Kitchen Igosso: Finding Great Pizza in Unexpected Places

Kitchen Igosso is perhaps the dark horse of the 2014 Pizza Cup, coming from relative obscurity to grab a place in the final for the "upscale" category (which you can vote for here by the way). Not knowing what to expect from a Japanese-owned Italian restaurant set on a quite backstreet in the no-man's land between the CBD and Sanlitun, I called by on a quiet lunchtime and found myself very pleasantly surprised.

There are nine pizzas on the menu, ranging from a simple margherita to a slightly scary looking squid ink version. A word of caution: although the names of the pizzas are in English, the ingredients are all in Chinese (as is the rest of the menu). Being the crazy risk taker that I am, I plumped for the anchovy and rucola pizza (RMB 88).

The pizza that arrived boasted good quality cheese, a clearly homemade tomato sauce and a base just on the right side of pliant. Could that base have been a touch crispier? Perhaps it could, but the scorched and crisped patches around the edge of the crust more than made up for it. Some may find the taste of the tomato a little too strong, but for them the menu also holds sauce-less options, such as the quattro formaggi (RMB 82).

Pizza aside, there wasn't time to try the pasta, but the plates being briskly delivered to the tables either side looked very inviting. Certainly worth trying one as part of their RMB 58 set lunch menu, which includes a choice of pasta or risotto, a mini salad, a dessert and a coffee.

More stories by this author here.

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Photos: Robynne Tindall, Dianping