Otto Pizza

What a find!

My girlfriend and I came here for her birthday and spent a really enjoyable evening sampling some truly delicious food. Being greeted at the table with water and glasses already there is a really nice touch. Neither of us can have gluten so we are always in search of good gluten-free pizza options and have been a little disappointed in the past with other restaurants. The pizzas are a real culinary delight with a thick, moist base and generous toppings on all the ones we tried. Really fresh tasting ingredients make these a bit more special than most pizza house offerings. Nice side salads as well. Really good service throughout - friendly and attentive without being pestering, which is a fine line to tread in our experience, and they hit the nail on the head. All in all seems really reasonably priced for what you get and would defintely recommend it anyone. We will definitely be returning.
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Alex
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, June 24, 2011

We were very excited to discover this place, as my girlfriend is wheat intolerant. I chose a half pizza of their standard, cornflour pizza and my girlfriend had the special gluten-free half pizza.

Both pizzas were thoroughly disappointing. The bases were heavy and crumbly and made it feel more like you were eating a very dry quiche; the tomato and mushrooms on my pizza were barely cooked and my girlfriend's sweetcorn tasted like it had come out of a tin.

Very unimpressive, particularly for the price.
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DB
5 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 3
Friday, February 04, 2011

Being half-Italian I am always sceptical of anything describing itself as pizza that isn't made thin, crisp, and with 'simple' ingredients cooked in a proper 'forno al legno'. However, I was pleasantly suprised by this American inspired venture when my friend dragged me along (and glad to see an absence of pineapple). Whilst it is definitely NOT Italian pizza, this 'cornmeal pizzeria' is something quite different in terms of texture (granular thick pastry-like base) and taste. The toppings were clearly good quality and the end result was tasty and extremely filling (2-3 slices are enough!). The waitress was friendly and I was impressed to hear (but it seems quite necessary now I think about it!) that the cornmeal dough was made and proofed on site. Recommend the sausage mince pizza and american Blue harvest (blue moon?) beer.

Relaxed cosy atmosphere, minimalist decor, charming B&W prints on the walls. Each table is brought a bottle of tap water (I hope this catches on in other London restaurants!). The menu is short, and ordering by the slice is good for those who feel they are missing out if they don't try a bit of everything, like me. Seemed a little pricey at £3.50 a slice - but the end bill was modest at around £14 a head for three slices and a beer each. Could have probably gone to £20+ each with another beer and ice cream pudding but was too full!

So don't go in there expecting an Italian pizzeria; go in with an open mind for something tasty, smartly made and quite unique.
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9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Friday, August 13, 2010

Very pleasently surprised. Pizza was delicious - no it's not Italian, but it is not pretending to be either. Very filling. I was full after two slices, but not in my usual post-carb bloated way.

The atmosphere is very relaxed. I went with a group of friends and it was so chilled out. The service was quick and friendly, and the whole evening came to £18 including desserts and drinks which I thought was really quite great value for money.

I'd recommend this as a venue for a relaxed meal with a group of friends. Share the mixed pizzas so you can try different toppings and enjoy a lovely evening.
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G
9 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, August 10, 2010

I got home pretty early on Wednesday and rather than the usual bath baby, feed baby, get baby down and cook dinner whilst knackered we decided to go out for an early bite to eat. I had seen "Otto" when I was out driving so as it was a short walk from home we decided to give it a go. Dining out with Baby G can be a bit of a lottery, mostly he sleeps but other times he is awake but seems quite happy to sit up at the table and take everything in. You do get the occasional tears but in a busy restaurant that isn't a problem. We had however chosen to go to "Otto" early so the chances are it would be quiet.

We pitched up about 6 and it was indeed quiet but the waitress was very friendly, let us sit wherever we wanted and explained the concept on offer. The room has an open kitchen and various canteen type tables dotted around, quite an industrial feel to it but not unpleasant, very Notting Hip Basically the deep pan pizza's at "Otto's" have a corn bread base which is allows for deeper and more diverse fillings. I was a little dubious about some of the available flavour combinations but the waitress suggested we go for a whole 6 slices mix and match pizza between two. We ordered a bottle of the very nice viognier and though they only had an open bottle with a glass missing they only charged us for a half bottle. Nice touch and very nice wine.

