Chicago-style Pizza in the Heart of Ipoh
September 24, 2011 | 6,136 views
Still reeling from the shocking revelation yesterday, woke up craving instead for something much more substantial; a chunky-loaded pizza with an overflow of ingredients like salami, Italian sausages, olives and an overkill of cheese would be ideal.
This Chicago-style pizza is a remnant of the original version aptly named Deep Dish Pizza, and looking at the shots featured in this article on Wikipedia, it’s hard to ignore why.
Michelangelo’s Pizzeria strives to rework this concept, bringing this gargantuan of a sinful creation to Ipoh with a slight adaptation; they do away with the deep dish concept; of a bowl-like structure ‘stuffed’ with ingredients.
Advisable to bring a group of at least 3-4 pax to finish this, if you’re ordering the other specials as well. The sheer load of proteins and carbs will get to you pretty quickly.
In an already dazed state of mind, after the repeated gastronomic sessions during the lasy Raya-Merdeka break, we ended up for dinner at Michelangelo’s on one of those evenings.
Chicago-style Pizza is NOT on the menu yet. I repeat, NOT on the menu yet. So don’t go throwing eggs, tomatoes, brickbats or pizza pans at my face if you jump the gun and hop over this very instant.
Herby Cheese Pizza – When the guilt starts to creep on you, don’t fret. Opt for something considerably lighter, with baby tomatoes, torn lettuce, onions, olives and feta cheese, infused with a pleasantly herb-y taste.
Yeah, this was a special preview session, since this Motormouth does not go home that often anymore. By the time they launch this pizza, and I started to draft my homecoming plans, it may be but too late.
I guess soon enough, this will be on the menu. But definitely of a temporary fixture. Since selling a pizza triple the usual size might take some effort, and considerable period of time to bake one (5-7 mins instead of 1.5 mins for the usual pizzas)
Feel free to follow them on Facebook for any updates in case you’re curious to know when they launch this manic creation.
The usual suspects – Already etched into their somewhat ‘permanent fixtures’ menu, the excitement for the sides at Michelangelo’s never seemed to wane.
The Herby Cheese Pizza is a current special on their menu, sounding a little bland on paper yet came across as very flavourful from the variety of greens, cheese and herbs strewn all across the crispy, thin crust dough. About RM18/USD6 if I am not mistaken.
Blue Cheese Bacon Pasta – A case of a little too late, this has already been taken off the specials menu. But don’t let the faintest ray of hope dwindles. For you might not know when they will bring this back. A robust, almost pungent creamy sauce made up of blue cheese, and caramelized pork bacon. Heavenly.
A plus point of coming back and again to Michelangelo’s is that you might not see the same specials on the menu like the previous visits. And yes, I’m a sucker for pizzas, especially those incorporating lots of cheese and pork (PORK!). Thus, I’ll be back again and again for The Hog and Bacon & Egg.
Now those are fixed, but let’s keep the fingers crossed that Michael won’t throw us an unwelcome surprise by taking those off the menu ….
Wait …. given his unpredictable nature, he just might.
*Soon to come – Chicago-style Pizzas, Garden Salad Pizzas, various cupcakes including a puzzling chocolate crispy bacon version and the revered red velvet cupcake.
**For more information, please read the previous reviews on Michelangelo’s Pizzeria.
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Oreo cheeseballs! Sounds heavenly.
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Been there coupler of times. Pizza is quite good. But the music is way, way, way too loud! Feedback to the staff & also submitted our comments. But we were told that their boss likes it that way – it’s A-m-e-r-i-c-a-n!!!!!
We had stopped going since. Pity!
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RMO aka Michael: Michelangelo's s Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 11:58 pm
I am sorry to hear that, but the staff is correct. We do pride ourselves on that we run the pizzeria exactly like you would find back in the US at a Rock N Roll Pizzeria in Chicago. We do play the music at about the same levels as the music played in both The Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood on Friday Nights. However if you do find that the music is a bit too loud for your comfort we do offer take away service, which many of our customers do take part in.
There are three main reasons we play the music at the levels we do, the first is that (as research in F & B demonstrates) our sales increase when the music is played at a slightly louder level. We have turned the music down on occasions and we found that our sales actually do go down. There actually is research that shows there is marketing psychology behind it. Secondly on our very busy nights, playing the music at our levels helps us to move customers in and out faster thus allowing us to have a faster turn over which in a “Fast-Food” environment (such as ours) counts very much in us being able to make a profit. We are open six days a week and for just 4 1/2 hours a day and we do need to turn our tables over several times in a night.
Lastly we try to offer a true American Party feel to our customers here in Ipoh. We run the pizzeria exactly as we would if we were in the US and this was what we wanted to offer our customers without compromise. We believe our customers deserve to experience a truly authentic experience. There are many western establishments that do change their concepts a bit to meld into the local culture, we wanted to offer a place that was as real as you could possibly find outside of actually traveling to Chicago.
We are more or less known as an American Rock N Roll Pizzeria and while we do try to be understanding to each and every customer, unfortunately we can not accommodate everyone every time, but we do try our best to offer the very best in food and service. We would like to thank you for your comments and welcome all comments, we do hope we are able to serve you again sometime in the future and hope the above explains why we do have the music louder than most places here in Ipoh. A lot of careful thought and planning did go into it our decision about playing it at the levels we do.
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Stanley Reply:
September 29th, 2011 at 12:23 am
Let me stop you at reason #2. The moment I step into your shop, I couldn’t wait to finish my pizzas and get out of there. The pizzas, no doubt, make me smile. It’s good. But the relieve I get when I leave brings a bigger smile.
