Steveston Pizza at UP Town Center

By Sherylb @unboreddiva

The husband and I were on our way back to Pasig from the new house in QC one morning and we were taking the usual C5 route along Katipunan. It was already lunchtime so we decided to drop by the UP Town Center. Ayala’s newest mall along Katipunan boasts of new restaurants, one of them Shrimp Bucket that we have dined in twice already. This time we opted for something else.

The sight of prosciutto from a window poster made me convince him to dine at Steveston Pizza. I love prosciutto! It always reminds me of those vacations I took long ago in Hongkong Goldcoast. My sister would take home pizza from the local restaurant and the pizza was divine because of the saltiness of the prosciutto. When I asked my sister about it on my next visit, she said the place had shut down after a drug bust. After recovering from shock at the news, I had since been on the hunt for the best prosciutto pizza. I have not found it yet and it’s been years.

So there we were at Steveston (the name is a little tricky to pronounce)  and there was nothing on the menu but all kinds of pizza. Oh, and cesar salad and chicken wings. I liked how you can watch them put the pizza together at the bar next to the cashier.

I had to put my foot down (yes, husband likes to indulge me!) and order the one with the prosciutto, which turns out to be the most expensive one on the menu. A whopping Php 1,299 for a 12-inch pizza! Apparently, they had two premium pizzas they call “C Pizza”. I couldn’t remember what the other one was.

The pizza took about 15 minutes to be served since they cook them fresh so it was just right. I was excited to try it, and we were really hungry by then as it was already half past 1pm. The pizza looked better than it did on the menu.

See the super generous serving of prosciutto? It felt almost like Christmas!

At this point I had asked for hot sauce, too eager to start digging into the thin-crust pie. We couldn’t understand what the white ball was in the middle of the pan and thought it was a ball of cheese. Looking at the menu again, we realized it was the “dollop of roasted garlic mousse”. It didn’t taste like anything. In fact, it hardly had any taste at all!

Credit to http://www.blessthisstuff.com/

But there was the pizza! We were suddenly faced with the problem of cutting into the pie. It was pre-sliced but the slices of ham weren’t and it looked like the ends met in the center, unlike the photo on the menu where the ham were just tucked neatly in the middle of each slice. The pizza shovel could have had a serrated edge on one side to help with the cutting but it didn’t. Or a pizza scissor like this one.

I asked for a knife and fork but the plastic ones that they handed us weren’t sturdy enough to cut through the ham. Still, we prevailed!

My enthusiasm was cut short when I held a slice in my hand. I wanted to savor the pizza so I opted to eat with my hands (because that’s how pizza should be eaten!) rather than with a fork and knife. However, as soon as I lifted the slice, the ham just slid right off, and the slice was all bent like a wilted flower. The crust was all soft. Very disappointing.

I asked the waitress about it, and she said that that was really how the pizza is supposed to be. I couldn’t argue with her and just sat back in defeat.

Anyway, the pizza was still good despite the sogginess. I tell you, the prosciutto is heaven! And mixed with thin slivers of fresh basil. LOVE! I couldn’t care less for the brie and roma tomatoes.

Isn’t it pretty?

I will probably return if I crave for prosciutto again. I’ve never seen them in abundance over pizza before. Other restaurants only have one thin piece over each pizza slice. I have to give credit to Steveston Pizza at UP Town Center for not scrimping on the precious ham. We will also probably try the other ones on the menu, particularly the different variants of Margherita that they have. Service is good too, even if there was only one waitress around but it wasn’t a busy time anyway. Although we had to ask for the condiments, she did offer us additional napkins later on and was always smiling and gracious.

Steveston Pizza
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StevestonPizza
Ground Floor, UP Town Center, Diliman QC
Phone: +632-9552273, +63917-9043428