FAMOSO NEAPOLITAN PIZZERIA (the annex) 

386 Bloor St. W. Toronto, On., (647) 748-2333 Mon. Tue. and Sun. 11:00 to 10:00, Wed. - Sat. 11:00 to 11:00

Five of us decided to try Famoso for dinner on a cold Saturday in March.  It is located in the people friendly annex area of Toronto.  I decided to call for a reservation earlier in the day and I am glad I did because this place gets very busy and is very popular in the area.

When we arrived we were greeted right away by friendly people that arranged a large booth for the five of us near the back.

There is a long open kitchen and an imported pizza oven in plain view as you walk through the restaurant.  These ovens cook pizza quickly and perfectly crisp.

We were ushered to our table and the unique ordering process used here was explained by our waitress.  We decided what we wanted for appetizers and mains (pizza) and I took the order to an order counter.  The rest was done by the waitress assigned to our table.  This seemed rather cumbersome, but it worked very well and was very efficient.  We ordered two bottles of reasonably priced valpolicella to get us started.

We began with some unusual but very tasty prosciutto wrapped mozzarella balls that were immersed in a wonderful light tomato sauce, they were accompanied by seasoned flatbread.

We each ordered a half salad (great idea), four of us had the caesar with prosciutto crisps, grana padano and house made caesar dressing.  They were a perfect size and great.  

Katie had the Napoli salad which included field greens, red onions, chick peas and balsamic dressing.  She really enjoyed it.

For our mains (they only serve pizza here) three of us, my wife, Mark and I shared the Capricciosa pizza.  This included italian ham, roasted mushrooms, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, extra virgin olive oil and pecorino romano.  It had a wonderful combination of flavours and ingredients.  This was a great pizza. It was light, flavourful, not greasy and perfectly cooked.

Katie and Thomas shared the Abruzzo pizza, which included oven-roasted italian sausage, slivered red onions, roasted mushrooms, fennel seeds, smoked mozzarella and pecorino romano.  They both really liked this combination.

All of us really enjoyed our evening at this restaurant, from the friendliness of all of the staff, to the efficiency of our waitress and to the wonderful food here.  We will definitely return and highly recommend this restaurant for its all round experience!!

Well done!!

http://www.famoso.ca/