Most people would rather settle for a pretty good pie down the street, than drive across town to get the best pie, at least thats what I think. With a place called Mozza, it is a different story. Mozza is a place you might come from halfway around the world to eat at, that is if you liked the pizza. This is a fancy place, trendy and expensive. It is not a pizzeria built for pick-ups and deliveries, it is a place you make reservations a month in advance so you can sit down and impress people, that you know fine dining. If there is such a thing as gourmet pizza, this is it.
Highly regarded chefs Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich, cook up their take on food. They try to make ordinary pizza, extraordinary. Successfully they do. The problem is I just wanted ordinary pizza made extremely well.
I went to pick up a pizza the other day from Mozza. Just ordering a pizza was difficult, I had to go through a bunch of automated responses, click a bunch of numbers, and still didn't get anywhere.
UPDATE: Since I wrote this blog Mozza has built on an addition that is called Mozza To Go. Specifically for what I am complaining about. The price is still the same. You want good ingredients, I guess you have to pay for it.
I realized you just can't order for pick-up, it's obviously not that kind of place. Eventually I just showed up at the door and ordered a pizza from the hostess. I had just got back from the gym, somewhat sweaty and wearing not my best outfit, so I didn't feel like standing in the middle of the room amongst the well-off, working crowd. I took a walk around the block and when I got back my pizza was ready.
They only have personal sizes of course, which are 10 inches and a basic margherita pizza will cost you you 15 dollars. Any time the price is more than the inches of pizza, it's too expensive. They have about 20 different specialty pizzas from a prosciutto and rucola, to one with clams. The pizza was good for what it was. Splotches of tomato sauce and cheese all over, rather than a layer on top of a layer. The sauce was very flavorful and light, so much spice it actually was a little hot. The crust was very crunchy and light. Thin and mostly hollow at the end. I like a little bit of doughiness on the inside of my crust. There wasn’t too much cheese, but a lot of oil.
Even for a fancy pizza I would say there is better. It was good, don't get me wrong but it was overpriced and hard to get. If the place was across the street, I could call ahead and if it was 10 dollars I'd probably go there a lot, but I'd still prefer a classic pizza like Vito's over this.
UPDATE: Since I wrote this blog Mozza has built on an addition that is called Mozza To Go. Specifically for what I am complaining about. The price is still the same. You want good ingredients, I guess you have to pay for it.
I realized you just can't order for pick-up, it's obviously not that kind of place. Eventually I just showed up at the door and ordered a pizza from the hostess. I had just got back from the gym, somewhat sweaty and wearing not my best outfit, so I didn't feel like standing in the middle of the room amongst the well-off, working crowd. I took a walk around the block and when I got back my pizza was ready.
They only have personal sizes of course, which are 10 inches and a basic margherita pizza will cost you you 15 dollars. Any time the price is more than the inches of pizza, it's too expensive. They have about 20 different specialty pizzas from a prosciutto and rucola, to one with clams. The pizza was good for what it was. Splotches of tomato sauce and cheese all over, rather than a layer on top of a layer. The sauce was very flavorful and light, so much spice it actually was a little hot. The crust was very crunchy and light. Thin and mostly hollow at the end. I like a little bit of doughiness on the inside of my crust. There wasn’t too much cheese, but a lot of oil.
Even for a fancy pizza I would say there is better. It was good, don't get me wrong but it was overpriced and hard to get. If the place was across the street, I could call ahead and if it was 10 dollars I'd probably go there a lot, but I'd still prefer a classic pizza like Vito's over this.
Pizzeria Mozza - 641 Highland Ave
Price: $$$
Overall:
MAJOR bone to pick with this place. First of all: yes overpriced, and yes obnoxiously trendy for a pie that doesn't live up to the hassle.
ReplyDeleteLet me just add straight up rude and poor service to the equation.
I went there with a buddy once who asked for a different combination of toppings than what was listed on the menu for one of the pizzas. The waiter warned us that the chef might not agree to make the pizza if he didn't think the "flavors would go."
I guess by "chef" he must have meant some ass hole in the back, cause all I could see were the 5 mexican dudes they have in plain view, churning out pizzas as fast as they can. Trust me: those guys certainly wouldn't care if the flavors didn't go.
So what happened? Without even telling us that the chef had disagreed with my friend's plebian tastes, they just brought him the pizza he DIDN'T want.
Now I don't care what your taste is in anything, the worst thing anyone in food service can do is give people food they don't want.
F this place.