Pizzeria Mozza

Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich recently joined forces to open sister restaurants Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza on the trendy corner of Melrose and Highland. I have been wanting to check them out for awhile, and was finally able to try Pizzeria Mozza over the weekend, a reservation that was made one month ago.

In sum: Meh.

I mean, don't get me wrong, the food was good, the atmosphere was nice, but all in all, maybe my expectations were too high, but I wasn't amazed. I wasn't thrilled. Nothing was really orgasmic in my mouth, and my pupils were not dilated at any given point during the meal. I suppose, however, that living on the westside, I am spoiled with an abundance of amazing eating experiences, fantastic Italian spots and obviously, great quaint Italian markets that sell the freshest of ingredients, homemade burata, and other yummy eats that create phenomenal Italian eats at home. So for Italian food to wow me, it has to really be over the top.

However, while conferring with the table next to us, I think my review is fair, as they agreed.

For starters, the space is beautiful, it is a modern space, with walls of cerulean blue and a bold red, with cherry wood accents. It is cozy, and expect to talk to your neighbors, as the tables are about two inches away from one another. The lighting is nice, dim, and the large windows gives you a nice view of Highland-- although the view is mediocre at best.

I looked at their wine list first. Not familiar with Italian wines, I was a little disappointed to see that that is all they had. I love wine, and I think that wine is about 45% of a good meal, so I felt bewildered at the list of 15 Italian wines, none of which I had ever heard of. I asked the waiter for a suggestion, telling him that I like full bodied Cabs and Old Vine Zins, and he suggested the Irpinia 2005 Aglianico.
Stupid me, I was thinking in Napa terms, and thought "it can't be bad, it's an 05." Well, I forgot, I don't think we're in Napa anymore Toto. Italy's weather is nothing like the Napa's and obviously the same rules no longer apply.

The first bottle we got tasted like vinegar. I'm not even kidding. At first I thought maybe it needed to open up or I just didn't know Italian wines enough to make a fair assessment. But twenty minutes after the opening, it still tasted like vinegar. When we switched out bottles, it no longer tasted like vinegar, but it tasted like a cheap bottle of watered down merlot. If this is what the italian version of "full bodied" is, I don't even want to try their lighter wines.

I thought their antipasti dishes were more innovative and interesting than their dishes. We had two appetizers, the shrimp with melon and mint, (photo below: sorry for the bad quality, I didn't want to use flash and it was dark) and the Avocado, cherry tomatoes & bacon breadcrumbs. They were really delicious, I think the shrimp dish was inspired by either Thai or Vietnamese cuisine, because it was light, and I detected a hint of fish sauce. The avacado was also good, a little bit more rich than the former.

For main courses, I ordered a Margherita Pizza, and J got the Cod, which was smothered in a ragu. I was disappointed. The pizza was good, no doubt. The crust was almost paper thin (I like it that way), and it was apparent that they used fresh mozzerella. But they were so sparse with the basil (6 shreds in total), and it lacked on the flavor. The cod was over-sauced and didn't have much to offer, other than a basic white fish covered in tomato sauce.

Dessert was good, we ordered a triage of gelati and sortbets: espresso, melon and strawberry, and the Cioccolato, a bittersweet chocolate cake, which resembled a flourless chocolate cake.

Overall, our experience was: meh. But I suppose in order to be like every other yuppie hipster in LA, you have to try it at least once. Would I go back? Maybe to try more of the appetizers, but I would be just as happy at Primitivo to grab some small plates... and I wouldn't have to endure the 1 hour hollywood-bound traffic from the westside.