Deep End Pizza — Restaurant in Melbourne

Really lovely staff but disappointing food, especially for the price.

I had deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati's, Giordano's and one other place in Chicago a few years back and it was absolutely amazing....served in the deep dish it was baked in, you had to use a spatula to get a slice out and it was enormous, 3 of us couldn't finish 1 pizza. They used Marinara sauce on the top which tasted amazing and ever since, i've been hanging out to have it again. I always wondered why no one had ever opened a place making them in Melbourne, so I was so excited when I saw somewhere finally had and really talked it up to my friends.

$42 and a 30 min wait for a cheese pizza was no problems at all, from what I remember of the Chicago deep dish, it'd be worth it. Unfortunately, it wasn't, at all. It came out in about 5 minutes which was super impressive, I assumed they must have some pre-cooking, but firstly the size was a let down....it was about the size of a standard medium pizza and nothing close to the size I remembered from Chicago, and just served on a tray not in the pan like real Chicago pizza. It was definitely enough food and all, but nowhere near worth $42, not even close.

But my biggest complaint - if you are going to put something on the pizza then PUT IT ON THE MENU. It was drenched in parmesan cheese which I can't stand and which wasn't on the menu (or I would have asked for it without any). The cheese inside wasn't really cooked properly (I could pull out chunks of solid mozzarella) and there was no marinara sauce, just some cheap tasting pizza sauce on top. Honestly, I hated it and couldn't deal with the taste...I ate 1 slice and couldn't stomach any more. HAVING SAID THAT, my partner liked it...but he has never had real Chicago deep dish before and had nothing to compare it to.

I also got the Detroit style pizza...but that was disappointing too. Throughout the lockdown last year, I'd been getting Detroit pizza from Connies at Heartbreaker which was AMAZING but is temporarily closed. I also had it at Arbory Afloat which wasn't as good as Connies, but was better than Deep-end. Firstly, the size was a let down again. Their pizza is about 2/3 the size of Arbory's pizza and about 1/3 the size of Connies, yet more expensive than both. Definitely made for 1 person only, so don't plan to share one with friends. And again, PUT ALL OF THE TOPPINGS ON THE MENU. Seriously what if people have allergies? The Detroit cheese pizza came with a swirl of green sauce across it, I had no idea what it was but tried to scrape it off. The base was great but the topping again was a let down, just undercooked mozzarella. I ate 1 slice again.

I'm giving 2 stars just because of how lovely the staff were, but I would never go back here for the food.

Overall, i paid just under $100 for a few pizza's which we didn't even eat. I left feeling disappointed and...

I heard about Deep End 2 days before it opened and was instantly excited. It's the pizza place I always wanted! Different specialities of pizza all in one location. Someone doing this must love pizza as much as I do! Deep End was booked out for a while and as I knew it would be a massive caloric bomb, I waited. Fast forward to last night. Immediately the hostess was recognisable as the perfect personality to greet guests. She was energetic and bubbly without being overwhelming. As this night was an event, we went big. We ordered the triple pepporni detroit and the classic chicago pizza. FYI, 1 detroit is enough for 2 adults and the deep dish is enough for 3 -4. I knew this but did not care. Detroit came out first as the deep dish has a long baking time. We were grateful that they didn't wait to bring them out together. The detroit was fantastic. Well caramelised sides AND bottoms of the pizza with the remaining of the dough being light and fluffly. There was a lot of excess oil but that was to be expected with this kind of pizza as that's how it works. This was a great exerpience however my only two criticims would be that "triple" pepporoni is a vast exaggeration. It appeared to the expected amount of single serve and secondly, for my tastes, it might have been a bit too caremilised bordering on burnt. After a bit longer of a wait the deep dish came out, the main event. I grabbed my slice and was excited to dig in until i noticed it. The giant slab of "italian sausage" taking up 1/3 of the depth of the pizza. I can't understand why they would choose to go this route. As the pizza is baked, this is just a giant slab of steamed pork mince and is about as appealing as it sounds. It completly over powered the rest of the pizza. The sauce, the cheese and the dough was nice but completly lost amongst the steamed sausage. After one slice from me and my partner the hostess came and asked if we were defeated, I admitted I was but presumably not the way she thought we were. Defeated in dissapointment. To be fair, we will be back, as I think the error made was ordering the deep dish with sausage, if it was the pepporoni or any of the ones without sausage I think it would have been a far greater experience. I request that the chefs reconsider to using the traditional sausage on pizza method in which it is broken up on fried so not so overwhelming and higher caremlised flavour. There are unique dishes that I would like to try next time (had to go with the classics to start) like the brussel sprout pizza or the bone marrow so my hype isn't completly squashed...

2025 july review: after 3 years, it’s bigger and better than ever, offering 3 more pizzas styles to add to their 6 american pizza types which are thick, crispy and loaded. They have a new reuben which is a must try, even better than a reuben toastie 😍.

2022 review: If you’ve been wanting to try out New York pizzas by the slice, just go Deep End Pizza - the BEST PIZZAS in Melbourne.

Heard there was a new American style pizza joint opening up and quickly made a booking. Serving up deep dish Chicago pizzas, New York thin crust pizzas, detroit pizzas and other share and small plates, Deep End Pizza is taking the local pizza scene to a whole new dimension.

Literally have been on a mission to find the best NY pizzas in Melbourne and my ranking continues to change with Deep End threatening the Australian pizza industry - the crust is crunchy whilst the filling is generously LOADED with elements of amazing flavours.

Chicago classic deep pan (4.5/5): highlight of the night. the crust had a nice buttery taste but super crunchy like a good old pie. The tomato sauce was out of this world, and together with their sausages, mushrooms and pecorino was such an aromatic experience. It is, however, SUPER cheesy and only one slice is recommended.

Detroit pizzas (5/5): pizza on a focaccia. Dough is super fluffy and bouncy, and the exterior is crispy from the melted cheese and baked crust. Ordered The Lot and the Hot Salami and both were so heavenly and rich in flavour. Never order the lot outside bc it’s mediocre but Deep Pan revived my love for it. My favourite of the 2 was defs the Hot Salami bc I love the combination of honey and savoury.

Oven roasted chicken wings (3/5): very aromatic, and the chicken was juicy. Probs won’t order again bc it’s just lemon and pepper. A fried chicken side would be a much better option that would compliment their mindblowing pizzas.

Cannot wait to come back and try their focaccia and dips, as well as their bone marrow toast and NY thin slices!

WARNING! The deep pan pizza was huge and after devouring a slice as our first item for this meal, we could barely finish the rest - idk what the waiter thought but they said a filling experience for 5 people would be the deep pan + a thin NY pizza or 2 detroit pizzas. We were struggling. Also, service could be improved as 2 different waiters asked us to order but when we repeated the order, only half our dishes came out and we waited 1 hour and they had thrown out the paper. Hoping it was just the start up setback.

Food: 5/5 Value: 4.5/5 Ambience:...