delicious Cambridge pizza crawl

[julieapfel]

Last night 2 friends and I did a pizza crawl to 4 spots in Cambridge that are known to serve good pizza. First up was Oggi in Harvard Square where we split a plain slice and a "green salad" slice which was basically a Greek Salad piled on a plain slice. The plain was very good, and the salad slice was amazing. It's a thick crust and was perfectly doughy - chewy where it counts and crispy where it counts. I prefer buying pizza by the slice because they re-heat it up for you and get the bottom of the crust extra crispy. Then we went to Veggie Planet and shared a Lunch For Henry. There was loads of goat cheese melting all over the place, and not too much squash. Not very pizza-like but very good and I'll go back to try other stuff. 3rd up was Stone Hearth Pizza in Porter where we split a small pizza, half Farm Fresh and half Bacon and Blue on wheat crust. The server took pity on us (not realizing we were in the middle of a crawl) and increased the size of our pizza and added some toppings I think. The farm fresh had too many olives for me, and I learned that I don't like pizza with bacon on it, so this stop was kinda a bust for me, but I'd go back and try other stuff. The crust was excellent. The root beer was also excellent. Last stop was Zing where we shared 2 odd shaped slices of Augustus Classicus and Blue October. Both tasted under-seasoned, especially the Classicus, and the Blue October was very blue-cheesy - too much for my friends but I love the stuff so I was happy.
I think we spent about $12 each including tips. My favorite was Oggi.

Our next crawl is going to be a sushi/chef's choice crawl, probably around Coolidge Corner to hit up Tsunami, Fugakyu and maybe Mr. Sushi.

[julieapfel]

we didn't have a car so couldn't go to places too far away from each other, and it was only 3 of us so 4 stops @ about 2 slices per stop filled us up to the point of being uncomfortable, so we might have to plan a 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) pizza crawl in different parts of the city. Thanks for all the great suggestions!

[Dreamworks]

No Cambridge pizza crawl can be considered legit without a stop at Armando's. You won't find pizza like Stone Hearth there, but then in my opinion, that's not really pizza.

That's just my New York opinions coming out.

[cpingenot]

Oggi used to have a location right next to my office downtown. It closed just as I moved to Harvard square, and I was really happy when they opened up there.
I think that they have great pizza- the pepperoni is unusually spicy and there's a nice layer of singed cornmeal on the bottom. I really like the sesame seeds on the crust, but I understand it's an acquired taste.
Unfortunately because they're in the Holyoke center their hours are unexpectedly short for a pizza place- they close at 8pm most nights and I think at 7 on Sundays. I'm sure they keep busy on lunch traffic, but I wish they could be open later!

[treb]

Nice report, let some of us ch'ers know. Mmmmm...Pizza!

[Bob Dobalina]

Notice that you passed up the Half Shell, which sounds like a seafood place, but is a pizza joint. Any discussion in the group regarding it?

[gansu girl]

Do you like that place, Bob? I used to live in the building behind it and never really liked it, but that was the mid-90's. Is it good?

[Bob Dobalina]

I've never been! I have a mental block with the name...

[autopi]

me too! i go by it almost every day and the thought of actually trying it out has never crossed my mind. i guess i've always assumed it's a not-very-promising-looking-seafood joint. do they do slices?

[dsmoxie]

Haven't had the pizza in a couple of years -- it's not bad, but pretty greasy. The crust, if memory serves, is on the thick side (which I don't mind), and the cheese rather rubbery. The gyros are pretty good, too.

[gansu girl]

I used to get the gyros, and the "seafood salad" (fake crabmeat) sub w/LOADS of mayo. I was younger then. : ( But the pizza (they did sell slices) was only meh - rubbery, yes, and a crust that screamed "I came pre-prepped!"

[gourmaniac]

if you do the Coolidge Corner sushi crawl, you might add Shiki to your list.

[StriperGuy]

Heck you could round it out by adding Pinocchio and Cambridge One.

[julieapfel]

Prav told me about Pinocchio as we were mid-crawl. I regret not going since I LOVE Sicilian but I would have been very uncomfortable at the end of the night - I was so stuffed as it was. I've been to Cambridge One and really like it so didn't feel the need to go - we went to all new (to us) places.

Thanks for the suggestions though!

[robertlf]

And Upper Crust, Crazy Dough's, Bertucci's, and Pizzeria Uno.

[kendra22]

I agree with Cambridge One pizza. If your in the mood for a nice slice with some salad this is the place to go. Love it!!

[jgleeche]

This is about 10 minutes from Harvard, but Garden at the Cellar actually has some really nice flatbread "pizzas."

[itaunas]

The crawl certainly hit a lot of places, but missing some traditional pizza parlor and slice joints. Pinocchio is an obvious, but either Armandos or Angelos important too. La Hacienda for bar pizza and East Side Bar and Grill has a better NY pie but really skimpy on the toppings, Il Panino used to be decent. I would give any of these a mention before UC/CD/Bertucci's, and Uno. The Harvard Square Bertucci's is worth a mention because it was one of the last ones to continue to burn wood and better than the Alewife branch, but as far as I understand they finished converting all to gas and Gran Gusto is a far cry better. And there is also HiFi for 2am greek pizza.