Restaurants: Olio

Do you ever get so behind a restaurant that you don’t want to admit that anything else could possibly be as good? I spend a lot of time at Motorino, a pizza restaurant that is conveniently located next door to my current apartment in the East Village. They turn the simplest ingredients into masterpiece pizzas.

I had heard that Giulio Adriani, an Italian award-winning pizzaiolo, just opened a restaurant called Olio in the West Village. He called Motorino unauthentic and said that he doesn’t consider it to be competition. This made me extremely skeptical of Olio, but I thought I should check it out.

Right off the bat, Olio has a lot going for it: large space, soon-to-come outdoor seating, and great cocktails.

Matt got the Margherita, which is his usual at Motorino. We both agreed that it was delicious, but not quite as good as Motorino. I think that we both like the cheese at Motorino better, as well as the charred flavor of the crust.


I went with the Mezzaluna, which was described as half salami and ricotta and half cherry tomatoes and smoked mozzarella. The pizza was in a half-moon shape with the cherry tomatoes and mozzarella taking up most of the pie and the salami and ricotta actually stuffed in the crust.


This was no Pizza Hut stuffed crust. The puffy crust was filled with creamy ricotta and rich, chewy chunks of salami. Yum.


We both kind of ate in silence as we savored our pizza but didn’t really want to admit how good it was. The toppings were all extremely simple, but very high quality. The crust had a great balance of being chewy but light. I can’t wait to come back when the patio opens!