Restaurant review: Inferno’s Wood Fire Pizza

Our first night in Honolulu, and our hosts took us to a newly opened place (well new, as in, opened within the last 6 months), near the Ward center shopping plaza called Inferno’s Wood Fire Pizza.

This is a curious establishment, because it opens for a short five hours a day, from 4pm to 9pm.  After 9pm, the kitchen closes, the tables and chairs are put away, and the space converts into a night club called “Vice”.

Our party of four arrived about 7pm, and were seated immediately, at first outside on the patio, but we found the table too small for our needs, and moved to one of the larger tables inside.  The inside tables and chairs are collapsible (because of this establishment’s dual-nature as a restaurant, and night club), and the tables are covered with red checked picnic table cloths.

We ordered three pizzas, starting with the spinach, garlic & tomato pizza

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This was good, but very heavy with garlic (as you can see in the photo).  90-120 seconds in a 800 degree oven is enough time to bake the pizza, but not quite enough time to mellow the sharp flavour of the garlic. I suppose they have to worry about burning the garlic too.  The center of the pizza was still a little soft (like a neapolitan style pizza)

Our second was by the guava smoked pork pizza

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This is a smoked pulled pork, onion, mushroom pizza with barbecue sauce instead of tomato sauce.  I didn’t really pick up much smokiness from the pulled pork, but I did get a lot of sweetness from the barbecue sauce.

Finally we had the pepperoni, sausage and mushroom pizza.

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This pizza had the firmest crust, which is the way I like it, not hard, but just rigid enough to hold its own weight when held in the air.

The pizzas here are hand stretched, and prepared using fresh local ingredients, and baked in a kiawe wood burning oven.  They come out of the oven with a nice char, a lightly blistered crust.

The service was reasonably good, not particularly memorable.

The ambiance/room is, well, it looks like a night club.  Big speakers having from the ceiling, TV screens on the walls, a giant bar in the center of the room, and a stage in the corner for a DJ or band.  Scattered around the space were collapsible tables and chairs.

http://infernospizzahawaii.com/
Inferno's Wood Fire Pizza on Urbanspoon

2 Comments Add yours

  1. skycastles says:

    How much was it for a pizza and how big are they? They look pretty big. Heard about this place but haven’t been there yet. Sounds like it’s just ok though from your review.

    1. mingchin says:

      The pizzas range from ~$9 for a basic cheese pizza to ~$16 for the more “gourmet” varieties. They are all the same size, about 13″ (maybe 14″ across).

      I thought our last pizza was the best, but I admit, I’m pretty fussy. I’m comparing against “vera neapoletana”, which is a pretty high standard. It all depends on your standards and what your expectations are.

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