Get a Pizza Named After You at Roberta's

New York Pizzeria has always been my goal to visit. In New York of course.

The unfortunate part of my life was that I got to DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) region in the east coast, but never made it up north to partake on some of the legendary status the pizza in new york are known for.

Something to tell me that things are about to be changed in Culver City.

There was an interesting shopping & dining enclave called The Platform that opened up not too long ago. This unique plaza that sits in front of a cul-de-sac on both of this dead end street, not far from Downtown Culver City where all of the happening places are at. When the Platform was opened up, there were quite a few upscale eateries and a renown boba joint ushered in this opening.

Bee's Sting

Then a series of events leads to a closing of one of their fine establishment which sits empty for a short time being. In a twist that no one see coming, a popular Brooklyn pizzeria decided to do a few pop-ups (limited dining engagements) in that empty space on a prime location of that said plaza.

That restaurant is the ever popular Roberta's.

Roberta's is often associated by many east coast transplant for their take on the classic pizzas on the Wood Fire oven. There are plenty of pastas and wood fired vegetables that are assembled in the menu, but it's their classic stables of pizza that they are known for.

Crispy Glover

After a few test runs that often garnered adulation, many still think it was short lived as there was no news of a tenant filling in for that desired spot that is in the middle of the action. So it came as a surprised that Roberta's decided to make a permanent stay after the pop-ups for that location.

The spot has a beautiful patio set that looking in a newly modeled the courtyard by the middle of that plaza. In a stunning development, they retain some of the chic decor, where their Brooklyn counterpart was more rustic and homely feel. In a cute plot, they have a make shift take out counter by the side of the building (it has since been discarded).

The most well known pizza was their honey infused with the soppressata toppings that is aptly called the Bee Sting. There was also many pop culture referenced named pizza that seemed to rotate pies  named after some of the most pseudo celebrities you'll heard of. I even got one named after Marty McFly's dad.

For me, I finally get to experience a dough that everyone has been talking about. Some people do not like the char, but this black mark gives character to a pizza. It does make a different coming from wood fire pizza oven versus the deck oven you often see in your local pizzeria. Also for variety of different meat and cheese you get to try on their boards. This would give you an idea on the pizza would be like with those ingredients commingled with the dough.

For me, I definitely would get the Bee's Sting of mozzarella, chili, basil, tomato, and the aforementioned Honey and Soppressata. That pizza still resonates with me as of this day. I think they rotate the ingredients and come up with clever name for the week for the pop cultural referenced pizzas. If there's one that interests me, I might go for it if they have Red Hot Chili Pepper-oni.

I know I know... knowing my luck, they'll jack that from me.

Roberta's
8810 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232

Top 10 Pizza Served In Los Angeles

How come I don't do ten places to eat pizza?

Was there not enough places? I think it's super hard for some reasons because of lack of creativity and the ingredients of the dough are always being short changed. Dough is an essence of what makes pizza taste good. The flavors of the pizza and sauce/cheese base is quintessential with the toppings being the extra icing on top of that pie.

Luckily for me since I was back writing a few places for this blog, Italian cuisine have seen a renaissance in this vast diverse region of the country. In the past, people don't associated LA or Orange County as Italian epic center, but a lot has changed as more and more transplant from other cities bring their roots here and other chefs trained in oversea have come back to share their love of a good pizza.

Ten places in Los Angeles for many people to visit for the some of the best pizza you'll experienced.

Gjelina
1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291

Many people have shortchanged the idea in that a burnt on the crust is always bad. I think it add flavors to the component and a great look for outer edge. Gjelina is a uber chic hotspot in the burgeoning street of Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice. The restaurant was ridiculous packed for weekend lunch and every day dinner. If there's a specialty, it gotta be their toasts for brunch.

Don't sleep on their pizza though. They have some of the best pizza in town.

Bestia
2121 E 7th Place
Los Angeles, CA 90021

Buratta Pizza - (san marzano tomatoes, castelvetrano olives, oregano, fermented chilies)

Did we really have to go into on why this place is on the list? Very often or not, this place was considered to be the Crème de la Crème of all sit down restaurants in all of southland. Forget about getting a reservation for the weekend as you might need to book a month in advance. There are many reasons for the get up such as the pasta dish of Pici al Sugo di Agnello or the famed roasted bone marrow. The steaks are fine too. Bestia has everything Italian you want.

