LA's Artisanal Pizzas, by location

Westside

800 degrees - LAX

800 degrees - Santa Monica

800 degrees - Westwood
Doma (beverly hills)

Gjelina (venice) 

Milo & Olive (santa monica)

Obica Mozzarella Bar (century city)

Olio Woodfired Pizza (beverly grove)

Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana (marina del rey)

Sotto (century city)

South End (venice)

Stella Barra Pizzeria (santa monica)

Wildcraft (culver city)

Central LA/Hollywood

800 degrees - DTLA

Ciao Cristina (burbank)

De Sano Pizza Bakery (east hollywood)

Mother Dough (los feliz)

Pitfire Artisan Pizza (DTLA)

Pizzeria Mozza (hancock park)

Stella Barra Pizzeria (hollywood)

Eastside

800 degrees - Pasadena

Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana (pasadena)

Wood: handcrafted pizza (silverlake)

Mother Dough [los feliz]

mother dough

4648 Hollywood Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90027

Almost everywhere in LA was completely booked for reservations on Valentine's Day, so Andrew and I decided to finally go to Mother Dough, which is a place that never takes reservations. In light of MD's recent notice for best pizza in LA, we figured there might be a long wait (especially on Valentine's Day) so we tried to get there right when they opened at 6pm. We got there around 6:20, and there were still a bunch of tables open to choose from even in the tiny restaurant space. 

As it was Valentine's Day, it was mostly couples in the restaurant, and we sat next to maybe the worst couple in the world. The guy was clearly either writing a pizza blog or planning his next Yelp review, and the girl was okay other than the fact that she had bright pink hair. They ordered the burrata salad, and were seated probably 15 minutes before us. We opted to skip salad, obviously, and our pizzas came out before the table next to us. It was honestly very amusing to us while eating our pizza to hear the guy freak out about not having his pizza. We had almost finished our own pizzas when their pizzas arrived, and it got even better. The girl ordered the prosciutto/arugula pizza, and the guy ordered one of the special pizzas (not sure which). The guy clearly wasn't listening to the waitress when she was describing the pizza to him, because apparently there was something on the pizza that was "his least favorite ingredient ever." It might have been horseradish, which I know was on one of the specials, but Andrew said he was picking out something green. Regardless, he hated it so much he made the girl switch pizzas with him and he ate all of hers. She also noted "your pizza does have a funny taste" but she continued to eat it. Still waiting on the guy's yelp review... 

As for our pizza, the dough that the place is so famous for seemed very inconsistent. Although "artisan" pizzas are not supposed to all be perfectly the same, my dough and crust was very thin and charred, while Andrew's was soft and much better. His pizza was also basically the same as my Margherita, but with sausage on it. He actually asked the waitress if he could split the pizza, as we had seen in Yelp reviews, but she said that they don't do that when the restaurant is "busy" and only would be like a half margherita/something else, meaning half of the pizza just wouldn't have the extra toppings. Andrew thoroughly enjoyed his sausage, and I thought his pizza was better than mine because his had the same amount of cheese AND toppings, and his pizza dough was much softer. My margherita was okay, there was a sufficient amount of cheese, but next time (if there is one) I would definitely order something else. 

In searching for the other diners' Yelp review, the only one I came across from Valentine's Day was a guy who came at 10:30 and they were closed. When we tried to come to mother dough last, it was a Tuesday night at 10:30 so it seemed more understandable that they would not be busy and would close early. But that they closed early on a weekend night AND Valentine's Day seems wrong. Basically, don't ever expect this place to be open until their stated operating hour of 11pm. Being ranked LA's best pizza seems to not be doing much for the place, but the place doesn't seem to be doing very much to show they deserve that ranking. It definitely wasn't the worst pizza I've had in LA, but it surely was not the best. More consistent dough (especially since that is part of their namesake) and consistent hours would get this place a higher rank in my book. 

No wait on Valentine's day/night, 

you can basically see the entire restaurant from this photo.

Don't know what this door is for, not the restaurant

I must say I am into the typography and no capital letters

If you squint really hard, mine might be a heart shaped pizza.

Also, look at the thin (basically no) crust in the bottom left.

