Inside My Table #69 | Restaurant listings
Mythic Pizza
Houston might not be a great pizza town, but it is a pretty good one. Most of the pizzas served here are the New York-style, featuring a thin (but not too thin) crust with generous amounts of toppings. You can also find Sicilian-style pizza—the kind that features a thick crust and a rectangular shape—and fanciful California-style pizzas are becoming more commonplace. Regardless of style, the best pizzas have a flavorful crust and are baked properly and thoroughly at high temperatures. Quality toppings are judiciously used.
ARCODORO, 5000 Westheimer at Post Oak Blvd., 713-621-6888. From a proper wood-burning oven, the pizzas at this upscale Italian restaurant are what you will find at a very good pizzeria in Italy. Two unusual and very good offerings take their cue from the owner’s Sardinian homeland. One features roasted eggplant mousse, dollops of goat cheese, shavings of hard pecorino cheese and several drops of bitter honey. The other has clams, fava beans, white onions and gratings of bottarga (pressed fish roe). $$-$$$
BARRY’S PIZZA, 6003 Richmond at Fountainview, 713-266-8692, and other locations. These comfortable locations serve quality thin-crust and Sicilian-style thick-crust pizzas. The crusts of the latter are especially flavorful and provide an excellent setting for the tomato sauce and toppings, which are high quality and properly used. The menu states that the pizzas are cooked on stone deck ovens, just like they do in Naples, the birthplace of pizza. $
BIBAS GREEK PIZZA, 5526 Memorial east of Westcott, 713-861-2266. The menu brags about serving the best Greek pizza in town. They serve some of the best pizza in town, Greek or otherwise. The restaurant is justifiably proud of the buttery, slightly crispy crusts that provide the requisite base for any worthy pizza. Though advertised as thin-crust, these are healthy thin-crust pizzas. Toppings are usually plentiful, but the pizzas are always balanced. $
CANDELARI’S, 4505 Bissonnet at Newcastle, 713-662-2825, and other location. Candelari’s crusts are sufficiently flaky, flavorful and very good. On top of that very solid foundation, Candelari’s uses top-notch ingredients including their sausages, which are made in-house. Importantly, unlike at some other area pizzerias, the ingredients are used judiciously. All of the pizzas have a balance of tastes and texture, which makes these some of the very best pizzas in town. $
COLLINA’S, 2400 Times at Morningside, 713-526-4499, and other locations. A scan of their dining rooms on most evenings will show them full, or nearly so, of patrons enjoying pizzas. Their good-quality crusts are generally thin, if not quite as thin as a typical New York-style, but slightly doughy and very tasty. A better-than-expected whole-wheat version is also offered. $-$$
GROTTO, 4715 Westheimer just inside Loop 610, 713-622-3663, and other location. The kitchen might not quite be up to the level it was during its mid-1990s heyday, but the individual-sized Italian-style pizzas are excellent. The crisp, thin Roman-style crusts, slightly different from their Neapolitan progenitors, topped with the proper amount of high-quality and fresh ingredients taste like those from a quality pizzeria in the Eternal City. $$
KENNEALLY’S, 2119 S. Shepherd bet. Westheimer & Fairview, 713-630-0486. The kitchen at this neighborhood bar might come as a surprise to some. Even more acclaimed than their burgers are the thin-crust pizzas sprinkled with a judicious amount of toppings that have their origin some years ago in one of the last and best Neapolitan-style pizzerias in the Chicago area, the hometown of owner John Flowers. The unusual Shamrock Special featuring corned beef works very well. $
LA GRIGLIA, 2002 West Gray east of Shepherd, 713-526-4700. Boisterous and stylish, this former Vallone outpost serves excellent Italian-style pizza, a fact probably overlooked by many except long-time patrons. Thin, crisp and flavorful crusts host the traditional Italian margherita, the standard American pepperoni, excellent sausage and roasted red and yellow peppers, plus the more fanciful shrimp-and-pesto and roasted-chicken toppings. $$-$$$
LA VISTA, 1936 Fountainview bet. San Felipe & Westheimer, 713-787-9899. In Neapolitan fashion, the pizzas here are tossed by hand and cooked in a brick oven. Unlike in Naples, the range of toppings is quite large and unusual. The choices include almost everything conceivable with the exception of anchovies. The individual-sized pizzas are a deal, and the 15-inch size will easily feed two people. It’s an even better deal when paired with a BYOB wine. $$
PALAZZO’S, 3215 Westheimer bet. Kirby & River Oaks Blvd., 713-522-6777, and other location. The dough is made daily, and the ingredients are consistently good here. Their style seems to be a cross between typical American thin-crust and the ones found in Italy. Of the seven or so standard pizzas, especially good is the Athena that is topped with pepperoni, roma tomatoes, red onions, feta cheese and black olives. $$
PIZZA BELLA, 1306 Pin Oak Road west of the Grand Parkway, 281-693-3880. In a small strip center on what’s left of the Katy Prairie way out west by the Katy Mills Mall, Pizza Bella churns out excellent pizza in the general New York style that features flavorful and properly crisp crusts from dough that is made daily and tossed by hand. Toppings, which include the sausage made there, are excellent. $
ROMANO’S, 1528 West Gray bet. Waugh & Dunlavy, 713-526-1182. Romano’s is the clear favorite among former residents of the New York area. The thin-crust pizzas are properly made with dough that is made daily, a correct amount of traditional toppings and the requisite thin sheen of grease that make these the best of the area New York-style pizzas. The gruff New Yorkers behind the counter are an added bonus. $
STAR PIZZA, 2111 Norfolk at Shepherd, 713-523-0800, and other location. The key for the long-standing popularity of these laid-back places is quality ingredients in interesting combinations. The dough for the pizza crusts, both white and whole-wheat, is made daily at the restaurants, as is the tomato sauce. From these building blocks come both thin-crust and deep-dish styles pizzas. Star is famous for Joe’s, a pizza topped with spinach and garlic. $
VERONA FLYING PIZZA, 3995 S. Gessner at Westpark, 713-789-8153. “Pizza” is in this long-standing restaurant’s name for a reason. In the basic New York-style, the crusts are thin and tasty and the toppings are not excessive, both of which make for consistently good pizzas. Avoid ordering mushrooms and olives, however, as they are canned and detract from the overall quality. $