It's their burrata pizza selections that will get you to the door or out the door. Their pizza is a must and probably will make you order one to take out as well. Go with the san marzano tomatoes, castelvetrano olives, oregano, fermented chilies variety of burrata pizza. You won't regret that.


Jon and Vinny's
412 N Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Roman Gladiator (Bacon, Italian Sausage, Pepperoni, and Ham)

They made a quick epic return from the recent post. It goes without saying they have the best selection of unique toppings and hard to find ingredients on their pizza. Try out the Roman Gladiator pizza above and you won't regret it. For anyone who needs a refresher, please check out the review here to get an idea on what I would order at Jon and Vinny's.


Love and Salt
317 Manhattan Beach Blvd
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

Duck Egg Pie

When I decided to restart my little blog again, one of the first destination I hit up based on recommendations of famous restaurant critics in town, Love and Salt was the choice. Give you a quick rundown in that it's on a revitalized main street of Manhattan Beach where busy high class residents are mostly congregated at.

You probably can sneaked them some generic Italian cuisine and called it fine dining. This place however stood out from the rest and it's a godsend. They have many classic dishes to try, but for pizza, you gotta go with Duck Egg Pie. Check my review of Love And Salt for details of other dishes to try.


Cosa Buona
2100 Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

White Clam Pizza

One of these days, I will get around to do a decent post on this place. It blows my mind that this place doesn't get the talk for pizza, but for the pastas. To give you a weird rundown, Cosa Buona replaces another pizza joint. Weirdly in that a lot of people do walked up to this place and thinking it's a casual take out like the former place. Alas, they found out it's a much elevated Italian place complete with other pasta dishes that are to die for.

My first option was the pineapple pizza everyone was raving about on Yelp, but wound up having a much better bite with a white clam. Oh, noticed the black marks on the crust end? Yes, you know it's pretty when that happens. My only advice for the next pizza place.. take over a Thai restaurant. Will have no confusion unless it's serving Thai curry pizza.


Tony's Little Italy Pizza
1808 N Placentia Ave B
Placentia, CA 92870

Supreme Deep Dish

There are some options for great deep dish in this region finally. Lucky for some of us, there are transplants from the midwest that are showing us these stuffed pizza in a pan that will galvanized us into craziness with the topping between the crust and cover in cheese like an average pie. Having this creation bestowed upon us, I must admit it will set everyone back in the calories count for the next week for just one meal.

My favorite among all of the recent explosion of deep dish pizza comes in the courtesy of Tony's Little Italy Pizza, located in the far east region of the map. Closer to Riverside than to LA. Worth the trek as their crust was flaky like pie crust with deep sauce and cheese covering up the meaty components like a shepherd's pie. The best Chicago's style deep dish from a true Chicagoan.

Superfine Pizza
1101 San Pedro St Unit F
Los Angeles, CA 90015

Salami Honey Pizza

Recent discoveries let me to this take out window that serves a pizza that LA should call one of its own. It seemed our beloved city has taking a liking to spicy honey flavored pizza. There's one other place I know that would served such a type pizza, but you have to go to Orange county for this venture. Stick with Superfine Pizza .

Two things you want to know. One, to get you excited, this place has the same masterminds behind the hit restaurants Rossoblu and Sotto. So you know they take Italian cuisine very seriously. Especially on how they treat the dough. Second, digital payment only. Meaning you are going to need the plastics. No paper currency accepted. It's worth getting that spicy honey pizza!

Olio Wood Fired Pizzeria
(Inside of Grand Central Market)
317 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90013

If there is a fast pizza place I would hit up, it would be Olio Wood Fire Pizzeria in the Grand Central market. The basic component of the pizza involves the ready to use dough and cheese ready to fire with the proteins you wanted to add. My favorite to order are the Wild Mushroom & Speck and the Margherita Plus. Those two are easy to order and way faster than your normal delivery places.

Pro tip: Get the Agua Frescas next door to this food stall.


Chicago's Pizza With A Twist
11767 South Street
Artesia, CA 90701

Chicken Tikka Pizza

I don't think I have stopped raving about this chain. Maybe I'll stop when the quality goes down, but it's worth noting in that this popular late night hangout for the local teens has bamboozled many in thinking it's a Chicago style deep dish place (read above for Tony's). I have gone in depth about what's Chicago about this pizza joint. I'm still love the twist in Chicago's Pizza With A Twist.

