Scoozi: Italian restaurant in Saigon

I discovered the most delicious Italian restaurant in Saigon; Scoozi.
The name does not look particularly Italian, apart from the fact that it sounds like “Sorry” (scusi).
Just at the entrance of the restaurant, there is a wood-fire oven. You can eat around it outside or inside (the restaurant is in the corner of a big building).

I must admit that the inside is not as pretty as the outside, but when you’ve been walking around Saigon for hours and the temperature is about 27°C, you definitely need some fresh air.

The employees are really nice, although all Vietnamese (no worries, I’m not being racist, but in Vietnam there are not many people who have been abroad, so I doubt that many Vietnamese are able to differentiate a good Italian pizza from an American one). Anyway, after seeing the restaurant, I’m sure that it was created by a Westerner who is competent in pizze (pizze: the plural word for pizza), and even in the West, people don’t always know what a good pizza is. I also discovered that it is a chain and that they have many locations in Bangkok.

It was difficult to choose. Their specialty are the pizze, but you can find some pasta too (I think there were risotti too). There weren’t many weird pizze like the usual American ones you see at Pizza Hut.
You could see that the owner was really trying to make traditional pizze with good products.

With my friend, we decided to take two Gourmet pizze (the ones which had better ingredients inside) and share them.
So we took one Margherita con mozzarella di bufala, olio di olive extra vergine e basilico, and another with Mozzarella e Prosciutto di Parma.

Firstly, the Margherita con mozzarella di bufala, olio di olive extra vergine e basilico.

The dough was thin and crusty, well cooked, not melting. This means also that there was the perfect amount of ingredients on top of it.
It was nice eating Italian basil for once (here we usually find Thai basil) and you could taste the Bufala Mozzarella, it was not an industrial cheese which becomes gradually some kind of plastic when the pizza is getting colder. You can see that it is a good mozzarella because it does not spread like industrial cheese on the pizza, it makes only some spots and each spot has some kind of bubbles. This is what Mozzarella di Bufala does.

It cost 155 000 dongs (large pizza), which is about 6€.

Then the Mozzarella e Prosciutto di Parma Pizza arrived.
We really became crazy for the ham. I truly miss cured meats.
Same as before, the dough was good, the ham was thin, not too salty and delicious. The mozzarella was not a true bufala one, but it was not so bad.
It made me think that it would be so awesome to work for the Parma Consorzio, or the Parmigiano Reggiano one. Can you imagine living in Italy and promoting good food all around the world?
I think that they did not put the ham inside the oven with the pizza, because it did not look cooked (it was a good idea).
The pizza cost 175 000 dongs (about 6,5€).

Mark: 5/5
We only took a glass of water to drink. I gave the perfect mark to them because it is a really nice restaurant with good food, good products and nice employees. Furthermore, we paid a total of 363 000 dongs (less than 14€) for two pizze with expensive toppings. 7€ a pizza is like the price of a cheap one in Paris where you can’t expect to have Parma ham or Mozzarella di Bufala. Many of the ingredients might be imported so it might cost more than in France.
I’ll definitely come back there. If you want to eat a good pizza, there you are! And please, do not try the Armani caffe’. I’ve read online that “even Armani himself would kill himself if he went inside the restaurant”, moreover, I went in front of it, the prices are the same as at Scoozi (in France it costs at least 40€ for one person so where all the talent has gone?), and I read a plastic menu looking really cheap (yes you read it, a menu made with plastic, not even a posh and heavy paper).

I could not find Scoozi’s website, but the website anyarena is perfect when you’re looking for a restaurant that does not have any website (they always give the prices, thanks anyarena!):

http://anyarena.com/en/cityguide/view/scoozi

And the Thai website (just to give you an idea of the products they sell):

http://www.scoozipizza.com/index.php

Address:

6 Thai Van Lung,
District 1,
Saigon

NB:Tomorrow I’m going to Siem Reap, Cambodia, so I’ll have many things to tell you about (already have a list of posts about Nha Trang and Hanoi to do…), and I’ll only come back next week (well, I’m going back to work on Monday, I just took one day-off, but I will stay in Saigon for a few days without my pc).