UK pizza restaurant charges Rs 10,500 extra to 'monsters' who ask for pineapple topping

'I absolutely loathe pineapple on a pizza,' the restaurant's co-owner Francis Woolf said. (Representational image: Unsplash)

A UK restaurant has launched a new offensive in the age-old battle about whether pineapple belongs on pizza, charging £100 (about Rs 10,500) to any "monsters" who want it as a topping.

Lupa Pizza in Norwich, eastern England, usually charges around £12 (about Rs 1,270) for one of its meals. But pineapple lovers will now face a Rs 10,500 bill if they want the contentious fruit delivered on their pizza.

The pizza is available on the restaurant's Deliveroo menu, alongside the caption: "Yeah, for £100 (about Rs 10,500) you can have it. Order the champagne, too. Go on, you Monster!"

"I absolutely loathe pineapple on a pizza," co-owner Francis Woolf told the Norwich Evening News, by way of explanation.

The move renewed hostilities in the long-running dispute, with former UK finance minister Ed Balls even weighing in that pineapple on pizza was appalling.

While the row has so far remained verbal, the restaurant wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that "we are looking forward to an influx of pro and anti pineapple campaigners voting with their feet and wallets! Little scuffle in the street. All televised".

Last year, the introduction of pineapple pizza in Italy last year triggered a furious debate among the citizens. It was called "Margherita con Ananas" in the country, thanks largely to local pizza chef Gino Sorbillo who has introduced the "annas" topping to his menu at dei Tribunali, the well-known pizza street in Italy, a CNN report said.

"Sadly people follow the crowd and condition themselves according to other people’s views, or what they hear".

"I've noticed in the last few years that lots of people were condemning ingredients or ways of preparing food purely because in the past most people didn’t know them, so I wanted to put these disputed ingredients – that are treated like they’re poison – onto a Neapolitan pizza, making them tasty," Sorbillo said.

(With inputs from AFP)