Hot Pan Pizza – Tandoori Chicken Pizza
Howdy folks, long time no see! Hope you’re all well and keeping to some semblance of normalcy these days. Craig and I have decided to start doing some take-out reviews so first up we have Hot Pan Pizza who reached out for a review on social recently. Hot Pan Pizza sent just one menu item for review, so rather than a review of the restaurant as a whole this is just for their star menu item: the Tandoori Chicken Pizza.
Hot Pan Pizza specializes in an all-halal menu featuring Indian-Italian fusion items. I’m a big fan of Desi pizza and feel blessed to live in Surrey which is a hotbed of creativity with many restaurants in competition to pair pizza with various Indian staples.
The Tandoori Chicken Pizza ($16.99 – large) apparently comes with mayo as a topping which I figured might have been a reference to a sauce of some sort, but when I peeked under the cheese I couldn’t find any. The other toppings are tandoori chicken, onions, melted mozzarella and cheddar cheese, with a drizzle of hot green sauce and a smattering of thick-cut fresh green onions. The muted red and green colour palette was pretty enticing when I opened the box, and the pungent smell of an Indian spice blend hit me full force and got my stomach growling in anticipation.
Maybe the mayo was in the green sauce on top? I believe it was a coriander mint chutney but I would have pegged the base as yogurt. Whatever it was it was tasty and offset the dryness inherent in tandoori chicken, the amount of which was unprecedented in scale. On first bite the pizza wasn’t all that spicy, but it had a slow burn and by the time I hit the halfway mark on the pizza box there was a definite second wave. One of the symptoms to self-monitor for is a loss of sensation on your tongue and a high temperature in your mouth. Safety measures you can take to mitigate this risk include not touching your face after getting chutney on your fingers and keeping a bottle of lassi on hand to lower your chance of developing symptoms. Should you be exposed to this level of spicy, please keep 6 feet social distance from others for 14 hours after exposure so they don’t have to smell your curry breath. Please check Surrey Eats regularly for updates to these important public health guidelines.
As for the foundations of this masala masterpiece, the crust was lightly browned on the outside which tickled my fancy, but was uneven in thickness throughout. I found the thicker portions a bit too cake-y with a slightly cloying sweetness. However I did appreciate that there was crusted cheese around the outer rim. Hopefully this becomes the new normal as it gave me a reason not to chuck out the crusts! Thankfully pizza delivery has been deemed an essential service, so while I can’t say much about their overall menu or consistency between dishes, I can say that Hot Pan Pizza’s Tandoori Chicken Pizza is worth a try if you’re looking for a tasty treat to beat those lockdown blues.
Author: Matt
Prior to joining the Surrey Eats crew, Matt's love of all things edible and passion for writing led him to long-running food blog Eat 'n About where he penned articles under the nom de plume Hitman Howdy for several years. Matt's also been published in various local magazines, and is an extremely adventurous eater who has dined on things that would make Anthony Bourdain blush. Matt enjoys the melting pot of international cuisine on offer in Surrey and hopes to help put his beloved stomping grounds on the map as a smorgasbord for food-lovers of all ethnicities. SURREY WHAT!!
