Pizzeria Marita — Restaurant in Kyoto

The best pizzeria experience I’ve ever had. I watched every ingredient fall into place with skill and care, and the pizza go from the oven to my plate before I could blink.

After leaving Kyoto, I kept thinking about this pizza, basically every day. I tried other pizzerias in other cities, wanting even an idea of this.

Now back in Kyoto, after revisiting this delicious pizzeria, I am positive.

This may be the best pizza anywhere in the world, ever, at all, throughout the infinite expanse of time and space, this is the best. Every good pizza I’ve ever had is envious, and every bad pizza I’ve ever had existed solely to show how beyond my imagination this pizza is in every way.

And I love pizza. Like an absurd amount. I’m still sitting here eating and I just ordered a second pizza because it’s so insanely good.

I did order a second pizza. I am eating that second pizza right now. I don’t know how I can ever recommend any other restaurant ever again. This is like.

I’m sitting here eating the best pizza in the world, watching through glass as the guy makes the best pizza in the world. He’s even wearing a Napoli hat. The pizzas come out of the oven boiling not two feet from you. And you can see him put all the ingredients on. It’s actual magic.

This is like. Have you ever wondered what being friends with Hugh Jackman feels like? Probably like this.

Every time you see a pizza come out of the oven, it feels like your crush is flirting with you.

My favorite restaurant is a pizzeria in Kyoto. That’s absolutely wonderful and remarkably inconvenient.

I will probably think about this pizza at least three times a week for the rest of my life.

Every date for the rest of my life, I will think “if I was extravagantly wealthy, we could just go to that pizzeria in Kyoto.”

That’s the kind of place this is. Please go. Please tell your friends. This is the best restaurant I’ve ever been to and if they should be in every city...

Best toppings I've had in Kyoto, average crust and cheese, overly oily. English menu available.

I came at lunch time. There's a small consistent selection of pizzas available plus a pizza of the day. You can eat for ~1000 yen, and that comes with choice of a drink. I ordered the pizza of the day (sausage and broccoli rabe) and received my pizza within minutes of sitting down. Fast service!

The crust of this pizza was fairly average. The first piece or two had a decent crisp to the outer layer, but after only a couple minutes out of the oven, it became fairly doughy and chewy.

However, the toppings were the best of the several pizza places I've tried in Kyoto. The broccoli rabe and sausage we're both very fresh, well seasoned, and the pizza was well-composed. The mozzarella cheese was average - it didn't detract or add to the experience.

My one major gripe was that my pizza was extremely oily. The excess oil overwhelmed the taste of the other ingredients and made several pieces rather soggy. I suspect I'd have gone with 4 stars if it...

Showed up at 7:30 on Saturday and they were out of ingredients for pizza. Showed up before 5:30 (dinner opening), with no line, on Sunday and the entire restaurant had been reserved for the night, even for takeout. I'm sure the pizza is good, I only wish I had gotten to eat any before leaving Kyoto. Neapolitan pizza prepared in an oven this way isn't rare where I'm from, so I really just wanted to try the owner's recipe, but I can't abide this weird auteur stuff when I've been to several great Neapolitan pizza restaurants that don't have these kinds of supply/service problems. 🤷‍♂️ 👎 People will forgive a lot for good food, especially when dazzled by a brick oven, but it's old hat for me.

Oh well. Guess I'll try again in four or five years when I'm back in the country, assuming it's not booked that far...