Hot Rocks Pizza in Bassendean won first place in Menulog’s Tastiest Takeaway Award

The small local independent business has been serving up pizzas for two years, with foodies rating their garlic prawn pizza and Moroccan lamb pizza as their favourites.

Erok said he had a passion for cooking which stemmed from his Cypriot background and having worked at several pizza stores throughout university it had sparked him to start his own business.

‘While a university student, it made me realise my passion for creating new flavours,’ he said. ‘In 2012 my partner, who also shares the same passion for cooking and I opened Hot Rock Pizza and we still run it together ” obviously with lots of help from our wonderful staff.’

Erok said he believed his award wins came from his pizzas, which were considered by customers as ‘outside the box’ type combinations. ‘Some are very unique such as our lamb kebab pizza using real chunks of kebab meat and drizzled in garlic yoghurt sauce, chilli and garlic king prawn and the Moroccan lamb are other standouts. We have a very diverse menu with something for everyone.’

As for what makes a good pizza perfect, Erok said it all starts with the base.

‘All our dough is made fresh in store daily (except gluten-free bases). That is why on all our large pizzas we offer our customers the choice of thin, thick or medium crust,’ he said.

‘The sauce is made fresh in store and we only use the freshest local ingredients.’

The pizza shop also won the state winner in the most voted restaurant category, state winner in the most voted dish category and national winner in the most voted pizza dish in the 2014 Best Eats Awards last week.