The big twist was that it has Indian ingredients meshed with the traditional pizza. My verdict still stands as we speak. Check out the Chicken Tikka pizza.

Milana's New York Pizzeria
165 E. 4th Street
Long Beach, CA 90802

One of the hardest to find pizza in town for me was a grandma style pizza. It's Brooklyn style Sicilian that was promoted in downtown Long Beach that got me there. For this grandma style pizza, it's pretty much similar to deep dish without the stuffing. In this variation, as the name suggested it's Sicilian, meaning it's rectangular shaped. With the tomato sauce being promoted, it's lavished covered the cheese (not the other way around you're so accustomed to).

You can only get this unique pizza here at Milana's New York Pizzeria.

Walking Out More Than Expected From Jon And Vinny's

Has anyone ever been to Animal? This is the name of the restaurant that started my journey to the culinary world where I have discovered the finer things in life. I owed a lot to my early experience to the talented duo Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, who are the masterminds for introducing me to Animal.

Weirdly enough, it took me much longer time to visit their namesake restaurant, Jon and Vinny's. Located in the burgeoning hip Fairfax district, Jon and Vinny's restaurant was a dedication to all dishes Italian. This is where I have a hard time contemplating in wanting to make a visit.

Italian restaurants and Fairfax is hard for me to make visits because of parking situation around that part of the town and a few suggested places I can go for Italian nearer to my area (south LA). However, by luck of the stars, I was in the area a few doors down at Sweet Chick and a few cancellation that afforded to me attend.

I was a huge fan of the real life chefs of Jon and Vinny. I was mesmerized by their presentations and hard charge in utilizing everything on their ingredients at the Animal restaurant, which was skewered towards American fare with a touch of few European influence. With this place, they left no doubt in that this will be purely Italian.

First, when you walked in, the huge masonry stone oven is right in front of the bar counter at the left hand side of the entrance. You can tell they will be taking their pizza task very seriously. Oh yeah, even getting a seat at the counter or trying to score a table without reservation will be mission imPASTAble. Yes, I am working on my puns in on this article.

There are 5 restaurants that the duo have involved themselves in that are immensely popular and this place was no exceptions. I chanced on the fact that someone will not showed up. I gladly took a counter seat after a 45 minutes wait when someone didn't showed up for reservation. That person missed out big time in my book.

What did I wanted when I entered Jon and Vinny's? Get this... meatballs!

I'm sure they will tell me that missing out on their famous pizza will be case, but I just wanted to try their handmade marinara braised beef with the heirloom tomato sauce I had been hearing about. At that weird point of my life, I wasn't going to take things for granted. My gosh, these things were just incredible! With the ricotta sprinkled all over and being complimented with the grilled bread, this was the thing I realized I can't lived without.

Supposedly I read somewhere the sauce was made with Bianco DiNapoli peeled tomato, which was from the famed pizza maker Chris Bianco. I would say bravo on this choice.

After dabbling with a few olives and cheese on the menu, I was already satisfied. Within an aroma, something made me with that whiff. I sit so close to stone oven and I can see and smell every pizza being assemble and shove to the take-out boxes. Yes, apparently take outs are the big operation at this tight limited-capacity, popular restaurant. For all those that didn't reserved and can't wait for the table, take outs are the best option.

Roman Gladiator (Bacon, Italian Sausage, Pepperoni, and Ham)

Yours truly here decided that giving in to temptations are the benefits to let the readers know whether or not the pizza also lived up to enormous expectation. Without a shadow of doubt, I can't believe that I believed in no carbs diet. This is worth the cheat meal I have been saving up for. Everyone will know that I believe the crust is the important element on any pizza. The charred on the edge of the round crust was phenomenal. For some, it looked burned, but I say the char add more flavor to crust.

The Roman Gladiator pizza with every conceivable meat toppings (Bacon, Italian sausage, pepperoni and ham) was a meatlover's dream. With the crust, this pizza from Jon and Vinny's is now one of my favorite pizza in town along with Spicy Salami Honey pizza.