Margherita ($15)

(very oval) Sausage pizza ($18) 

Crust: inconsistent between the two pizzas, but very good on the Sausage

Sauce: decent amount, not overpowering

Cheese: Margherita could have had more, but Sausage had good amount with the sausage

Recommend: not the Margherita, get something with toppings

Best Part: good quality ingredients

Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana [marina del rey]

Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana

13455 Maxella Ave

Marina Del Rey, CA 90292

After spending an afternoon in Venice, I thought that we might be able to eat at Gjelina without a reservation. However, once we finally got to the restaurant, it was an hour wait which was not going to happen. Since we were already in the area, we decided to visit Settebello which has been at the top of my list of pizza places to try, but just a little farther south than I would normally drive. 

Settebello is in this weird pseudo shopping center that basically has an Ulta, Pier 1, a Ruth's Chris and Yard House. It seemed pretty commercial, especially since I was pretty sure that there was another Settebello in Pasadena, so I was a bit hesitant that it would be Italian restaurant type pizza again. A lot of Yelp reviews about the place seem to all be about "soggy pizza" where everything falls off in the first bite - clearly written by people that are expecting something like CPK or even Domino's - so we didn't let that cloud our expectations. 

Our waitress did a great job of explaining the pizzas to us, that they are cooked quickly in their 1000 degree oven (straight from Naples) so that they are still a little soft when they come out. She also explained to us what "DOC" stood for, but we basically forgot right away. It's something like "domestic origin control." Anyway, she explained that the DOC marker meant that it was up to Italian standards, and the bufala was authentic Italian. 

I decided to go for the Margherita DOC over the regular margherita, mostly because of my mistake at Olio when the regular margherita paled in comparison to the one with buffalo mozzarella. Andrew ordered the pizza carbonara. 

The pizza was great. Cheese is probably the most important factor to me in judging how good a pizza is, and Settebello's did not disappoint. The crust/dough of the pizza was also soft and a little bit sweet, which was a welcome change after the pizza we had at Wildcraft. Andrew also compared the dough to that of our favorite pizza place in San Francisco (il casaro in North Beach), so it must have been great. The pancetta on Andrew's carbonara was also very nice and crispy. Usually when pizzas come with several toppings, there is less cheese throughout, but not at Settebello! Overall the pizzas were both really great, both had more than enough tasty cheese and sauce to leave us both happy at the end. 

Naples oven and extra bar seating

Interior bar

front: Margherita DOC / back: Pizza Carbonara 

Pizza Carbonara: crushed tomatoes, pancetta, egg, cracked pepper, EVOO

Margherita DOC: crushed tomatoes, fresh buffalo mozzarella, 

basil, parmigiano reggiano, EVOO

Nice fold with plenty of cheese still on the pizza

Location above a Yard House

Crust: soft and slightly sweet, cooked to perfect folding texture
Sauce: tasty and not overpowering
Cheese: deserving of DOC stamp, plentiful throughout
Recommend: Margherita DOC definitely, but probably all pizzas are great and I can't wait to try more!

Best part: no wait, delicious pizzas with lots of authentic cheese

800 degrees [santa monica]

800 Degrees

120 Wilshire Blvd

Santa Monica, CA 90401 

This 800 location is across the street from my office, so I am here basically every Monday and Friday for lunch. There is usually a huge line during lunchtime, especially if there is a good "instagram special" that day. Usually I get the same toppings as I would any other day (broccolini and mushrooms) but that is too boring to continue to blog about. I decided that I would have to start trying the instagram specials if I had any hopes of generating new and original content. I started following the 800 degrees instagram account, and started checking every day. 

Today's pizza sounded like a good start for me, it still had one of my main toppings (broccolini) and the extra ingredients were still basic and healthy. It was also on the regular margherita pizza. When I saw it had smoked provolone, I worried that it would replace the pulled mozzarella. Luckily that is part of the standard margherita and was not replaced! 

To get the instagram special, all you had to do is say "I'll have the Instagram special" to the pizzaiolo and they will take care of the rest. There are no substitutions or add-ons to the special, which is fair because the pizza is 50% off. 

"instagram special, february 2, 2015"

"green" pizza with spinach and broccolini. I couldn't really taste the smoked provolone, but could definitely smell it. 

Everything you need to know in one photo. 

Overall the Instagram special is a really great deal, getting a quality Neapolitan pizza for $5 cannot be beat. However, any pickiness and you might be waiting a while for 800 to post a pizza of the day that suits your tastebuds.