BASE Woodfired Pizza - Little High — Restaurant in Christchurch

Disaster strikes on every corner of this Earth in one form or another, whether it is by tornado, volcano, tsunami, or in Christchurch, New Zealand, Earthquakes. Over a period of a year beginning in 2010, the city was destroyed by a series of earthquakes, and now a 25 year plan is in place to rebuild it to its former glory. Part of this rebuilding plan includes bringing in new business to the area. In the center of the town is a makeshift mall with stores and cafes called Re-Start. It is a special area made up entirely of cargo containers, redesigned to house businesses. Among these businesses is a wonderful wood fired pizza establishment called BASE. Normally I write and focus on higher end restaurants and wine, but these cafes and small business trying to rebuild impressed me to the point where I had to write about them, and let the world know they existed.

I and several co-workers were on our way to work in Antarctica for six months at McMurdo Station, and because of bad weather were delayed in Christchurch for over a week. During this time we had a chance to sample a lot of the local restaurants and see the rebuilding of the city from the devastating earthquakes. Inside the center of the city was Re-Start, where we ate several meals at local café’s, amongst them being Base, a small family owned cargo container, with a wood fire oven, and very higher end pizza selections with a variety of toppings you would normally see at a fine dining restaurant versus a small pizzeria.

I have never run into a café built into a cargo container before, but If I were to compare the cuisine offered by Base to my other experiences in world travels, I would say they match if not exceed restaurants such as Gino’s Pizzeria, in Chicago and Pizza Republica, in Centennial, Colorado. It was also much better than a local pizza restaurant favorite called Winnie Bagoes. See the full review on the Wine, dine, and Play blog along with...

I once put a 5-star review in for BASEW Woodfired Pizza for their delicious Buffalo chicken pizza. I tried the Morrocan lamb pizza and probably would have given that a high, but not 5-star, rating. However, today I tried their BBQ Chicken pizza - their new recipe that replaced the Buffalo chicken pizza. My advice is do not eat this at all. And do not sully your memories of a once-great pizza place. The base is completely overloaded with toppings such that while the outer crust benefits from the wood fired cooking, the middle of the pizza is a soggy mess. The chicken is sub-standard to say the least, not the delicious high-quality meat they had for the Buffalo version. There was very little jalapeño pepper, and far too much bland, overly-sweet BBQ sauce. I tried to salvage the pizza by removing much of the chicken and BBQ sauce as I ate, but only managed to look like a six-year-old picking at the bits he didn't like, while not succeeding in improving the experience one little bit. If you like overloaded soggy pizza with sweet toppings (and I confess have met many people who do) you might enjoy this pizza. I, however, had a miserable time chocking down what I could, while wishing I could go back in time and get BASE Woodfired pizza from back when they knew how to prepare and cook a...

Tried the pizza twice and most people would love it. For that reason alone I would say a must try. If I was really picky, the dough recipe is under seasoned and not consistently fully cooked through both times it have visited. But they don’t seem to use a door on the oven so that could explain why. This is easily fixed and I’m sure they will realise eventually. Their choice of toppings and variety of food on offer is excellent and the place has a good vibe. They do not deliver either, again I am sure they will eventually realise they are not meeting the demand in the market place on that score. That is the beauty of a competition in the market, rewards the best run businesses and clears out the bad. I hope they do well into the future. Well done and as I said you must go and try their pizza. I have eaten some of the best wood fired pizzas in the world and it is not easy to perfect. That’s why I rate this...