Located in a tranquil spot at Gulshan 2, the Pizza & More restaurant designed by Innova Architects stays true to nature and biodiversity by preserving its existing trees while renovating the entire site. Amidst the lush greenery and tranquil landscaping, guests can enjoy freshly brewed coffees or the restaurant’s signature delicacies: Lasagna al Pesto, Mediterranean Panini, Risotto.
From Sayed Sarwar, the owner of the restaurant, initially started the restaurant business on mid December 2018 with a very simple décor since initially their plan was to serve limited dine inn customer and focus on delivery more. On 2019 since their in-house guest increased, they did some renovation of the indoor part sitting area only, which took about around three weeks. In order to cope up with the market trend, they did massive renovation on early October 2021 which took almost two and a half months, since they changed the entire look, sitting space and separate entrance for the restaurant.
The restaurant has two zones: outdoor and indoor. The indoor area comprises around 3,400 Sq. Ft and the outdoor area is almost 1,300 Sq. Ft. In between there is a coffee and Juice bar and cash counter. Beside the main entrance there is a takeaway Kiosk that is particularly set to avoid no contact delivery during the pandemic period. The kitchen which is the core of the restaurant is placed at the back or extreme end of the building where fire exit is given priority. When speaking about the constraints of the project, Sanjida Shams, Principle Architect of Innova Architects, explained “as the restaurant is set on a residence, the entrance was the main entry of the restaurant which I found not worthy for a restaurant. I believe entry must have its own entity, but, the main constraints were the car garage (which is now the outdoor sitting space), main sewerage lines, soak pits and mostly the dense shaded tress.”
The indoor section has several rooms that are differently adorned in terms of colours, lighting, décor accents that provides different ambience where guest can choose to dine according to their preferences.
Blending with the existing red brick structure, mostly wooden frames are introduced as surrounding fencing while glass roof is used for inviting natural light. Beside the existing trees, natural and some artificial wall hanging creepers have been also introduced to enhance the natural ambience. One of the interesting design elements are the photography corners where guests are often seen delightfully taking selfies or clicking group pictures along with their selected supper. On the other hand, the outdoor fountain is another arresting element of the site.
The restaurant was initially established to serve Italian cuisine, particularly Sicilian. The restaurant started its journey to cater local and expatriate customers with sour dough thin crust Pizza, handmade various pastas, Lasagna, Arancini with classical dessert like Panna Cotta and Tiramisu. Later, it added some more dishes like Rotollo (Chicken Roll), Ravioli, cavatelli, risotto and Pesto Rice. In aspect of covering more customers, the restaurant introduced some continental dishes like soups, steaks, fish fillets. Apart from the regular menu, the restaurant strives to bring unique/mouthwatering international dishes. “We source raw materials selectively and uses imported extra virgin olive oil in 95% of our product, as well as Italian herbs, imported cheese, sun dried tomato. In order to keep consistency of our taste, we even use imported tomato peel to make the base on pizza sauce”, expresses Sayed Sarwar. “In Italian cuisine, basil is another imported item used, thanks to our Italian consultant chief, now we have a garden full of Italian basil which we can use freshly from our rooftop garden”, the owner proudly sharing.
