DiVita's Pizzeria

The is hard place to not like.  It is a local favorite, in West L.A.  Small and family owned since 1975.  With some interesting characters who have worked there forever.  I used to live down the street from DiVita's, and I got it quite a bit.

The pizza is pretty good.  I ordered a large cheese (16'') for $15.  I also specified it to be cooked extra crispy.  It made a world of difference.  Still however, it didn't get that crispy, I'm thinking because of the type of crust they were using, which either didn't seem fresh or was slightly generic.  Nevertheless, it still tasted pretty decent and did have a good crunch on the outer edge.  The cheese and sauce worked well together, the perfect amounts of both.  The cheese was kind of a mixed breed I imagine, but had a good amount of oil.  The sauce I liked quite a bit, had a lot of flavor, but nothing too over powering. 

   

Overall, it had good flavor to it, and I enjoyed eating every bite, even when it started to cool down.  The ingredients weren't of the highest quality and the crust wasn't quite thin or quite crispy enough for me, but I am being overly critical here.  It is better than most.

The rest of the food is ok.  The meatball sub is pretty good from what I remember.    

DiVita's Pizzeria - 11916 Wilshire Blvd. West LA   

Price: $

Overall:

Ravanelli's

This is a place in Northridge, which is quite a drive for me, but hey I am dedicated.  I don't just drive up there for average pizza however.  I had heard of this place from others I respect in the pizza tasting business.  So took a drive to this small pizza joint in a strip mall in dead center of the valley.  

This is another family owned place that has been in business for 45 years.  I ordered a large pizza, that was 16 inches, for about 13 dollars.  Good cheap price.  It was cut mainly in skinny slices.  The pizza looked pretty cheesy.  It was.  A heavy amount of cheese especially in the middle, lacking sauce underneath.  The amount of cheese lessened considerably as it neared the edge.  At this point the sauce took over and made up for the lack of it towards the middle.  Then the crust quickly came to power.  It was a big doughy outer edge.  Very crispy however.  In fact it was perfectly cooked.  Crispy on the bottom but still pliable.  There was no chewy texture to it , just crispy and doughy contrasts.  Overall the flavor was very sweet, slightly too sweet in my opinion.  The sauce of course was sweet and and pretty tasty.  The dough and cheese also had a sweetness to it.  Which is unusual.  It kind of mixes a NY style thin crust with your average middle america pizza pretty well.  Heavy sweet tasting cheese, not 100% mozz, a thicker sweet sauce and a thin dough and crispy sweet crust.  

Ravanelli's  - 8456 Reseda Blvd Northridge

Price: $

Overall: 

LA Lasagna Co.

Across the street from a place called Ravanelli's, is this place, LA Lasagna Co.  Interesting name for a place.  You'd think they would have good Lasagna there.  That is of course not what I got.  Underneath their lasagna title is the sub heading "pasta, pizza, and salad", pizza was second on the list.  So by no means was this place pushing their pizza.  The other thing funny about this place, was from the outside the sign had a very Italian feel to it, Italian colors and names.  The neon sign in the window said they have slices, which is why I went.  Then, when you walk in, you hear some easy listening classics playing above and a big open room that looks like this.   

This picture probably does not do the strange ambience justice.  But strange is what it is.  Not to mention there was no slices or pizza in view anywhere. But they said they had a slice, so I waited while it was warmed up - paid about 1.80.  

To continue with the strangeness, the young girl working the counter put the slice in between 2 styrofoam plates and in a giant paper bag.  Along with a coupon flier which got stuck to the pizza on the walk back to the car and ended up pulling off some of the cheese.  

After all that, the slice wasn't half bad.  It was pretty much lacking any flavor or sign of freshness and the crust was just a very soft and doughy pre-made deal.  But yet it wasn't bad.  The cheese and sauce had the right ratio together, and the crust, while not crispy, was pretty thin and not too dry.  Even though there was very little flavor, no flavor is better than bad flavor.  It is once again I realize that pizza is pretty easy to make and it is amazing that as many people screw it up as they do.    

( NOTE: it is hard to make really good pizza, easy to make generic pizza)

LA Lasagna Co. - 8501 Reseda Blvd. Northridge 

Price: $

Overall: