“What is that new place and why are the colours changing on it?” I asked Mr NQN as we were driving down Phillip Street one evening. We were stopped at the light and the colours on the grey concrete building were transitioning from pink to blue to green to yellow.
In my slightly odd way of seeing the world I guessed that it was a fancy mechanic’s, open late at night crossed with a bar. Mr NQN more sensibly guessed that it was a bar. It turns out that we were both wrong, it was a newly opened pizza place. We watched this new place over over the next few weeks and gradually we’d see more and more crowds eating in or getting pizzas delivered until we decided that it was about time that we visited.
After an afternoon eating ice cream with my gorgeous hairdresser Elly from Stevie English, we decided that in a somewhat backwards move, we’d have dinner after dessert. Named Saint Michiba as a portmanteau of the owner’s name Michelle Bautista rather than the Iron Chef Michiba, service is friendly and personable.
I must admit that I’m always pleased when I see that a place offers half and half pizzas, mainly because I find it hard to narrow down pizza choices and that way, you get to try more.The meat pizzas are listed under “The Heavenly Host” while there’s a good range of vegetarian pizzas, six in total, in a “The Franciscan Order” section. The names seem to have a saintly or religious aspect to them and a quote from Rokusaburo Michiba, the Japanese Iron Chef beams down on diners while then bathroom has one from Confucius.
Humanitas $12
We start with the humanitas which come four to a serve. They are four smoked salmon pieces twirled around a fat grissini stick. The smoked salmon pieces are large and the grissini are surprisingly light and crispy. We all expected them to be hard and crunchy but these are very good and you just spread it with some of the mustard cream dip and eat. A good party food idea!
Paradise Salad $14
The Paradise salad is made up of king prawns, bocconcini, tomato, beetroot, red onion and mixed lettuce with a honey vinaigrette. They’re quite small for king prawns and I didn’t feel that the bocconcini gave the mild tasting prawn salad a great deal of flavour. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t as good as the pizzas or the humanitas.
Catani half pizza $12
I tried the Catani pizza first reasoning that vegetarian pizzas are usually milder tasting than their meat counterparts. This had pumpkin, mushroom, spinach, asparagus and feta with garlic infused olive oil. To be honest I don’t usually love vegetarian pizzas-veggie burgers are another matter entirely but pizzas can often feel a bit lacking. But this one with the different toppings and the not “wet” pumpkin and the garlicky lick from the olive oil actually makes this one one of my favourites of the lot.
Ariel half pizza $12
Looking quite unusual – I mean you don’t often see iceberg lettuce on a pizza, the Ariel has king prawn, pancetta, tomato, red onion, goat’s cheese with frayed iceberg lettuce and wasabi mayonnaise. Although the pancetta adds a nice saltiness, the main flavours here are the prawn and wasabi mayonnaise and the slightly crunch and texture from the iceberg lettuce.
Israfil half pizza $11
This was Mr NQN’s favourite as he loves spice. The Israfil has chorizo, chicken, jalapenos and caramelised chilli onion and it was quite good although I would have loved a bit more chorizo on it. But then again, I made a potato and chorizo bake with a ratio of 2:1 
Pellegrino half pizza $13
Although this did sound rather odd with the bearnaise sauce, the pizza topping of scotch fillet, mushroom, goat’s cheese, jalapeno, red bell pepper, onion with bearnaise sauce was really quite good. In fact, after the vegetarian Catani, this was my second favourite pizza of the night.
Angel Nutella $12
Sweet pizzas aren’t really my sort of thing and whilst I really wanted the banana fritters, Mr NQN suggested the Angel Nutella pizza as he liked the sound of it. It came out looking quite different from other dessert pizzas. It’s crunchy and dry like a matzo cracker and spread with Nutella once warm and then topped with thin strawberries. None of us really went for this because it was quite dry and really like eating Nutella on a matzo. Although, given our ice cream fest that afternoon, dessert was really just icing on the cake!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you watch new places that open up in your neighbourhood?
Saint Michiba
Ground Level, Shop 8, 20A Danks St, Waterloo NSW 2017
Tel: +61 (02) 8068 8767
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21 Comments | Add your own
What lovely array of food…
That Israfil Pizza got me too.. Delicious…
You know I love to try at new places too.. But lately there hasn’t been any new place around …
This food doesn’t appeal as much as most you write about, except for those grissini wrapped with smoked salmon, which I loved. I like it when places try new things, but…it doesn’t always work
Yes, I love to follow new restaurants, which seem to pop up all the time in San Miguel. And close just as frequently, which is too bad.
Hate dessert pizza, mainly because it has never been a good experience. And now I think I need to make pizza for lunch
I really like the look of those veggie Pizzas! We are on the eternal search for the most Napoli style pizza in Sydney, Mr K is slightly obsessed. La Disfida at Haberfield has offered about the closest match ; )
What a cool and interesting place. The pizzas are a bit out there!
How were the bases? We’re they woodfired? If you haven’t already you must try rosso pomodoro in balmain – the bases are simply divine and the toppings whilst not as exotic as this one are amazing also. Now I am craving pizza
Love the dessert pizza, yum! breadstick.
We’re always on the lookout for new restaurants in town, though I admit we often return to our favorites instead of trying something new.
I have passed this too many times while it was being built. I also wondered what on earth it was going to be. The new wave of pizzas is here it seems. Dont think I will get my Italian boss here he would really cringe
The Israfil half pizza caught my eyes, TRUE!
Is only breakfast time, but could go for some now too!
I am always watching for new places of all kind,
I relate foods and restaurants to colors in my mind!
Looks like this place has a nice selection of pizza’s to choose from. I think I’d go for the banana fritters too!
As soon as we see the development plans taped to the window we always follow the progress of new places then we will try them a couple of weeks after opening. We like to support local businesses so will always try a new place and go back if it’s good.
Just had pizza yesterday, funghi with mascarpone. I like thin crust pizzas, these look good.
I love dinner for dessert
Those pizzas look SO good. Jut showed Stud the veg pizza and I think this place is next on our list 
These pizzas look so good but I have to admit to liking my pizzas plain as possible which means fewer ingredients and greater emphasis on the base which just has to be thin, bready and crispy! Yep, I’m a pizza fundamentalist!
I love the modern decor and colouring of this place
But the Nutella pizza stole my heart!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
The Ariel and Israfil pizzas looks great, I’m craving for them now. I don’t like dessert pizzas and would of tried their banana fritters. We always look out for new joints in the suburbs to support local businesses and employment for the locals. Have to try this place soon! Thanks for sharing Lorraine
Love the looks and variety of pizzas they offered. Fun to find new places, Lorraine. We try to keep up with openings here too. Always some disappointments, but one find makes it worth the effort.
Yeah, dessert pizza has never interested me. Probably because I don’t really care for pizza, and don’t like chocolate with fresh fruit…
I love it when they do half pizzas, that way we can try so many other flavours!
I like to keep an eye open for new places opening up, but there’s nothing out here near us
OMG Good work Mr NQN that Angel Nutella has just taken me to heaven!!! It looks so damn delicious!
I always look out for places that open up in my neighbourhood but sigh nothing exciting has opened up lately
Waw, what a cool looking place at the outside! all of the savoury pizzas look amazing, large & pretty great! I would love to dig in that sweet pizza right about now! ( as dessert ):)
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