Molto Bene Mozza – Lunch at Pizzeria Mozza

A couple of weeks ago I heard a rumor that Pizzeria Mozza was offering up a killer lunch special – $20 for a glass of wine, pizza, and dessert. It seemed almost too good to be true. Mozza is owned by famed restauranteurs Mario Batali, Nancy Silverton, and Joseph Bastianich and has been the darling of the in crowd since it’s opening a few years ago. Their prices are a bit on the high end and definately don’t fit into my bargain budget; I was almost too afraid to visit – visions of $40 dollars lunches were dancing in my head.

Luckily, I found a friend willing to take the plunge with me. So, yesterday afternoon we headed on over to give it a whirl. When we first glanced over the menu posted outside the door I saw no indication of a lunch special. In fact I saw dishes that averaged $20 a piece, yikes! I was pretty nervous but my friend assured me we could always split something if the deal was not available. With a blast of courage masking the butterflies in my stomach I opened the door and stepped inside.

First, wow! There aren’t any windows and there was no activity on the street outside so I figured the place would be half empty. Wrong! It was bustling with activity and we had to wait a few minutes for a seat. After a short period we were shown to two spots at the bar where we found this –

sorry so tiny

Our server soon arrived and we let him know we were ordering the special. On that he offered us red or white wine. Never a fan of red, I went for white as did my friend. Then I looked over the menu to choose my pizza. Not an easy task as there were at least 20 to pick from. I finally settled on Prosciutto di Parma, rucola, tomato &  mozzarella. My friend went for Fennel sausage, panna, red onions, & scallions. A short while later, these arrived.

his

hers

Don’t they look delish? And they were. I told myself to hold back because I knew dessert was coming but…it was so good! I couldn’t stop myself and ate the entire thing. I don’t regret it.

Before too long the pizza was a distant memory and it was on to dessert. There were quite a few to choose from and they all sounded delicioso. I chose Peach copetta with raspberry sorbetto & sbrisolona and my companion chose Carmel copetta with marshmallow sauce & Spanish peanuts. And fyi a copetta is a sundae. I had no idea and had to ask our server.

Lovely, huh? Mine was quite good although I didn’t really care for the cookie (the sbrisolona?) that was crumbled on top. But no worries, I just pushed it to the side and devoured the rest.

Soon, the sundaes copettas were also a thing of the past and the meal was sadly coming to an end. By then, the restaurant had mostly cleared out so we took our time sitting at the bar and chatting.

All in all the meal was a success. The food was yummy, the company was pleasurable and I learned a great lesson – just do it! I took the plunge and had a great meal at a bargain price. Now for the next adventure!

Pizzeria Mozza
641 North Highland Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
$20 special available M-Th 12pm-5pm & 11pm-12am