Vespa Pizza

Honk if you like pizzas: Vespa has scooted straight into the city center, offering a better-than-fair range of Italian specialties for dine-in, takeaway and delivery.

Everything's made fresh at this tiny outlet at Life Center, with no more than 15 seats for eating in. Deliveries are promised within an hour to locations within a few kilometers. Here's their number _ 03-2162-4333 _ so call them maybe.

A square-shaped serving of pizza, topped with tomato, mushroom, mozzarella and beef ham, costs RM8.90 and should be sufficient for a nibbler's lunch. Other varieties include ones featuring chicken, smoked salmon, prawns, clams or four cheeses.

Oven-baked focaccia, fragrant with herbs and filled with emmenthal cheese and chicken ham (RM10.90) for a warm sandwich reminiscent of panini.

For RM12.90, Vespa's take on the Caprese salad is a bargain, with crisp rocket leaves, juicy tomato slices and thick mozzarella slices (the supermarket sort, but oh well) in a surprisingly aromatic basil pesto sauce.

Piadini, thin flatbread evocative of pita, wrapped around more ham, more leaves, more cheese (RM9.90). While nothing here seems absolutely authentic, the hits among these stomach-stuffing orders can still outnumber the misses.

One of the bona fide smashes: maybe we've been deprived of lasagna for too long, but this bolognese one (RM13.90) turned out to be addictive, boasting the perfect texture and taste.

Sweet pastries are another highlight: try the "bombolone" (RM6.90), a Tuscan doughnut packed with gooey chocolate that lives up to its notoriety as a calorie bomb.

Sicilian cannoli filled with ricotta cream (RM7.90) sounds irresistible on paper, but the tube-shaped shells are hard and dry, while the cream seems a little too sourish.

Baci Di Dama (RM6.90), cute little crunchy cookies, also chock-full of chocolate.

Vespa offers wine, but only by the bottle for now, at around RM98.

Vespa Pizza,

Life Centre, Jalan Perak entrance, Kuala Lumpur.
Daily through 10pm.