Scrappy. Anyone who can transform an old Kentucky Fried Chicken location into a one-off pizza shop gets a tip of my hat. House Pizzeria did that. I love what they did with the building. The interior is clean and modern. Great local beer on tap and in bottles. The pizza was very good. They are building Napoli style pies: thin crust, but chewy with air bubbles. The crust was very good. Overall, for the style of pizza they are shooting for, it didn’t blow me away. I ordered the Margherita Deluxe and the standard Margherita. In my opinion, the Margherita is the benchmark of pizza. If you aren’t doing it correctly, you may need to refocus. They have obviously done their homework on the dough. It was firm yet chewy, good flavor balance, but was on the edge of being tackled by the toppings. The tomato was my issue. I think they are using slightly crushed San Marzano tomatoes. The acidity overwhelmed and drowned out the other flavors. As for the cheese, I preferred the standard Mozzarella. I think it had more flavor and wasn’t as watery. Don’t get me wrong, with a few tweaks, their pies could be excellent. I’m going back to try House Pizzeria again. The place has great spirit. You can tell they care about what they are doing and they are a welcome addition to the Austin pizza scene.
Hey, glad you made it there to try it out. We were just there on Thursday or Friday of last week. I agree that they are close. Just a few tweaks. I had the pepperoni and agree that it nearly overwhelms the crust. Also, they put so much pepperoni (at least they were generous), that it generated just too much fat on top of the pie. Kelle had the stilton with port wine reduction. Could use a little modification (herbs maybe or just one complementary veggie), but was still quite tasty. The rolls they serve with salads (made of pizza dough) are a complete miss. They should rethink those completely. I like the salami with white cheddar & red onions. I think that one is their best so far. My favorite commercial pie is still Salvation.