Mr Wolf Restaurant & Bar

Ph: 9534 0255; 9 Inkerman St, ST KILDA 3182 www.mrwolf.com.au

pizzeria, $$ -
Open Tue-Fri-Sun noon-late Sat 5pm-late; Licensed, BYO tues night only , Corkage $7 bottle; AE DC MC V EFT
Chef Marisa Travain (5-12-08) Owner Michael Sapountsis, Karen Martini, Marcus Ellis, Damien & Emma King (5-12-08)

Mietta's Review
Karen Martini, and partners, has taken over the premises that was once Luxe, installed a wood fired oven and entered the great Melbourne pizza wars. Her main rival was apprenticed with her at Tansy's and shares an Italian heritage. Mr Wolf is a smart modern space that's not a lot changed from its previous life. The pizzas aren't cheap but they're well done in the modern creative manner. Good service and a good Italian wine list

Other published opinions

Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 12/20 "Like Chuck Taylors and the Rolling Stones, Mr Wolf has that air of eternal cool: years after the 'New Pizzeria' hype, St Kilda's Tsubi-clad cool kids continue to pack into this modish space"

The Age Cheap Eats 2008 "There's no sign of anything slowing down at Karen Martini's buzzing dark-timbered pizzeria"

Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 13/20 "This popular, sparely decorated pizzeria is one of the few places where palates old and young can come together in harmony"

The Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 14/20 "Set down in the middle of the St Kilda badlands, Mr Wolf is a-buzz with shiny, happy people devouring thin-crust pizza, their conversations ricocheting off timber floors and tables. t seems Karen Martini, like her former cohort Rita Macali at Fitzroy's Ladro, has plugged into the zeitgeist and is delivering just what the people want."

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide "Blessed are the bambini who eat at Mr Wolf. For them, the kitchen rustles up Margherita pizze "with no green stuff", the Poco Lupo (topped with ham, mozzarella and tomato, and, if they're good, treacherously rich ice-cream sundaes draped with chocolate sauce."

Gourmet Traveller 2005 Restaurant Guide "Take a big-name chef (Karen Martini) back to her roots (simple pizza, braises, salads and pasta al forno) in the hippest part of Melbourne (St Kilda) with a wonderful focus on Italian wine, and you have an incendiary combination."

Age A2 Jane Faulkner 9/10/04 "In the space that was once the restaurant Luxe, Karen Martini with a band of friends and her partner in life, Michael Sapountsis, now head the lair that is Mr Wolf. It's as popular as Luxe ever was in its heyday. And that's good to see because once again, the place is vibrant, alive when it had been moribund."

HERALD SUN Stephen Downes score 10/20 28/9/04 "Mr Wolf serves ordinary food at high prices. There are no seafood offerings and its dishes are made from inherently cheap produce. The wine list has only Italian wines supplemented by four Australian wines made in "Italian varieties". Prices range widely and there is lots of choice by glass."

The Age Epicure John Lethlean "It's time to ask the tough question: Is Mr Wolf's pizza as good as Ladro's? Melbourne's pizza renaissance, with its bigname newer players (high-profile, Italian female chefs who apprenticed together) has generated a thousand water-cooler discussions if it has generated one, and the inevitability of the Wolf-Ladro comparison was total. Neither is a pizzeria, really. I think it demeans them to use that label (in the sense that it ignores all the great antipasti, pasta, salads, roasts and wines at both places). It's true that pizza is a significant part of what makes them tick. And it's true that pizza ignites passion in long-starved Melbourne."

The Age Take 5 Dani Valent 8/8/04 "First-rate pizza is definitely the Mr Wolf focus though. It's great as far as it goes, and it's hard to argue with all those pert St Kilda bums on seats"