The return trip to Jon and Vinny's will have to include some pasta dishes next time. If there is anything you must go for Jon and Vinny's is their meatballs. Seriously, that's something cannot be missed.

As in for the guy who decided not to show up for his reservation... a huge thanks from me!

Jon and Vinny
412 N Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Brooklyn Style Sicilian Grandma Pie Found at Milana's New York Pizzeria

There is one thing in LA I have a hard time finding.

Apparently, Sicilian pizza in square form is almost non-existent, but what's harder to find? Grandma style Pie pizza. Nooooo, not talking about Little Caesar's pizza or some thick deep dish, but a square form that is considered Grandma's style, which is more simplistic, but yet not too many places would carried it.

Think of a pan style pizza with thin layer of cheese on top of bucko layers of tomato sauce, where the crust would become crispy around the edge. Instead of thick stuff style pizza, it's more of thin layer with crust being more flat layered with the huge amount of sauce over the cheese.

I think a lot of people are familiar with Pizza Hut's pan style pizza where the pizza pie would be cook in a pan and the outer crust would be baked to crispy style oily perfection. Think of Grandma's style pizza of that nature, but with olive oil on the crust with the pie being tomato-ized with the sauce.

Milana's New York Pizzeria was the one restaurant I can find in Los Angeles area that served that kind of pizza... Brooklyn style Sicilian. Being frank, most people associated with thin crust with new york pizza. You can pretty much guessed the conflict of people surmising that Sicilian pizza is pan style thick, but also getting New York pizza crust to be thin.

Can it be a combustible mix? Believe it or not, This type of pizza is a rarity in this part, but very cherished.

Let's break it down a bit, Sicilian pizza's dough will be riser and thick. Whereas in the Brooklyn style Sicilian, it's a grandma pie where this is coated with olive oil in the pan to make the dough soft and chewy. You can see the dough for yourself on how thick it was. For some, it looks thin slice, but was very deliberately crispy and not a riser as some expected like a midwest style Sicilian pizza (square or rectangle) based on the preference.

Based on Bon Apetite, apparently Grandma Pie such as this thin style Sicilian is getting more popular in the east coast, so that's why I was hankering to find any place that would carried it. Hard to find such an unique style pizza out here on the west coast unless a transplant can bring it over. As you can guess, Milina from New York is bringing it over.

Oh, what else is impressive in this non-descript shop along 4th street in downtown Long Beach that would make me come back for more? It's their bread sticks! No kidding on that one. With their marina sauce, this was divine. Love the soft chewy texture over the hard thick ones you get from the other bakeshop that offered these. You will love it baked out of the oven where the breakdown on these sticks are just like breaking open a muffin.

Great to have something like this exist. You can have always have a grandma to bake a pizza like this for you, but it's always great to find a place that does make this type of pizza.

Milana's New York Pizzeria
165 E. 4th Street
Long Beach, CA 90802

There's LA Pizza Finally at Superfine Pizza

Is there such a thing as "Los Angeles Pizza"? If other cities gets a distinction, why poor ol' Angelenos down here never gets a special pizza?

Many pizza lovers associated thin fold-able pizza as New York style. If you ever seen pizza stuffed with toppings and cheese in a pan like a shepherd's pie, we automatically assumed it as Chicago's style or Deep Dish, which again associated with that city. Fear not, we might actually have something for the City of Angels.

The menu for their six pizzas are on the right hand side in large display

Superfine Pizza, from the fantastic team that gave us Angelenos some of the finer restaurants in Los Angeles such as Rossoblu and Sotto. Those two places already serves some of the finest Italian cuisine, which dazzles many fine dining crowd here. You can bet pizza will be one as well.

If that's the case, why opened up another one in LA? More importantly, foot steps from their critically acclaimed winner Rossoblu? Oh, did I also mentioned in that Superfine is more of a take out window, than a sitdown restaurant?

Press "Play" to check out the courtyard in front of the place

Several observations off that bat on my few visits. I noticed in that you can ordered a few ways. Either an entire 18 inch pie cut into slices or by the slice which average out to $4 each. If you are in big party or have major hunger, the 18 inch would be better deal. If you want to try one of each or just want to take photos of the entire collection, then be my guest on ordering per slice.

