Beyond the Dough Lunch

Beyond the Dough opened its door near Bugis MRT Station, bringing Tokyo Neapolitan-style pizza to our shores. What is Tokyo Neapolitan-style pizza, you ask? It features a thinner crust than standard pizzas, although not so thin that you can’t still enjoy a substantial doughy chew.

Chef Eddie Murakami of the Strada fame in Tokyo has descended on Singapore shores. When the Japanese pizzaiolo - who trained in the highly rated Pizza Strada and Pizza Studio Tamaki in Tokyo - brought his pizza expertise to our shores in March, seats at the homely 28 pizza theatre were instantly snagged, followed by month-long waitlists.

And it’s still month-long wait lists, except we snuck out for lunch on weekdays, trying our luck. And we got lucky today.

The Tokyo-Neapolitan style pizzas here start by using a dough that is fermented for over 30 hours before baking it in a wood-fired oven. The result is a crust that eats light and a tad bit chewy with some crunch from the crisp edges. Murakami stands out with his signature toss of Okinawan sea salt in the oven before baking the pie which lends them a complementing savouriness.

It was just the two of us for lunch - so we were struggling between the classics (el classico) and the chef’s more eclectic house exclusives such as the “Beyond Bianca”, bringing together mascarpone, buffalo and burrata cheese, and truffle oil. Or even go for the Singapore exclusive, the “Singapore Rampage”, with its base of chilli and shrimp.

If you’re a pizza fan, this place is def worth a visit. As with Japanese takes on Italian (and every other cuisine really), there’s a little more finesse and it’s generally lighter, more balanced flavours throughout. Compared to the smoky and air-pocket-laden Neapolitan at some of Singapore’s best pizzerias, the dough takes on a more slender profile that leads with a delectable firm crunch before transitioning into a lighter, chewier mouthfeel.

Many enthralling options pepper the menu but the Smoked Margherita (SGD30) caught our eye since they challenge the time-honoured Italian ultra-classic, the Margherita, with a supposedly more intense take that uses smoked mozzarella. The margherita was a thing of beauty. Credit to the head server Praveen for the recommendation.

It was difficult choosing between the classical Buffalo Mozzarela and this smoked version. I’m glad we went big. Splendidly lush with tomato richness in the sauce and accented by the heady aromas of basil, little fault could be found in this. One glaring chink, however, had to be the conspicuous absence of any smoke — solid Margherita but maybe I’m missing the point? Where’s the smoke?

This is a solid 7.5/10 and coming from me - a non pizza lover - that’s saying something. What I’m certain of is that my daughter (the real pizza lover) will be livid we snuck out on a school-day weekday lunch, knowing it’s the only possible opportunity to get seats in this pizzeria.

Special mention for the meatballs in tomato sauce. The sauce was magic. Just tangy enough, you could taste the copious amounts of Italian puree that went in. This was an easy 8/10, and ‘best’ dish of the day.

The Parma ham was 7/10, thanks to the ample drizzles of pure virgin olive oil. They say (Italians say) you can’t never have enough olive oil and sprigs of basil - I agree!

Oh, I also noted their wine list is quite ably paired to the menu, pairings with cheese etc.

Chef Eddie brought another colleague/server to Singapore who is deft with the joint’s sake selection (which on the last page, belies its depth). The sake Afuri we chose brought all the rich flavours of the ingredients - try pairing sake with pizza if you can.

There's only one problem with Beyond The Dough. Being a small 28 seater, they’re booked out for months.

Total damage for 2 pax including a bottle of Afuri sake - SGD229.90