Forks and Knives

Restaurant Name: Ignazio's Pizzeria

Location: 4 Water St, Brooklyn, NY, 11201

Website: http://ignaziospizza.com/

Price Range: $30-40

JCL Rating: 7.5/10

JCL's Choice: Shrimp w/ smoked bacon white pizza

As we were wandering around looking for the restaurants in Red Hook, we came across this fancy looking pizza place. Ignazio's was the name. On the door, "cash only" was posted. This was the first time I have been into a pizza restaurant. No, this is not your average Papa John's or Domino's or any other pizzeria. This is a Pizza "restaurant." As you walk in, soothing music is playing. The interior design of this place is very old fashion European layout. Old paintings and the chairs reminded me of the 1900s. 

As we were seated, menus were given to us instantly. But it took a few moment before the waitress asked if we wanted anything to drink. The menu comes with a wine list. A pizza place with wine list, not a common experience. They also have a bar. The menu consisted of some appetizers, five types of pizzas. They are: The Pizza (not sure what so special about this, but it might be what they are best for), white (pizza with no tomato sauce), Sicilian (square pizza), and calzone (pizza pie folded in half) and specialty pizza. You will be able to add toppings on the first four pizzas. Specialty pizzas comes with toppings already. We ordered the specialty pizza, shrimp with applewood-smoked bacon and roasted red peppers.

The service here is very slow and laid back. For once, slow service is a good thing. Why? Well there is a beautiful view when you look outside. And the atmosphere here is just so relaxing. Oh, one more thing, the people here were eating pizza with forks and knives. Very interesting sight, a funny one too. 

It took a good twenty to thirty minutes before our pizza arrived. Why did it took so long for a pizza to come? Well, this pizza is 100% freshly baked a la minute (prepared to the order). They were prepping the pizza right next to the bar. 

The aroma from the pizza was amazing. I love the smoky smell. Anyways, since we are in this "fine dining pizzeria," we should follow their customs right? And here we are, using knives and forks to eat pizza. The first bite was incredible. The pie dough was very thin. The smokiness of the bacon, the freshness of the shrimp, a hint of garlic with the mozzarella cheese, together is heaven. The true potentials of each ingredient was brought to the maximum here. From the texture, you can tell that the mozzarella cheese was freshly pulled. Then my friend pointed out the fact that there was no tomato sauce. I didn't notice that at all because the pizza was moist enough without the sauce. That was when we realized it was a white pizza.


Man, was this the best pizza I ever had (no i haven't tried Artichoke yet). It was indeed expensive for a medium pizza pie, but it was big enough to fill three of us. So I say it was worth the experience and the food quality was great. I would definitely recommend this to anyone and I would definitely come back to try their other varieties.