Gimani — Restaurant in Albuquerque

Ok look.. this place is special. There are a few reviews with low ratings and some of the reasons weren't about the quality of pizza and of course taste is completely subjective but hear me out.. This was the best pizza I've had in Albuquerque for sure and I've made it a point to try a ton of different spots. Here is what I have to say.

Right when you walk in you see several ingredients near the entrance. I don't think people understand that the 00 flour they use in their pizza is very authentic and pretty expensive in the states. The crust tasted like the kind of "fancy" bread you'd get when you're seated at a nice Italian restaurant. Other very authentic ingredients they used were San Marzano tomatoes, Buratta and fresh mozzarella cheeses, and the pizzas were topped with ACTUAL Parmigiano Reggiano... This wasn't the B.S. fake cheese you buy at Walmart. We could tell this was an actual block of cheese, rind included.

They have 4 different slices of pizzas plus their special. We got the flight which included their main pizzas. The pizza slices are really big. I think the perfect portion would be two people sharing a salad and each eating a piece, but I am big on portion sizes and hate getting full. The lemon pizza was the best white sauce pizza I've probably ever had. I don't normally gravitate towards white sauce. I'm not sure what the exact difference was but the crust on this one was extremely airey and sooo fresh and delicious. I absolutely loved the flavor too. My friend who likes white sauce more than I do wanted to see other options for toppings like possibly shrimp. Pepperoni with the ramp up was absolutely incredible. I'm a sucker for hot honey on pepperoni pizza. I collect different hot sauces and hot honeys and asked if they sold their "house hot honey," to which they replied that they used Mike's hot honey. Why is it called house hot honey if they don't make it in house? That should be changed on the menu and was one of my few gripes. Their Angry and Margarita were really good but the other two were much better. Our only other real criticism was that they should cut the basil up and spread it better around their pizza or just fry their basil so it wasn't as intense of a flavor but maybe that's Personal preference. We've also had better red sauce but I know it's not an issue with ingredient authenticity. I think more garlic and fresh herbs would seal the deal but it's hard without breaking the ingredients down. Btw, we also had wine which was delicious but I like most wine so I don't speak on that.

Either way... This. Place. Is. Special. Everybody needs to check this place out immediately. It's an awesome place to have a meal or take a...

I’m not a critic nor do I ever externally rate my food experiences, however; I feel compelled to share the joy, I experienced this evening. For full transparency, my (biased) perspective is derived from the PNW where I’ve been lucky to be part of a similar unique pizza and bar experience “G” and his team delivered tonight. I’ve been to ABQ on several occasions but the food journey this evening transported me to another state and perhaps even another country. Over the course of three hours, I witnessed a stedfast commitment to ensure that edible art was shared with those willing to wait in line. Spoiler, it’s worth the wait.

From a technical perspective, the workstations were highly organized and meant to ensure delivery of a quality slice of pizza/salad/gelato no matter the rush or otherwise. On the pizza front, in my opinion, the dough/crust is everything and they’ve committed to the process of adhering to the correct ratios and timing and on top of that, the menu is absolutely perfect and represents the modern approach to the food scene (especially in a post-pandemic environment). At a basic and fundamental level, the desire to share fresh and enjoyable food was evident throughout and above all else, G and his team were there to deliver a smile, tasty food, and open share conversations about life. I only intended on staying 30 minutes or so and instead, I gladly relished in the experience of it all. Do yourself a favor and open up to the possibility that food and community are one in the same.

Looking forward to returning as soon as I can and believe that Gimani and team will continue their journey by focusing on quality, consistency, and...

1st time here been open for about 7 months. Lets start with the Good. Service was great food got to us very fast and it was busy place is clean and the staff does what they can to get the tables cleaned up. Parking is not that good as there are other restaurants around so its busy. Pizza was good. We ordered a flight and as soon as it was brought out we realized we made a HUGE!!! mistake. 1 slice is more than enough as the slices are really big like Costco pizza slice with all the toppings for the pizza you ordered. We also ordered a salad again this is good enough to share. overall food was good. Ok now the Bad. The place gets busy so if you expect to dine in you will be. waiting for a table to free up and be ready to claim it as soon as it frees up as there is no wait list. OMG again 1st time here so we made the mistake and ordered a flight which is your choice of 4 slices we also ordered a salad and 2 drinks total jiust a little over $40 price for pizza was way to much and feel that for that i could have had like 2 large pizzas at a local pizza place with a huge family salad. The place is really trendy and they offer wine with pizza and have a small variety of beers on tap. Overall if you want to have expensive slices of pizza then this is your place. Also they have a slice with Green Chile but obviously the chile they use is not local chile because you cant taste it. Sorry but this place will not be a place that I will go out of my way to eat from again. Food was good and...