ZAZA Italian Gastrobar

Open since 2011, Zaza serves Italian dishes along with tapas and brick oven pizzas. The takeout ordering process here is a massive pain in the ass. First of all, they wouldn’t take an order over the phone; so I was directed to place an online order and you can’t order pizza online until after 2:45pm. Once the ordering window opened, I selected a $16 Napoletana pizza; then an alert popped up saying I needed to add $19 more to complete my order. Evidently there’s an absurd $35 order minimum for takeout! So I tacked on a $21 Burrata pizza bringing my grand total with tax & tip to over $40 for 2 personal size pies. These are not like the standard super soft wood-fired Neapolitan personal pizzas; the dough on these pies was much more firm, slightly crunchy with a texture more like cardboard than crispy. Thin & light, decently tasty dough, but too much powdery flour underneath and coating the crust, gives it an undercooked feel. The Napoletana pie was more like a regular cheese pizza shrunk down to personal size. With a basic blend of mozzarella, bland & forgettable sauce, and a touch of shriveled basil that adds nothing to the flavor, this pie comes in at a 6.6, which is rather generous. As for the other pie, when I opened the box, the first thing I noticed was the laughable amount of burrata on the pizza. Super thin slivers look like droplets of fresh mozzarella instead of thick and chunky pieces of burrata. Shockingly, it had that creamy and delicious burrata taste despite the paltry portion. This was a much more flavorful pie, with the cheese blend and burrata working well together, along with sauce that had much more spice and kick than the Napoletana pie. Still could use more crisping but the Burrata pizza was very tasty overall and comes in at a 7.3, despite being ridiculously overpriced. The other specialty pies here might be worth a look, particularly if eaten on-site; but this takeout ordering process annoyed me and their Napoletana pizza didn’t wow me, rendering an average score of 6.9 between the 2 pies.

The Italian food is better than the pizza

Zaza. This is solid New York style pizza to the point that if Sally’s (Stamford) is busy nearby on Summer Street, you should go here for a solid alternative First, the crust is well done, approaching toward a New Haven style well done bake. It’s crispy. But not to the point of crackery crunchy with a dense chew. It’s baked well with a black leoparded and dark brown bottom crust. It’s light and had no flop. Sauce is bright and mediumly chunky. Pretty well distributed, though I’d like more. Not heavily seasoned but that’s okay here. It serves its role. Cheese is lightly applied. Not gooey and oily. It’s low moisture mozzarella. If you notice not a drip of oil on that wax paper after a few slices. The crust had some level of longer fermentation but I wouldn’t describe it as a sourdough crust either. I can just tell from its lightness that that is the case. My biggest criticism of this pizza is that it’s not boldly flavorful. It just does the job of what people expect in a good New Year style pizza well. It’s about a well constructed pizza that I could easily see others rating an 8. Maybe I score too low. But this is just really solid pizza I could eat anytime.

Way too low a global rating here. The burrata pie was great. Thin and crispy crust, good zing on sauce. Needed 30 seconds more in the oven for a 8.5. Great pie.

Thin and crispy

No flop, nice crisp, sauce a bit over seasoned, ingredients generic, not a show stopper but a decent pie. A 5.8 without the burrata. Was mid 8’s prior to new ownership coming in years ago.

Next level greasy. Generic taste. Generic ingredients. Restaurant Depot bulk bought ingredients.

Elegant pizza, not a football pizza. 0 flop, but more doughy than I expected. Good zing on the sauce but could use more cheese and a few more minutes in the oven. 7.4 that’s a review

Solid pizza, good crunch