It’s a pizza place for god’s sake. People bring their kids and grandparents to dine. Folks who prefer to chat with one another over pizza without worrying losing their voice afterwards. There’s no comparison to Planet Hollywood or Hard Rock Cafe.
Business is tough I grant you. Your place is small and serves limited number of customers at one go. But do you have to resort to using loud music to drive your customers out? Annoying customers for faster table turnover may work in Ipoh where competing pizzarias are practically non existent. It’s shocking this is a strategy you come up with after ‘careful thought and planning’. I’m not qualified to teach you how to run a business but I’m pretty sure an unpleasant dine-in area is not a wise business move.
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RMO aka Michael: Michelangelo's s Reply:
September 29th, 2011 at 8:06 pm
Dear Stanley,
It is unfortunate that we are not able to please everyone who dines at our pizzeria. Some customers find our pizzas too charred for their taste or the music too loud or that we are not opened for lunch. As a small local pizzeria, our intention when we opened up the pizzeria is to be able to offer Ipohans good quality food at a very reasonable price. We specifically did not want to have a fine dining quality to the pizzeria that offers fine wine and good pizzas but at a much higher cost. We have suggestions that we can cut down on the crowd by pushing the prices up and offering to the select few who can afford an expensive meal out. But as a local pizzeria in town, we wanted everyone to be able to afford our food that is on par with what is offered at a regular pizzeria in the US. So the turnover is not to make as much money as we can but rather to be able to sustain the costs of running a business. As for competition, there are several businesses in Ipoh that has wonderful ambiance where the customers can dine and enjoy their food and take as much time as they want over their meal. Some of them also offers pizzas. We do regret that you feel this way about our pizzeria and hopefully we can one day expand to a bigger premise where we can offer a more comfortable and refined dining experience. We would like to also state that this is not the only reason we play the music louder than others. As stated above we followed market research that showed that customers do spend a bit more when the music is louder than they would if turned down. We have tested this several times and found it to be very true. In our year and a half of being here, we have noticed several times that when we played the music softer our customers did in fact spend less. Lastly we have always stated we are a “True American Rock N Roll Pizzeria” and we stay very true to this concept. We do regret we are unable to accommodate your ideas, but we are not out to alliterate anyone, we do in fact have a very large group of returning customers and we do try our very best the be the best that we can. I trust this answers your questions and concerns, if not I do hope you will contact me directly. I would very much like to hear your views and discuss this more if you would like. You can contact me at our store: 05-549-9099 or you can contact the host of this blog and he would be happy to give you my hand phone number and/or email address. Do have a nice day.
Gosh look at that pizza! Super thick and cheesy! I think one slice would be enough for me! 😛
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*Scribble this as the next makan place when going back
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Hi there,is the pizzeria halal or pork free ?
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J2Kfm Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 7:26 pm
Hi Pman, sorry to disappoint you but they do serve pork in their pizzas and pasta.
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Terrible experience with this joint. Went there with my family of 5 person. Ask the staff to join the table for us as their single table could not fit us all. The staff told us that they cannot join the table because their so called American boss does not allowed so . Told them and explain that we do not wish to sit on separate table, then the staff went into the kitchen and ask someone for permission to join the table. Out come a chubby indian cook and pretended to be a big shot mafia and told us that their boss la la la and so so so. We got disgusted and left. By the way the pizza over there is sloppy and bacon look like its steam more than oven baked. Please do not pretend to be anything american if clearly you cant be. By banging the sound system does not mean u are serving american food. Cheers. This is Malaysia!
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RMO aka Michael: Michelangelo's s Reply:
April 26th, 2012 at 2:51 am
I am sorry you had such a terrible experience at our establishment. However if you were seated at one of the three corner tables, our staff was correct in seating 5 people there. We have been opened for business for about 2.5 years now and have literally sat hundreds of tables of 5 at those tables. If however it is a very slow night or right after opening or before closing and we are not crowded we can then join the two tables together. While I fully understand your complaint, we do take into consideration family size, the actual size of people and if it is too tight we will then join two tables. However more times than not there is room (yes it is slightly tight) for 5 people but some still want more room. While we would love to be able to accommodate everyone, we simply cannot. We have very limited seating and we need to move tables during rush hours in order to turn a profit which in truth is part of the reason we are in business. Therefore we do need to manage our tables. While the “majority’ of our customers are understanding and satisfied with that, there are some that do not or will not understand. All we can do is apologize and hope they can understand, but we are not always able to please everyone every time.
As for the place being American and the “so called American Boss” we all I can say is I was born and raised in America from 1967 until I graduated university and am living in Malaysia now since 1999. Our place if based off a a Chicago concept of a neighborhood pizzeria, not a upper-scale family restaurant., We are a fast food establishment and do try to give everyone a good and happy time there.
We do thank you for your comment however and as always will consider what you have posted and will hope that one day you will stop back in and try to please you again later, you may also ask for me anytime you wish and I’ll make sure that staff lets me know so I can meet with you and try to please your experience there if you ever do choose to come back.
Lastly, as you said yourself: “this is Malaysia” exactly and we run our place as if it was in America so you can get real American food that is made “exactly” as we make it in the states, served the same way as in “some” places and the same type of music as in “some places” Again we are sorry you had a bad experience, we do hope you will drop by again and perhaps this time your experience will be better, if not do please ask for me directly, thank you.
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Hubris
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