A quintet of disappointing pizza experiences. Sometimes here, I just want to give up on finding good pizza. Or just keep going back to the places I already know make good pizza. None of these were blantantly bad pizza, just none of them offered up pies that I’d bother to go back for.
Do I really need to keep trying new ones? An existential question I am faced with daily when I wonder, “what’s for lunch?”.
La Buena Pizza, Agüero 2241, Recoleta – It was International Beer & Pizza Day according to one or another calendars (I seem to see that “holiday” pop up an awful lot – like every few weeks… in one version or another). Regardless of the veracity of the festival, it seemed like a good idea. It was looking like it might turn rainy, so I decided to just check out a pizzeria near to home that I hadn’t tried yet. This one got fairly high ratings on Google maps, so, why not?
Cute place, despite the tacky red and white check plastic tablecloths. Nice guy running it, we chatted a bit – they have a very limited selection of pizza by the slice to begin with, and not all of them available in the moment. I finally decided to just order a pizza, eat half, and take half home for snacking on, or cold for breakfast. I headed towards my usual fave, the Calabresa, but noted right underneath it the Veneciana, which was basically the same pizza – just instead of spicy sausage, garlic, and tomato, it was spicy sausage, garlic, roasted bell pepper, chili flakes, and tabasco. It arrived in short order. Okay crust, not great, but not bad. Good cheese, decent tomato sauce. But the spice was missing. The longaniza sausage was not a spicy version, the chili flakes were few and not notedly hot, and there was no tabasco as best I could tell – so I asked, and indeed, they were out of it. Overall a bit of a disappointment. An okay pizza, but nothing more than that.
Pony Pizza, Echeverría 1677 Local 15, Belgrano – Over the last couple of years, since the completion of the new Belgrano C train station, the strip behind the station that used to hold a couple of Chinese restaurants and local shops has been converted to a strip of takeout food stalls. Most don’t have seating, and on particularly nice days, the concrete planters are festooned with folk eating ramen, ceviche, pastries, coffee, pizza, there’s even a new wine bar. One of the earliest entrants was this place, and it’s been on my list for several years now – I’m just not fond of sitting on cold concrete planters and balancing food on my lap. But, Pony now as a few high tables out front where you can stand and eat. Still not my favorite approach, but at least less juggling of things involved.
The pizza is… bland. Surprisingly bland. Especially given all the great reviews. The crust, at least partially whole wheat, lacks salt in it, so it’s flavorless, and it was undercooked. You see the white blobs in the last photo? Not bits of cheese, but bits of raw dough that are just sitting there, unpleasantly. The tomato sauce tastes of nothing but tomato – no salt, spices, herbs, garlic, just acidic tomatoes. The cheese is good, the oyster mushrooms fine, if a bit lacking in quantity given the price of the pizza. Yet another disappointment.
Piccantino, Rodríguez Peña 1216, Recoleta – Small, take-out and delivery only spot here in the ‘hood that opened up during the pandemic. They offer two styles of pizza – Neapolitana and Romana. Now, I’m a huge fan of Roman style pizza – both the thick, rectangular sort of “grandma slice”, and the cracker thin crust round style. So here’s the problem with Piccantino’s Roman style. They make it with “double thick crust”. I can only guess that that falls into one of those, “locals like more dough, so we’re giving them a thicker crust” kind of things. But that’s simply not what this style of pizza is all about. Essentially, they just made Argentine style pizza and called it Roman style. Now, it is good. The crust itself is well made and flavorful, the toppings – a decent tomato sauce, good quality mozzarella and provolone in this case, and spicy ‘nduja sausage (a bit lacking in quantity – just a few scattered bits here and there). Would I eat it again? Yes. But, Roman style pizza, it ain’t. For that, we’ve still got Cosi mi piace, Soler Vino Pizza, and Romagnoli.
Ditali, Maipú 902, Retiro – This one popped onto my radar from that “contest” I’ve mentioned a few times where it was voted by neighbors as their favorite in the barrio. It’s sorta kinda classic Argentine style pizza – a whopping thick crust, barely shy of a full inch thick, and it’s an okay crust. But typical Argentine style ought to be matched by a thick layer of cheese – this has a bare covering of it, although it’s nicely browned. The sauce is bland, the toppings are just okay – what they called pepperoni was more some sort of paprika laden smoked salami. It may be the first classic Argentine pizzeria I’ve been to that doesn’t offer a calabresa, one of the most popular of local styles.
Best thing on the plate was the fainá, which was both flavorful and served hot rather than the usual cold or room temperature. Overall, it’s just kind of average, not very flavorful pizza.
Pizzicato, Av. Asamblea 499, Parque Chacabuco – I don’t recall who recommended this place to me, but at least a mild pox on them. A trio of us from The Horde met up for lunch to give it a try. It’s a long trip for pizza, but if someone tells me it’s good, I’m willing. I just want to remember who it was and not take their recommendations again. Nice people, the place is bright, clean, and inviting. Our waiter was friendly and even enthusiastic. The empanadas we started with were decent.
We ordered a large pie, half Piemontesa, which was with cantimpalo sausage and pickled Italian peppers, and half fugazzeta. Small pizzas, the other option, are not worth ordering, given that across the board they cost 90% of the price of a large. We liked that it came out with a nice thin crust, but it’s clear looking at the pie that the cheese is barely melted, certainly not browned. And on the fugazzeta side the onions have also clearly been added somewhere mid-cook, since they look completely raw. And, yeah, it’s just an okay pizza. The crust has nice flavor, to their credit so does the sauce on the Piemontesa side. But the cheese is flavorless and, as noted, just barely melted. And the onions, yeah, just warm, but raw. Yawn. Not worth the two-bus, 50-minute trip to get there for me.
And that ends up this sad round of pizzerias… to not bother with. I guess I’d be fine with pizza from Picantino, but just going into it knowing it’s not Roman style pizza as promised.
