Islamabad - Investing in a school or a restaurant is a gamble worth taking, from a business point of view. However, the motives behind these two profitable enterprises include passion and money-making. When an academician or educationist opens up a school, passion is the primary motive and business secondary. Opening up a food joint is no different, as passion takes priority over profitability.

Cheese Factor, located in F-11, is a mixture of both. Brainchild of Attique and Rehman, Cheese Factor is a food joint with a difference. The eatery’s unique selling point (USP) is its Chicago style deep-dish pizza based on the secret recipe of Attique’s wife, Hira. Having worked in several pizza outlets in Chicago serving deep dish pizzas, Hira is a certified deep-dish pizza chef who also played a major role in bringing Cheese Factor into existence. After returning from Chicago, Hira aimed to emulate the recipe used by chefs of the two best deep dish pizza joints in Chicago, Giordano’s and Uno.

The two partners confidently claim that no pizza outlet in Pakistan offers this one-of-a-kind deep-dish pizza.

“The secret to the taste not only lies in the technique but also the sauce that it is ladled with,” says Attique. Marinara sauce is what makes the pizza tasty and appetizing. “Our sauce has been infused with local ingredients and seasoning, making for a lip smacking taste,” claims Attique with an air of pride.

    The deep-dish pizza is baked in a deep pan. Rolling dough on the base of the pan, filling as per the choice of pizza, generous spread of Swiss mozzarella cheese and capped with thin layer dough of the flour. Once ready, the thick homemade tomato sauce is pasted on the surface of the dough. The pizza remains under fire for a good 25 minutes before being rescued. “It is time consuming but worth waiting for. The meaty items take time to bake in the 425 degrees F in order to mix well with the cheese,” informs Attique.

The business man in him knew well before launch that deep-dish pizza is an acquired taste which takes time to build. Therefore, the duo added a few more leafs to their menu, offering a few other pizza choices as well as supplements.

The menu includes pizzas of thin crust and medium crust, a variety of hotdogs, pastas and a selection of sandwiches to choose from.

The deep-dish pizza we ordered was balsamic for the taste buds but heavy on the diet. One can easily mistake the deep-dish pizza for a chicken pie. Two inch in height and sliced liked a piece of cake, but perfectly textured. No fallen morsels and no flowing cheese, all arrest beautifying within their limits. The 25 minute wait managed to blend the ingredients in the likes of onions, sausages, chunks of chicken, mushrooms, and olives releasing a symphony of flavors.

Peri Peri chicken pizza was marked with a red flag to warn the customers of its high spice quantity.  The chicken is a delight, of course, for spice lovers. The infused peri peri sauce in the medium crust pizza did justice to the spicy pellets, the mild sauce had all the right seasoning and the marriage between cheese and the sauce was blissful.

Thin crust pizza also had an authentic Italian flavour with tomato and cheese. However, the crust was hard to chew and required the owner’s attention.

Chicago style deep-dish pizza is not the only unique point of the eatery; their hotdogs are in the same league too. Hotdog with mince chili sauce, traditional Chicago hotdog are both delectable.  Chili hotdog came wrapped in a silver foil with aroma oozing out on the very first bite.

Both the bun and the sausage were soft, and melted in the mouth. The best thing was that it wasn’t crumbly.  The chilies sauce soaked on the upper side of the bun helped the Chicago novelty to dulcify.  The contents of the platter were wiped in a blink of an eye; a testament of the authenticity and rich flavors of the dish.