ottawa foodies

The Sophia pizza ($19) — garlic oil, mozzarella, pancetta ham, mushrooms, red onion and asiago cheese — was flavourful and nicely cooked. This time we were given chili oil, which really helped the drier bits of crust. Good experience overall!

From the main dining area you can see a thick row of glowing embers in the pizza oven, making it difficult to consider ordering anything other than pizza. The prices of pies are mostly around $20, with the scantily topped Margherita Pizza ($16) being the low end outlier. These may be the most expensive restaurant pizze in Ottawa.

Mine was a solidly made pie with a well charred bottom. The sauce was somewhat more acidic than I like and the crust was a little too dry, especially at the rim. Some chili oil for dipping would have helped it greatly!

I'd have a hard time ranking the top ten Italian style pizza joints in town but I'm pretty sure this would be on that list.

Art-is-in pizza oven was down so we found ourselves at Roberto to no disappointment. The pie here is, for me, still the best in this style in Ottawa. The crust is the real winner; nice char, light and airy enough for me to eat a whole pie without regret. Great toppings as well. Pictured is the Enzo, aka pepperoni pizza. Still looking forward to trying art-is-in pies.

Finally got around to trying this place out Friday evening. Limited selection of beers with three on tap, two local and one imported. Small place with an open front to the street for the claustrophobic among us. I got the Enzo my wife had the rapini, sausage, pecorino special and added sauce to it. Crust had the right amount of char with plentiful tasty toppings on both pies. Traditional Italian pizza done in a wood fired oven at a reasonable price. Certainly will be back when the craving arises.

I stopped by for my first visit and tucked into an Enzo. Sopprasetta, sausage, and pepperoni on a great wood fired crust with a delicious sauce. My only quibble, and it might entirely be down to my gluttony, was that I could have used a little more of the toppings. Great za.

Had the Enzo which was generously topped with sausage and pepperoni. Excellent thin crust that had a salt content I really appreciate. All this with saucy sauce and salty cheese make this a great pie in a nice little joint. Indeed, it is a good time to be alive.

Fair point fairly made, but the menu reads....

"MARGHERITA / TOMATO SAUCE / MOZZARELLA / BASIL 12.75"

...and to my eye that marg' is the equivalent of ordering a pepperoni pizza and receiving exactly one slice of pepperoni located in the centre, as opposed to the reasonable amount on the 'za in the background.

It may be the bestest cheese and sauce pizza in the city... i'm going there next week so i hope it is..., but i'm glad i saw your review because had i gone there and ordered a marg', it would have gone back. I mean' c'mon... two of those slices...50% of the pie... don't even have basil on them.

OSoloMeal, I will happily send back a product if there is a non-obvious problem with it, but in this case both the cook and the server could easily see how much basil was on the pizza. If I had complained and they put more basil on there, I'd be a happier diner, but my comment and photo here might be misleading to future customers. If there were some hidden problem, like if the crust were black and burnt underneath, I'd complain for sure. Actually, they served me Big Rig Gold (in a Kichesippi glass) when I asked for Kichesippi 1855, and when I mentioned that it didn't seem right they discovered that their taps were swapped. They happily replaced my beer with the correct one, so nothing needed to be said. I'm just sharing that example so you know what I complain about and what I don't. :-)

In summary, I complain about certain defects but never about anything I could chalk up to personal preference.

My mind is kind of blown by the two perfunctory basil leaves on that margherita. I would have sent that back.

This is a smaller, more casual, pizza-centric subset of a full Fratelli restaurant. The pizza menu seems identical to what you would find at Fratelli but with slightly lower prices in keeping with the more rustic ambience.

I had my first choice in traditional pizza: The Margherita ($12.75). This was delicious and is certainly on par with the other 5 or 6 places in town that now make authentic Italian pizza. It's a good time to be alive.

You'll note the presence of just two small leaves of basil on this pizza. The one I had at Fratelli for $1.25 more had eight pieces of basil with at least one per quarter. Worth the extra money if you ask me! Caveat emptor... if you find yourself at Roberto Pizza craving a Margherita, you may want to request that they not skimp on the basil. I'm quite convinced that Queen Margherita herself would have shared my disappointment at the scant herbal content of this otherwise magnificent pie.