Secondly, it's credit card only. Not saying most dining establishments are looking towards electronic payments over cold, hard cash. Based on what I read, it basically protect the place from carrying cash as they do opened towards late of the night. Not surprisingly, they do get the fallouts from people who just left the bars and cocktail lounges nearby. Pizza would be great to soak things up.

Salami Honey Pizza

To my initial thought, this place has something to offer that may give a distinction of a LA pizza. Initially Superfine named a combination of buckwheat honey and spicy salami as Spicy Honey Pizza. This pizza's two star attraction ingredients on top of provolone and Grana Padano cheese makes it an absurdly mouthwatering pizza. You have to imagine on how the crust is being appreciated. If you love a Neapolitan style dough, you definitely will love this.

I have heard they might integrated other style pizzas. My best hunch was that a thinner crust will be easier and faster to churn out if the idea of fold-able pizza is in play for customer who are looking for something simple. So far, the menu are kept in manageable numbers of items with some sides in their repertoire. There are plenty of sodas selections in stock as well for that quench of thirst.

Several thoughts on opening up a take out joint near there flagship would be the fact that the staff can be interchangeable.. for now. More importantly, I can see them opening something similar to this stand at other venues/food hall. This would be an easy cinch when it catches on.

Here's one down of this Salami Honey pizza for LA. Spicy Honey is the bet for LA pizza. It may not be a square or fold-able, but it is spicy and sweet that we can't forget.

Superfine Pizza

1101 San Pedro Street Unit F
Los Angeles, CA 90015

Imagine Your Favorite of Chicago's Pizza With A Twist

Here's a twist, how often do you imagine your favorite food... let's say pizza ..meshed with other ethnic cuisine?

Have you tried Mexican food with Korean.. done it. Maybe French and Japanese... all the time. Maybe Spanish influenced food with Chinese.. more often than you think. Psst, some of us called it Filipino.

Well, let's go with one of ever popular Italian dish of Pizza and commingled it with Indian type ingredients. What do you get? Spectacular marriage I supposed.

Chicken Tikka Masala Pizza

There is a fast food chain that exploded in the central Cali and recently expanded near the border of Los Angeles and Orange county called Chicago's Pizza With A Twist. Pretty big guess that they opened one up in Little Bombay (city of Artesia) that is the epicenter of all shopping and dining for Indian patriots.

The big gain about this little cozy place was that it is in a booming part of the town where a Artesia is meeting a revival of newer hip places towards the south west side of the town towards the mall. At the same time maintaining the traditional old guards of the Little Bombay elements of Indian shops and restaurants.

The flashback memory of me coming to this location of Chicago's Pizza With A Twist was that this dining spot used to be Scotty's Burger, a popular hangout spot for old homey style burgers. This diner looks to be kept immaculately the same as how I had remembered it. Amazingly, after a few coats of paints and maybe a new trim, it still reminds me of Scotty's.

The few things that draw me to this place that I must try was the "Chicken Tikka Masala" Pizza. Few things. First, there are quite a bit of menu items to go through. It seemed they offered the traditional Italian items that you normally deduced in a pizza joint. Like pastas, wings, and run of the mill pizza. If you looked at the menu, it seemed simple enough.

Then you encountered the Vegan portion. The Paneer (curry and tikka masala) and veggie pizzas listed right below them. Then came the star attraction that got me here was their chicken pizzas. Those are the ones that stood out for me with different flavored chicken and Indian influenced ingredients/toppings.

There were buttered or Garlic Chicken to be had, but I really had my eyes set on Chicken Tikka Masala, where I love the flavor of chicken tikka. Plus with cheese, garlic, cilantro, and bell pepper, you would have love the item of fresh supreme pizza.

Tandoori Spiced Chicken Wings

The verdict: Phenomenal! It's probably one of those you didn't think it's possible, but a twist you must try just to get gist of what and how they are incorporated each cuisine and meshed into a collectible sense. I also love the tandoori spiced chicken wings as well. The wings was probably the one that convinced me to try the pizza as I had huge craving for these much every Football Sunday.

This is the question I will eventually encountered... how are they Chicago if it is not a deep dish? Obviously this is not a stuffed crust with the ingredients are inside of pie like rounders. As you can tell on the top photo where the edge of the pizza is high to give more amount of cheese and tomato sauce. That's the definition of Chicago style pizza. Of course you are amour with the stuff pizza (often associated with deep dish), that's just one type of Chicago style, but not definitive.

