THE combination of Wagyu beef, broccoli and paprika on a pizza may not initially sound appealing, but I can tell you that it is truly divine after visiting Basildon’s new Pizza Paradise.

In search of an evening snack, I headed to the highly-rated gourmet pizza parlour in Basildon market which opened earlier this year.

Pizza Paradise is run by husband and wife team, Sabi and Timea Salamon, and offers “unique and delectable flavours” including Wagyu beef, chicken teriyaki and lamb toppings.

After opening just two months ago, the parlour has become one of the highest rated in the town and boasts a 4.9 star rating on Uber Eats.

New food stop - Pizza Paradise (Image: Timea Salamon) You are instantly greeted with the welcoming aroma of freshly-baked pizza, which pulls you to the modest parlour with a small seating area.

The parlour gets busiest around late evening so there was not much of a crowd, but it started to fill up as I tucked into a slice of pizza. I was greeted by the owner, Sabi, who ran me through the variety of pizzas on offer, and I decided to go with the Wagyu Nduja pizza.

Sabi got to work and started preparing the pizza from scratch. The owner has been a pizza chef for a decade and boasts many original recipes on his menu.

The pizza was ready in less than 10 minutes and I couldn’t wait to dig in. I had my doubts whether Wagyu could be fully enjoyed on a pizza, but I am happy to say I was proved wrong from the first bite. The combination of the beef, sweet corn, mozzarella, paprika and tender-stem broccoli quickly made me realise that just one slice was not going to be enough.

Sabi also asked me to try their chicken teriyaki pizza, which was quite different to the Wagyu, but equally as good.

The thick-crusted pizzas could easily serve two or three people, but at £15.95 and £13.95, are not exactly the cheapest.

However, the cost is justified by the quality of ingredients.