Pizza 4P’s: Why Does Everyone Recommend An Italian Restaurant In Vietnam?
Vietnam is known far and wide for its culinary offerings — but travelling foodies are quick to recommend a pizza chain found in every major city in the land of the Blue Dragon.
Pizza 4P’s was founded in 2011 in Ho Chi Minh City (HCM) by Japanese couple Yosuke and Sanae Masuko, after learning to make the Italian staple in a DIY woodfire pizza oven.
In the decade since, there are now 25 Pizza 4P’s — a play on ‘pizza for peace’ — across HCM, Nha Trang, Hanoi, and beyond, with plans to expand throughout Vietnam and into neighbouring Southeast Asian countries.
So what makes the pizza so standout, to the point where both my Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese friends in Australia still remember the joint fondly?
I visited one of their restaurants in HCM to see what the fuss was all about.
The grand menu at Pizza 4P’s is an impressive offering, with much to pick from across appetisers, salads, pizzas (as you’d hope), pastas, bougie mains like beef tongue, desserts, and an impressive wine list.
With fresh mozzarella not being on hand in Vietnam, Pizza 4P’s decided to make in-house artisanal cheese themselves, using fresh milk from cows from the Central Highlands of Vietnam, Da Lat.
Thankfully, all 10 cheeses are available to try on a cheese platter, but also star on the pizzas themselves. You can choose from a three, four, or five cheese pizza, or go for gold like me and my friend did, by adding their delightful homemade burrata to any pizza on the menu.
We took advantage of their half and half sharing option to cover more ground. I went for their margarita, but shook things up with their recommended sweet miso gratin with Japanese scallops.
My dinner date opted for the three cheese pizza, split with a prosciutto pizza, which harboured the aforementioned burrata. I loved the variety of options, which danced a dangerous line to come back more than once — also on the cards were salmon sashimi, soy garlic beef, and kale with edible flowers.
While I’ve had equally good, Naples-inspired pizza in Sydney, Pizza 4P’s excelled with their adventurous flavours, fresh ingredients, and accessible price point. The most expensive pizzas only came to $25 AUD each, which I’d expect to pay an arm and foot more for in Australia.
We didn’t go back a second time as we were determined to eat as much Vietnamese cuisine as humanely possible during our short, one-week trip. But sitting back in Sydney now, I regret not returning at least once more. It’s definitely worth adding to the itinerary.
You can follow Pizza 4’s on Instagram here.