Don't get me started on Detroit Style; apparently that is another contender for deep dish and have nothing to do stuffed either.

Chicago Style Pizza. Indian ingredients. Let me be the one to tell you it does work.... with a twist.

Chicago's Pizza With A Twist

11767 South Street

Artesia, CA 90701 

Greatest Backup Find Ever at Baldoria

 

A weird turn of events..

I was hoping to visit Seoul Sausage Company and quickly found out they were closed (happens quite often in DTLA) where shelves life can are worse than a stale bread in your local supermarket. The expiration date to make it or break it tends to be 6 months after it opens, but Seoul Sausage got a few years. I guessed I was surprised it didn't make it.

For a back up plan on the fly, I got to say that Baldoria was a good fall back if I say so myself. It's conveniently located on the other side of the block where we took a short cut along the apartment drive way path to get there.

Caribbean Spiced Duck Wings - Confit Duck Wings, Mango Salsa & Chives

Baldoria was set up to be more of a social hangout that catered to last minute meet togethers or famously posted on their website as a place for people with no plans. Hilariously, it blend well for people not looking for reservations and completely have no expectations on what to get.

Realistically, it's not going to win out the dining crowd that is expecting big fancy dishes. The street near Baldoria is full of these types of restaurants within walking distances, but maybe the promotion strategy of nonchalant might works out.

In their epic strategy of "don't expect anything" faux pas to happen, they got their stuff together. I was massively impressed on the low key gastropub feel of a decor with a no thrill kind of atmosphere to be so lively. Want to know what's more impressive about this? Their food was actually on point.

Lil Tokyo Steak — Miso marinated flat iron, yuzu kosho, shiitake, shishito, cherry tomato red onion

In a weird classic way, they came up with a pizza that meshed with steak. If you think about it, who actually cooked steak well done or trying to baked it too long with the pizza? You just don't, but their steak was nicely tendered grill to be add on to the every slice of this pie. It's a win for this concoction.

Jack Mortimer - 10 Year WhistlePig Rye, Laird's Apple Jack Brandy, Maple Syrup, Apple

Their drinks may not be the most innovative like some of their mixology that is out there, but suffice to say they are trying to be over the top and just serve the most neat and poignant drink that can be there. No need to outdo a classic drink if you can just serve when people are thirsty for one.

I can honestly say this was the most spectacular luck of turn of events that we really like. It can be a lot worse like going to an original place you wanted to go and turned out bad.

Which does reminds me.... I actually didn't like Seoul Sausage the first time. Why did we decided to go there in the first place?

Baldoria
243 S San Pedro St
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Fast & Fiery Furious at Olio Wood Fired Pizzeria

Funniest part is that I rarely do food court dining.

I wish I can tell you why or why not in wanting to something of this sort. I feel like in a bad sense of deja vu of having a cafeteria food back in my younger days in school. Remembered all those stale pizzas, sloopy joes, or tater tots that barely passed as edible gourmet chow? Yup, the food they feed to youth those days are worse than rations you give to the military. At least the military can use the excuse of there is no working stove in the front line. 

Want to know something so funny? Apparently now, some of the new or old exciting eatery can be found in food hall. Food court dining are making a huge splash.

One of my favorite pizza place can be found in a downtown food stall / Farmer's market called Grand Central Market. It is sort of an exciting time for this venue of a wide open space where they now houses some of the quick eateries of different cuisines, desserts, coffee shops, and breweries.

In the past, all you get a run me down Chinese food or Mexican food as they were catered to the surrounding employees that worked in the office buildings of downtown. Hustle and Bustle as how they do when they need bites on the run as most can walk in and out of the joint within their hour lunch break.

What set this food court apart was having this gorgeous of a square space that houses one of the best personal pizza you'll get. Olio's, a casual and somewhat of a fast, made to order pizza operation. This is the 2nd installment after the popular Santa Barbara eatery. Even though this is not intended to be a food stall, it worked out to be a popular dining destination for many diners of all ages.

Margarherita Plus

Personal Pizza can be had in one size with four slices cut immaculately into equal triangle shape size. Because of the fast pace action here, customization are only available on what the menu will be offered. This will not be like your local made to order pizza operations (ie Pizza Rev, Mod Pizza, Blaze Pizza, etc etc).

