Bryan on 
Melody on 
Deanne on 
Paul Dicken on 
Madeleine Boivin on 
Brian on 
Naomi Wilton on 
Michael on 
When Pulcinella opened up in Kensington, I didn’t quite get the whole Neapolitan, slightly burnt, thin-crust phenomenon.
Plus Pulcinella’s terrible front-of-house service has proved consistent. We went last weekend at 5:30 p.m. for an early bite. The hostess asked us how many in our party, and then proceeded to answer the phone and stay on it for five minutes, while we stood there and stared at the empty dining room. Then the pizzas we got were soggy in the middle.
I raise these points because there’s a new Neapolitan kid in the city and Famoso does it right. Ah, now I understand what the big deal is.
Following strict “true Neapolitan” rules, Famoso stretches every piece of dough by hand, and uses imported low-gluten flour and whole-milk mozzarella. Pizzas cook in an Italian fire oven at 482C for only 90 seconds.
The “red” pizzas have a base of sweet Campania tomato sauce with basil, while the “white” pizzas have a base of extra virgin olive oil, garlic and oregano. The crust is hot and thin and it stays firm and chewy under fresh toppings. No soggy middle here.
Both the Siciliana ($14.50) with Italian sausage, Italian ham, and baked prosciutto, and the Primavera ($14.50) with smoked mozza, roasted red pepper, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, olives and caramelized onions were delicious.
There are considerate touches too. Bottles of wine are simply charged at $15 above retail. Dessert includes yummy selections from Fiasco Gelato (whose Kensington location is closed but still supplies some Calgary restaurants).
Famoso staff are bend-over-backwards friendly, but the system is confusing. You seat yourself and order at the counter. Food is brought to your table but then it gets muddled. A server came to take our dessert order and then dropped off a bill. But then no one took our credit card, so we went back to the counter to pay.
Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria, 2303-4th St. S.W., (403) 455-3839. Open daily 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
Famoso does make some excellent pizza. I’ve been absolutely tired of pizza with gigantic spongy crusts for years now, so the thin-crust trend wins big points with me. We’ve had a Famoso in Edmonton now for a couple years, and it’s my hands-down first choice for take-out pizza.
I agree! Famoso is great pizza, and pulcinella is crap. Frankly when I went to famoso, it was kicking and screaming from my past experiance with pulcinella. But boy was I surprised! Famoso fixes all the problems with pulcinella.
Sounds like a Chorus in here. Pulcinella’s hostess once made me go wait outside again, because I was there at 11.25 and the don’t open until 11.30…..
Famoso is just that. FAMOSO.
We were at their Jasper Ave location in Edmonton today for lunch and the pizzas were fab. They definitely know how to make ‘za. But they definitely need a new ordering system.
I loved the pizza. But the service can only be described as perplexing. Not that that would stop me from going back . . . .
Gwendolyn is right, “perplexing” is a good way to describe the service at Famoso. In fact I say thumbs down to any restaurant where the wait staff have to ask if you are familiar with the “concept” of the restaurant. If the concept is anything other than ordering food that you then bring me, you haven’t really figured out how to run a restaurant. At Famoso you are seated, then you get up to order, then you sit down and they bring you your food, then you get back up to order dessert and sit back down and they bring it to you, then you get back up to go to the till to pay. And given the layout there’s not all that much room for all this getting up and sitting down. I’ll take slower service at Pulcinella ANY day.
Sister Rivalry wine (house) was not bad for the price! The pizza (4 cheese) was delicious – creamy and had a nice bite – the lemon and olive oil drizzled over it made it even lovelier to eat. The mozza balls were pretty bland and the tomato sauce underneath it tasted like it was right from a can – next time I’m going to try the 3 dip appetizer. The servers seemed really attentive and very helpful. We liked the concept of ordering at the front and waiting at the table for everything.. it wasn’t a problem for us.
EAT, PAY LOVE!!!!
Beautiful pizza
Great Wine
Great service
Its about time Calgary has a place like this
482C? That’s 900F!! Are you sure the ovens aren’t fired at 482 fahrenheit?
Yup Famoso says 900F
Tried it for the first time last weekend (Jan 3, 2011). I
did not find the “concept” perplexing. Perhaps because I am used to
frequenting some restaurants where sometimes you need to get up and
get your own utensils rather than wait 20 minutes for service. The
pizzas were probably great for Calgary, but falls a bit short of
what I remember from Italy’s (Pisa & Venice) wood fired
ovens. Famoso’s crust was thin, nicely cooked, but the crusts on
both of ours were very chewy. I would have preferred a Margharita
with more fresh basil (8/10). The other pizza, Ricotta and Spinaci
took a bit getting used to on both taste and texture. I found the
baby spinach leaves dry and at times stringy (may be cured by
blanching and mixing with oil before placing onto crust into oven).
The potato slices added a textural departure (6/10) that I wasn;t
used to. We also ordered the roasted tomato soup (9/10) and the
garlic chili prawns appetizer (9/10). Both were delicious. The
tiramisu that we took home was yummy as well. Overall, good value,
friendly, efficient service and I would definitely go
back.
Love the pizza…consistent quality and extremely tasty. But, you are really missing out if you don’t try the fire-roasted tomato bisque as it is absolutely outstanding.