The stink on this pizza can’t be topped.
D.T. Restaurant in Queens, is serving up $14 piping-hot pies packed with the smelliest fruit on the planet – durian.
Inside the cavernous New York Food Court in Flushing, where the air was filled with the metallic clanging of cooks at stalls hawking Taiwanese-style steak and noodles, hungry diners were divided on the pungent pizza’s appeal.
“It is going to be stinky,” plumber David Wang, 55, warned The Post.
The spiky tropical fruit — which can grow to the size of a football — is considered a delicacy by many across Southeast Asia, owing to its custard-like texture and flavor recalling notes of caramel and vanilla, along with a slight bitterness.
At the same time, durian has garnered international notoriety for its wretched odor — a stench so overwhelming it has been mistaken for a gas leak and gotten the fruit banned from public transit and in hotels in Vietnam and Singapore.
“I don’t want to smell it too strongly — a little bit can give me a headache,” Yuam Bing Liu, 36, said of durian, before chomping down on one of D.T.’s pies during her lunch break.
The pie, she raved, had a light sweetness from the fruit and a “very rich” mouthfeel, thanks to broiled mozzarella cheese covering it.
The sewer-esque aroma, meanwhile, was far tamer compared to the raw fruit, but nonetheless very present to those at the table.
“It turned out very delicious,” she said, before adding, “I think it’s better not to smell it too much.”
Many diners pointed out that durian pizza for years has graced restaurant menus in China and Thailand. The combination, they added, isn’t that different from another sweet — and divisive — pizza topping.
“People put pineapple on pizza, this is the same thing,” said Elmhurst wholesaler Summer Yu, 30.
D.T. Restaurant isn’t the only Big Apple eatery experimenting with the infamous fruit, which can cost over $5 a pound. Jeffrey Wang, owner of the East Village coffee shop Not As Bitter, previously told The Post their best-selling menu item is a durian latte, mixed with the fruit’s pulp.
An employee at D.T. Restaurant declined to discuss the menu item, which was first reported by Eater NY. DT Restaurant’s owners could be reached for comment.
Sarah Huang, 24, a data policy analyst from Stamford, CT, had only one gripe about D.T. Restaurant’s pizza: more durian, please.
“It’s too much cheese,” she said.
Additional reporting by J.C. Rice.
