I have a hard time remembering Pizza Buona. It was one of the first places I ate when I moved to Los Angeles. I think it left a bad taste in my mouth, because it has taken nearly eighteen months for me to return for seconds. After a long day at work, I made the executive decision to meet Nicci there for dinner tonight. You can probably imagine how disappointed I was when I entered the restaurant and saw only one other couple seated in the dining room. Strike one.
We decided to order two medium pies so we could share and enjoy two different styles of pizza. Nicci ordered a “rustica,” which included two kinds of cheese, fresh cut tomatoes, olive oil, basil, and green peppers (which she asked to be removed). I ordered a “specials,” [sic?] which contained pepperoni, sausage, mushroom and green peppers (which I asked to be removed). We also ordered a small salad as an appetizer. It was a small dish with a tangy Italian dressing. Not bad, not good, but a respectable starter. As we waited for our pizzas, the surrounding silence was broken roughly every ten minutes by random blasts of music from the restaurant’s jukebox. The wait for our food was not long. The rustic pizza arrived first, followed by the meaty one.
Both pizzas arrived piping hot, which I imagine was the product of there being no one else in the restaurant. First came the “rustica” pizza, followed five minutes later by the “specials” pizza. The first problem with the rustic pie was that the olive oil was used too liberally. The biggest problem, though, was that the entire crust was burnt. I can very much enjoy a crispy crust pizza, but charring the entire underside of the pie is just not acceptable. Nicci commented that the flavor of the crust reminded her of movie popcorn. I have no way of comprehending what that means, so I am not going to attempt to interpret it. Furthermore, the cheese kept separating from the crust, and it was a messy chore trying to keep it from being completely torn. This could be considered a classic pizza problem, but in actuality I cannot recall experiencing it since my childhood. With a less-blackened crust, the “rustica” pie might have been an above average concoction. I like the idea of sauce-free pizzas, or using fresh tomatoes instead of a sauce, so I admire the effort.
The pepperoni, sausage and mushroom pie was similarly flawed. The crust was more harmonious. It was less burnt, but not too doughy. Unfortunately, the toppings were lost in the sauce, which not only dominated the taste of each slice, the flavors were marred by an abundance of pepper. To that end, the quality of the pie was thwarted by the one aspect I was hoping to enjoy after sampling the sauce-free pizza. Even after extricating a piece of sausage from the cheese and the sauce, I still could not taste its flavor. There was only a sense of a chewy, generic meat-like substance. Similarly, there was no earthy mushroom flavor and no spicy pepperoni zest.
Neither Nicci nor I finished our respective pies, so we brought home three slices of each. We’ll have to wait and see how they fare in the all-important lunchtime re-heating competition tomorrow. Major bonus points could be earned if both pies benefit from a few hours of refrigeration and a quick turn in the oven.
Overall, Pizza Buona was an average dining experience. The pizza was not good enough to earn a spot on my list of The Top Ten Pizzas In Los Angeles, but I would certainly not call it garbage. In the super-local Echo Park area there are not many options (at least until Two Boots opens next to the Echo), but you would be much happier calling ahead to order a Chicago-style pie from Masa, or having Hard Times deliver to your door. While Nicci believes the $5 personal pizza pie from a certain chain pizzeria (which will remain unnamed) to be better than Pizza Buona, I cannot in good faith agree with her decision.
Pizza Buona in Echo Park: It’s nothing special!
