Raise your hand if you love pizzas! Quick and tasty, it’s the perfect meal for busy evenings and leisure weekends. We all know that Italy is famous for its wood-fired oven pizzas. If you’re wondering how it tastes like, make your way to this charming pizza eatery in Selangor!
Meet the husband-and-wife duo, Mr Ikmal and Mrs Azara who are the power couple behind Wood-Fired Oven Pizzeria (WOP). Established in November 2015, WOP has come a long way from a pop-up shop in front of Mr Ikmal’s mother’s home to an independent eatery at Presint Alami, Shah Alam.
Credit: WOP Pizzeria on Facebook
Walk through the restaurant’s red door and be greeted by the wafting scent of handcrafted pizzas straight from Mr Ikmal’s self-built wood-fired oven. Coupled with a friendly smile from Mrs Azara, it’s everything you dream a cosy pizza place would be.
While the outdoor seating has natural late-afternoon light for flatlays, we prefer watching the dynamic duo work their magic in front of the oven. From Smoked Beef and Rocket to Quattro Formaggi, every pizza in this eatery is made from scratch. Hence, it’s an absolute joy to see Mr Ikmal tossing and flourishing the handmade dough with passion.
The whole concept of WOP was inspired by Jamie Oliver’s show called Food Revolution that emphasises the importance of preparing food from scratch. The couple was so inspired that they made sure everything was handmade, from the in-house dough fermentation to buffalo milk mozzarella.
When WOP first started, they served regular pizzas before discovering that they prefer Neapolitan pizzas better than the rest. “We liked it because it was simple and straightforward. Plus, the Neapolitan pizza has 300 years of history,” Mrs Azara shared. “It is originated from Napoli, a place known for their Margherita and Marinara pizzas.”
Staying true to Mrs Azara’s recommendation, start with the Margherita pizza for an introduction to the WOP Neapolitan pizza experience! This classic pizza is a medley of tomato sauce, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil and in-house local buffalo milk Mozzarella. It will make your heart sing at first bite, and it did for us!
If you prefer a non-cheese pizza, savour the well-loved Marinara pizza topped with fresh tomato sauce, garlic, oregano and extra virgin olive oil. Did you know that it took them a year to perfect the dough of these Neapolitan pizzas?
Creating a halal Neapolitan pizza experience comes with its ups and downs. Besides the high price of ingredients, Mrs Azara shared her challenge in attracting the local crowd. “It’s hard to explain about the pizzas we’re serving. If you go to Italy, it’s not easy to get halal Neapolitan pizzas. So, it’s best to try it here first to familiarise with the flavours.”
Besides the authentic Neapolitan pizza experience, new flavours are coming your way! “We introduce new flavours twice or thrice a year because we don’t want our customers to get bored. We listen to our customers too. If someone requests for an artichoke pizza, no problem. We need to experiment and see what goes well with that new flavour,” said Mrs Azara.
If you ask us, we’ll be heading back sooner than we expected!
Address: Wood-Fired Oven Pizzeria (WOP), 1-08-1 Presint Alami, No. 2, Persiaran Akuatik Seksyen 13, Shah Alam, Malaysia.
Opening hours: Mon-Fri, 6PM-10PM; Sat & Sun, 12PM-3PM, 6PM-10PM
Contact No: +6019 227 9324 / +603 5523 0052
Halal status: Muslim-owned, Muslim-friendly ingredients