Pizza Buona

At first glance, we had assumed that Pizza Buona was an average, lame pizza joint on the corner (the kind where some random guy with no idea how to make a good slice decided it would be smart to open a pizza place, but somehow stays open, selling one pie a month). The facade was a bit on the sketchy side, with grafitti staining the windows. But after driving by it many times we couldn't help but notice that it was always pretty full (the most important indicator of the quality of a local joint), and they have an "A" rating prominently displayed in the window. Being pizza addicts, this was promising enough for us to give it a shot, and brought our friend Mike along for backup.

Good Food, Good Friends. (that's mike on the left. Hi mike!)

First off, they have a cozy (read: tiny) parking lot in the back. Worth mentioning on a busy intersection like Sunset and Alvarado. We started toward the door with skeptical minds, but before we got there, the familiar and mouth-watering smell of pizza hit us hard. It was a promising scent, one that gave us hope that if it smelled good, it might taste good as well. Upon entering, we took in the warm and classic pizza place atmosphere: jukebox, candles on tables, laminated menus, and of course the plastic benches that comprise the booths.

Plastic-y goodness

We were soon greeted by a very accomodating waiter, whom we later learned was the owner. Mike is our resident wine-afficionado, so we were very pleasantly surprised to discover there was a wine list here. And, not a bad one at that. The greatest part about it was that it ranged from a great $23 bottle of Montepulciano to a $8.60 liter of house wine. Guess what? We got the liter. We choose a Rose, which while being a bit sweet for pizza, still did the trick just fine. Seriously, what could be better than 3 friends getting 2+ glasses of vino for less than $3 per person? That's a steal in any language, Si?

Don't wine about it

We started with a large house salad for $5.50 - which was very exciting to the 2 vegetarians at the table (Dana & Mike). It was a cold mountain of iceberg lettuce topped with garbanzo beans (love it!), olives and tomatoes. We opted for the house italian dressing on the side, which was a nicely flavored blend. The portion was plenty for 3 people and would do 4 or 5 folks just fine. Begrudgingly, Hunter admits that he thoroughly enjoyed it too.

Le Grande Salade

Let's get down to the point, folks. Pizza. Dana ordered a medium vegetarian (mushroom, onion, green pepper and black olive) with pineapple, hold the cheese please. This was her first time shunning cheese on her pie, in a continued and valiant effort to cut down on the dairy. The boys went for a large, 1/2 green pepper/pineapple, 1/2 mushroom and olive (black, not green). Hunter was willing to refrain from meat, in the interest of variety. The pies were pretty, and nicely sized. At first sight of them, we all internally heaved a sigh of relief, knowing that at the very least, this would be a pleasant experience. The vegetables were plentiful on Dana's, and the cheese was thick, gooey and bespeckled with toppings on the Boys'. What we didn't know was that the pies were a bit wet, soggy, and therefore happy to remain where they lay. Now, we've had plenty of experience with pineapple on our pizza before - but some pizza joints haven't perfected the art of balancing the moisture.... resulting in a soggy-fied and sad crustal situation. However, the flavors were good, the vegetables cooked to a nice bite-tenderness, and the sauce was pretty tasty - which helped make up for it. The boys hoped that the pineapple-less half would be a different story, but sadly, no. The sog was contagious. It seems Pizza Buona suffers from a bad case of chronic soggy crust-itus. An unforgiveable sin. That said, the boys finished and enjoyed their whole pie, and Dana put a too-healthy dent in hers. Maybe the wine was partly to thank, but we'll never admit it.

The Cheeseless Wonder	A Cheesy Delight

Overall, the experience was great for these reasons:
1. Cheap Cheap wine.
2. Friendly, comfy atmosphere
3. Ridiculously adorable owner
4. Nice salad
5. A decent pizza is still a pizza at the end of the day, and for that, we are thankful. Although the pizza's texture was a failure, the flavors were yummy, and the rare unsoggy piece of crust was good too.

Our new friend, the owner!

At the end of the day, we definitely recommend it for a cheap, local, casual dining-out experience. But the truth is, we'd never order it for delivery. Its just too soggy, and in takeout situations, this often makes for an unholy, inseperable union of crust and cardboard in the pizzabox.

Pizza Buona, 2100 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90026-3125 ph: 213.413.0800
Open for Lunch and Dinner. Delivery and Take-out.
CASH ONLY!!!!!!

Special thanks to my brother Michael, for helping with the technical end of this highly technical post