So continuing our pizza journey (I’ve lost track, I think we’ve tried at least 6-7 different pizzerias in the last year or so, all recently opened, and all claiming to serve Neapolitan style (or at roman style) pizza. This time it was Famoso Pizzeria on Commercial Drive.
It’s astounding how quickly this has exploded, since 2 years ago, if you wanted thin crust italian style pizza, the number of restaurants, you could count on one hand, with fingers to spare.
Famoso appears to be a Canadian franchise of Neapolitan pizzerias that started in Alberta, but has since expanded (rapidly) in BC and Ontario.
We arrived on a weekend evening, and it was full house, we left our names with the maitre d’ and waited about 20 minutes for a table.
When we were seated, it wasn’t actually a table, it was more like a bench with high bar chairs. There were one of three parties seated at this bench, and handed a menu. The server instructed us to take our orders to the counter and place it with her, leaving our table number. Well this led to considerable confusion since there were three different parties seated at our table/bench.
First we ordered the
blackberry arugula salad with candied pecans and goat cheese. This was pretty good, although, mea culpa, we didn’t really look at the description that closely before choosing it. We’d had a similar salad elsewhere and really enjoyed it, so when we read the description, we assumed it was the same thing. Not quite, the previous salad used mixed greens, while this used arugula. The peppery-ness of the arugula was a bit too much for us. That said, if you like arugula, this is a good salad.
Next up was our pizza
this was the cappricciosa with prosciutto, olives, artichoke hearts and mushrooms. This was a terrific pizza. A nice light crust with a light char on the bottom and edges, soft in the middle. The sauce is fresh with a slight tang, the prosciutto and olives add saltiness, and the fior di latte was melted and slightly sweet.
Lastly we ordered the
dolce and banana for dessert. It’s a clever name for a dessert. The concept is really good, it’s bananas halved, dusted with brown sugar and roasted in the oven roasted until the sugar carmelizes, and topped with crushed pecans, caramel sauce, and vanilla gelato. This was a little of a disappointment though. It took a long time to arrive (I understand the kitchen tried to make it more than once for us), and when it did arrive, the brown sugar on the bananas was burnt. We ended up picking the burnt sugar off the bananas as we ate. I’m speculating that it’s hard to control the heat in the oven.
Our server apologized, and the restaurant manager came out to comp the dessert and offer a gift certificate for another visit.
The service was quite exemplary. Our server was pleasant and made every effort to satisfy us, so we have to give kudos for that.
They do table service now? When I went it was half assed, they had enough servers, but they insisted on counter service. The servers were only there to bring your food. The counter was even worst, instead of reading the simple order sheet that you fill out at the table, they make you read it to them. This was several weeks ago though during lunch.
The pizza was good, but I thought the dough could have used some more development. I found the crumb structure wasn’t as airy as it could be and needs a bit more flavour in the dough.
Have you been to Via Tevere yet? I like them more. They still seem very busy, so dinner time is not a good time to go as they use a wood oven and I think they have a hard time keeping the oven at consistent temps.
That’s pretty much how it still is. You place your order at the counter, they bring you the food/drinks.
Haven’t tried Via Tevere yet. I’m losing count of these pizza places, there’s a new one every couple of months now.