We enter the ‘Coq in the midst of a cheap pizza rush-hour frenzy, armed with nothing but the conviction to find a table. The place is somewhat of a two-story labyrinth, filled by the sound of in-depth conversation and warm, low-playing music. This combined with the rustic, chic decor and lustful aromas that linger behind each passing pizza had me making friends with a couple of backpackers to finally camp out at a table and get to business.
The first round of pizzas we shared were the ‘La Capra’ and ‘Lo Zenzero Prawn’, as charismatic barman Sebastien Lepoittenvin pointed our indecisiveness in their tasty direction. I’d never experienced the joy that is prawns, garlic, ginger, chili, coriander, lemon and bean sprouts in unison with pesto, button mushrooms, semi-dried tomato, goats cheese and red onion. The combination of both typical and atypical toppings was like magic to my multi-cultural taste buds. Clearly, we had to go back for round two.
The Lucky Coq’s piece-de-resistance is the ‘Salmone’, which boasts a startlingly tasty surprise cheese ingredient typically used in tiramisu dishes: mascarpone. Just the perfect amount of creamy to calm the smokiness of the salmon – I wanted to kiss the chefs for their ingenuity. I may have, I was in such a delicious food-induced coma. Worry not, it was nothing a few glasses of local wine couldn’t cure.
Bellies full, we engage in conversation with our tablemates while they dive into their own culinary expeditions. There’s the ‘Poncho’ with it’s corn chip surprise, the ‘Caesar’ – which just wouldn’t be the same without that fresh baby cos – and a tantalizing variety of sweet pizzas to make your teeth ache with ecstasy. The list is a bit intimidating – really – but $4 pizza hours at the old Coq are plentiful. Lucky us.