I told you before. I'm not buying you a smart phone.

The new wood fired pizza oven is now up and running. It is outdoors, and I'm not sure if they are doing it 7 days a week (check their facebook page).

The pizza is great! Margherita pizza (son's order) was tasty, with lots of basil! (no skimping on that here). I had a a pizza with cheese, prosciutto, olives, arugula, and Parmesan shavings. Also very good. I noticed a bit a difference in the crusts - mine was what I would consider perfect. My son's order was only slightly thicker.

Prices were in line with other places I think - 13 for the Marghertita, 16 for mine. Top of the line price was 18. Pizza was the size of a large dinner plate, cut into 4s.

I would say the pizza on its own may leave you a bit hungry if it is your only food order, however the great beer easily managed to fill the void.

Someday when I have a smart phone, you may see pictures.

Here is a picture of the Verona Truffle. Mix of mushrooms, pancetta and truffle oil on thin crust. Very good mix of flavours. The crust was a little harder than the regular crust this time. I think i prefer the regular crust because it's the right moisture and one can savour the herbs they put in it. Make no mistake, we devoured this whole thing in no time.

I am perplexed by the negative comments but many seem to be dated. My husband and I have been ordering from Cheesy Luigi every two-three weeks for the last year since we moved in the neighbourhood and we love all their zas! The other better pizza in the region is Tennessee Willems, in terms of gourmet pizzas. This is not comparing with Colonnade or Louis', the more traditional pizzas.

Simply wow and I am not a big pizza fan usually. Homemade crust and fresh ingredients. I tried the "BBQ Chicken" with BBQ chicken, roasted bacon and onions. Totally recommend.

A friend also recently had their current special which comes with meatballs and he also recommends it.

It's located right in the middle of Old Chelsea, across from the Chelsea Pub. Worth the detour!

The pizza here is very good! Is it better than Grand Pizzeria and Bar? Given my experience there two years ago I'm not sure I can say (time for a revisit!). It is definitely better than what we had at the famous Lombardi's restaurant in NYC a couple weeks ago.

My wife ordered my usual choice, the Margherita. This was spectacular, with a generous distribution of fresh basil leaves (unlike Grand Pizzeria and Bar) and tasty cheese. The crust here is great when done right -- thin, chewy, slightly charred. Our only minor complaints were with the sauce; slightly too much of it and it was somewhat undersalted for a meatless pizza. Nevertheless, we highly recommend the Margherita Pizza!

I opted for The Elmdale after reading opinions here. It was delayed because they messed something up in the kitchen and had to make another one for me. When it arrived it was a little too charred. My wife would have sent it back but I don't mind a couple bitter carcinogenic mouthfuls. This pizza was over the top tasty and very salty (in contrast to the Margherita). There was just too much of the acidic sauce, presumably to counter the rich salty salami. This is kind of a wood oven pizza meets Ottawa pizza joint meat-lover's pizza. Some people will love that, but I'm a bit of a purist. Next time I will definitely get the Margherita for myself!

Greek ... Kalamata olive, roast red pepper, pesto and feta cheese.

Yummy. And not too salty.

Pear, prosciutto, gorgonzola and walnut.

The walnuts pull it all together.

In the background ... duck confit. OK but the pear and prosciutto is much more interesting.

Here is a blurry camera phone picture (sorry) of the delicious Sopressata pizza. I have nothing but good things to say about this pizza.

The sauce was rich, sweet, and a little spicy. The sweet red onions pulled out the sweet in the sauce, and the spicy salami pulled out the spice in the sauce.

I personally don't care for heaps of cheese on my pizza - I like that the sauce is exposed to the heat of the oven and touches the toppings, so the way the pizza is topped is right up my alley.

The crust wasn't too crispy, but not too soft. All in all it was excellent and would easily recommend it.

I had an excellent Pizza here the other night. It had grilled portobello mushrooms and chicken and sun dried tomatoes. The cheese was goat and mozarella. All the flavours balanced nicely and the wood oven baked crust was just right. Some places mistakenly think that a dry cracking cracker crust is authentic, but there has to be some chewiness to the dough too. Overbaking the crust is far too common with wood ovens in North America.

I've only had this once at this establishment. I am curious to go back. Also a great selection of micro-beers and German imports.