By this time baby G had woken up and wanted to see what was going on. He sat on my knee and seemed happy enough gawping at the people at the bus stop outside. The pizza arrived and we were very impressed a nice looking pizza dish, perfectly cooked contents and despite it being mix and match each slice was identifiable. My particular favourite was the vegan option with "cashew" cheese, it was really spicy. My lovely wife loved the caramelised onions and basalmic slice, the pancetta was also very good. By this time baby G was bored of his bustop and I was worried about him doing his usual trick of the flying headbutt so I stuck him over my shoulder. Weirdly he likes this but it did mean I had to eat one handed which was tricky.

I really enjoyed the meal especially the corn meal base which was quite crumbly but very tasty and combined well with the toppings. It'a bit like quiche but nice. The service was very friendly throughout and baby G took a bit of a shine to the waitress and vice versa. We got slightly worried when more people turned up as we were probably pushing the window of opportunity with the baby. However his tired tantrum coincided nicely with the end of our meal so my lovely wife took him out for a walk whilst I paid. The bill came to £30 for two which is a real bargain. I noticed they do takeaway so I can see us definetly coming back soon. Hopefully baby G will be a little less of a handfull.
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david ginsberg - View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
Friday, July 09, 2010

Don't quite know what C.Elder is so angry about. I visited this place last week having intended to go since I saw it had opened. Menu is concise, but I quite like that. The pizza is different, and you should expect it to be so, but most importantly it is REALLY TASTY! And there is a great variety of interesting toppings (or fillings really). Who cares if the ingredients aren't from Naples? Staff are friendly, and the wine particularly was really good value for money.
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Snoops
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Well,here it is .Some guys(probably on a GAP year) eventually make it to Portland,a town in the Pacific Northwest of the US,where supposedly they stumble across a place with the latest "big idea" .We are not told what state these guys were in when they decided this was indeed a great idea that had to be replicated in London.The great idea-to make a kind of pizza/tart with a cornmeal base instead of a dough base. Now, Portland is about as far away as you can get from Naples,where pizza was first made .And cornmeal is about as far away from flour as you can get ,as it is a different plant; crumbly; granular;and is not consumed in Naples. On this cornmeal base you fling various toppings and "hey presto" pretend it's a kind of pizza because .....what exactly?This concoction is as much a pizza as coke is champagne.There is a reason why no one has done this before,and as a follow-on,a reason why it is not found anywhere,and the reason is NOT because it is a brilliant idea ,or the latest taste sensation ,or because it is about to catch on.

The reason is that it is not very good at all.

Don't try to revolutionise pizza.The Neapolitans made it perfect as it is,and it should not be tampered with.

The staff is nice in that fervent,true-believer style of those who know deep down that theirs is a hopeless cause.
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C.Elder
6 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 5
Monday, June 21, 2010

Thought there wasn't anything new you can do with pizza. I was wrong. The thick cornmeal crust is like a cross between pizza/quiche/toast - its really good and massively filling. I eat quite a lot in one filling and thought half wouldn't be enough, it was plenty. Taster pizza lets you get a bite of everything. It's VERY vegetarian friendly too, which makes a novel change. A nice big thing of tapwater comes as soon as you sit down too, nice touch because it saves constantly asking for water glass refills.
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- View all reviews by this user
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, June 18, 2010

We spotted this place opening up after a Sunday lunch at the (excellent) Mall Tavern recently. I've never had cornmeal crust pizza before so convinced the other half to try it out with me. Long story short, it was delicious, but I'm not sure it's quite as good as the dough I'm used to at Franco Manca or Santa Maria. You can tell a lot of love has gone into the operation though and staff were really clued-up and friendly. The menu is short but the toppings are fresh and generously piled on to the filling base, more like a pizza pie than anything else. The fennel sausage pizza was particularly good. Cheap too, so we'll be back!
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LB.
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Thursday, June 17, 2010