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
