Pizza Republica

After working too late one night, I sought solace with a Neopolitan style pizza at Pizza Republica. I sat at the bar, looked over the menu, ordered the basic Neopolitan and then did a little people watching. The diners were the same crowd that frequents Jing, which made be instantly worry about the food. When the pizza arrived it looked really good. The watercress was very fresh, and the San Marzano tomato sauce smelled good. The garlic chips were tasty, but the crust and the sauce were pretty bland. Pizza Republica seemed to me to be trying to evoke an authenticity that you were being transported to Napoli, but while the crust was crisped nicely from the wood fired oven, the dough seemed to lack any character from proofing. Similarly, the San Marzano sauce was in need of reduction and maybe a little coaxing of herbs and onion. At $14 bucks, I felt like there was far too much attention paid to the style of the restaurant and not enough on the food. The service at the bar verged on abandonment, and there was a pretty obvious mistake on the wine menu, notably the mention of a Barbera d’Alba with Nebbiolo as the identifying grape. Hopefully the miscues are just growing pains for this young restaurant, but either the crust and sauce will have to improve or the prices will have to drop for me to recommend this place.

kindageeky´s # of visits: one