Wild Mushroom & Speck

What they do offered are some of the best wood fired pizza you'll get. Especially in a closed indoor proximity such as Grand Central Market. 

This is the type of food court dining most people crave for these days. It's weird to see a farmer's market that predominately sells farmed produces got changed into a fall hall in matter of years. Baked goods are still sold in some space and a few candies shops are left.

Spicy Sausage & Peppers

I guess if this fast paced, made to order pizzeria can be part of the new trend in dining, then I'm all for it. In a way, craving for these terrific pizzas are worth the long search of parking in this surrounding area. That's the only drawback of going to Grand Central Market these days in burgeoning downtown.

One more notch on my food stand category!

Olio Wood Fired Pizzeria
(Inside of Grand Central Market)
317 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Pizza Worth Traveling For @ Vito's Pizza (West Hollywood)

Going all the way up to WeHo for a pizza sounds very ridiculous. In fact, I would avoid anything west of La Brea. This place was what I heard as the best pizza in all of LA. In essence, I gotta go check it out why this pizza joint is that popular.

The pizzeria is located in the plaza between Santa Monica Blvd and Melrose Place (yeah, I checked it out…there’s no love triangle or any drama in that street. So bland!). On that particular stretch of La Cienaga Blvd is full of galleries, high end antique shops, and other very posh shopping spots that seemed to cater to deep pocket players. In many ways, you would never suspected this pizza place to be located along with them.

The glass case display of pizza inside

Going inside of Vito’s, you will encounter a massive impressive display of pizza samples where you probably wagged your tongue by the look of those pizzas.

The pizza size comes only in one size which is their 18 inch pie that will be cut into 8 slices. Forget about asking for personal size or medium size as they do not exist.

Our group ordered two of their most requested pizzas. It seemed to be that the Terra Ferma (the works!) and Pizza Margherita are the two most commonly requested orders.

The Vito's Terra Ferm

The Vito’s Terra Ferm which is deluxe pizza with everything on it. It is loaded with sausage, pepperoni, olives, peppers, onions, and mushrooms. The look of the pizza can be very busy as it is over stocked with toppings. For me, I love it just because of the fact I like to create a pizza sandwich by folding in half so it doesn’t bothered me if it’s too much topping.

The Pizza Margherita

The Pizza Margherita is one of the best pizza I had taste in a long while. It’s like a simple cheese pizza with tomato, basil, and mozzarella cheese. It is very fresh and simple as they claimed on their menu.

The place is not very big with about half dozen tables on the inside with a few more tables on the outside. We have one of the coolest server that ever served us. Tony the manager was entertaining and delightful for the whole afternoon. Some others had mentioned to me about the loud east coast bantering will exist in this place. Especially with Paulie manning the kitchen where he also would obliged with a couple of his own shoutouts. They are both very accommodating and a friendly face to welcome their guests.

Needless to say, the pizza exceeded my expectations. Granted, i don’t have too many New York style pizzas nor have I ever been to New York, but I can tell you that it’s probably one of the better pizza I had ever tasted. I was impressed on the fact that the crust was not greasy and the cheese & toppings were very fresh and made to our likings.

Vito’s Pizza in fact would take on all detractors to try to prove they can make New York style pizza to their liking. I have a feeling they will not lose their many of those challenges.

The pizza is very quite good. In a bad way, I had a craving of it this morning when I woke up and wanted to go back for their Terra Ferma and Margherita. Luckily for me, I did ordered the Vito’s sandwich loaded with sausages, peppers, onions, and their special marinara sauce. That hit the spot.

Besides the takeout, they do deliver within the confines of WeHo. Lucky them, but unlucky for me.

What stopped me from going there again was the drive to WeHo. If they ever had a closer location, I would definitely be the first to get there. It’s better than settling for California Pizza Kitchen, which I hope their pizza DOES NOT represent California!

Now I can see why the fuss for this pizza place. It is very good, I’ll give them that. I just hope they can maintain their quality before they get too big. Believe it or not, they still haven’t advertised this place yet and people still coming over in a busy lunch hour. That’s how popular in recent months they had become.

Vito's Pizza
846 N. La Cienega Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 652-6859

Grade: