is far more portable and would be a convenient meal while you're on the go. However, due to the cone shape, you can't set it down as it would topple over.
As well as flat pizzas and cone pizzas, Pizza Tornado also boasts all manner of dishes including salads, calzones and American-style pizza pies.
Pizza Tornado is tricky to find. It is inside Dandenong Hub, which is a small indoor shopping arcade over the road from the imposing
Dandenong Plaza. Locating Dandenong Hub is the difficult part- once inside, all you need to do is follow the signs to the upstairs food court where Pizza Tornado resides.
