The tastiest pizzas in 010 and 020

Following in the footsteps of Where Chefs Eat, the book Where to Eat Pizza was published. It features more than 1,700 pizzerias from all over the world. The Netherlands is well represented with nineteen hotspots in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. According to the experts – including FavorFlav’s Marjan Ippel – where can you eat the best pizza in these cities? We’ve listed 6 hotspots from the book for you.

ROTTERDAM

BIRD

There’s a good chance you’ve been to BIRD for a gig by Mr. Scruff or one of the many other great parties. But did you know you can also eat delicious pizza here? The restaurant’s kitchen has a wood-fired oven, in which the tastiest Neapolitan pizzas – made according to the official rules – are baked nonstop. The classic Margherita is excellent. And a tip: on Wednesdays, pizza + beer (or soft drink) for €12.50! Book in advance and mention ‘Pizza Wednesday’. Feel like eating at home on the sofa? BIRD’s pizzas are also available to take away.

Sugo

How about a slice of pizza with pumpkin cream, pancetta and Parmesan? Or caramelized onion, walnut and mascarpone? At Sugo, you can choose from twenty different pizzas every day, most of them vegetarian. Don’t expect round behemoths here, but rectangular slices of sheet-pan pizza, just like in Rome. That means more options to choose from, which makes us happy. And incredibly hungry. There’s also a location in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven.

O’Pazzo

O’Pazzo means ‘crazy’, and that’s exactly what you think when you step into this restaurant. Huge chandeliers, a ceiling painting that – okay, with a fair amount of imagination – resembles Michelangelo’s Last Judgment and… Tentacles? That’s right: this restaurant has an octopus theme. Even the wood-fired oven is shaped like an octopus. Don’t let this madness distract you too much and order the Pizza O’Pazzo with cured ham and mascarpone. Or go for the Sapori d’Estate with gorgonzola, coppa di Parma and fresh figs.

AMSTERDAM

Kebec Micro Bakery

“An idiosyncratic micro-bakery with a gigantic wood-fired stone oven and amazing pizzas in a trendy neighborhood full of festivals,” says FavorFlav’s Marjan Ippel. The men of Kebec Micro Bakery built that oven themselves, just like the rest of the industrial interior. And the pizzas too, of course, of which the Margherita is the very best according to Marjan. You can eat it there, but taking it away and devouring it by the quayside – this bakery is located on the NDSM wharf, after all – is at least as good an idea.

Fuoco Vivo

According to Marjan, Fuoco Vivo is the only pizzeria that sells sourdough pizzas, and she says the dough is fantastic. Perhaps that has something to do with the more-than-forty-year-old mechanical mixer used here to prepare the dough. No electricity, and therefore no unnecessary heat, is involved, which benefits the dough’s natural fermentation process. The buffalo mozzarella and Italian sausage are also homemade here. Marjan therefore recommends the Pizza Salsiccia; it includes both.

De Italiaan

Okay, not all at once: De Italiaan in Oud-West is Marjan’s hidden gem. At the same time, it’s the only Amsterdam hotspot from Where to Eat Pizza that I’ve actually already visited. All the more reason, then, to mention this restaurant, with its lovely terrace, as well. Settle down outside on one of the benches and start with a negroni or two. Take your time. Once you’re sitting here, you won’t want to go anywhere else. Go for the Pizza Diavola here, but be sure to ask what the pizza of the day is too.

Where to Eat Pizza
Publisher: Phaidon
ISBN: 9780714871165

Read also:

• Hey pizza lover, have you tried pinsa yet?
• Kiwi pizza exists, for those who don’t think Hawaii goes far enough
• Recipe from pasta diva Sophia Loren: fried pizza

Image: InsideHook