Otto's!

A lot of people think this is the best pizza in Portland.  And for good reason.  It is certainly the pizza I eat most frequently, not least of all because it’s $3 a slice for some mushroom-ricotta pizza, it’s fast, and it’s directly apartment from my ex-work, current apartment, smack dab in the middle of Congress Street.  It’s a handy pizza to have.  And I will admit that, given some of the flavor options, it’s amazingly stellar.  But!  Based on pure cheese?  That’s the challenge.  My friend Kevin and I went after a movie to truly test the simple cheese pizza at Otto's.

Smell : Again, a pretty solid smell but was not overpoweringly salivating.  It is a smell that would be tempting had you already gotten in your head that you wanted pizza, not a smell that would sway you had you not already made the commitment.  3/5

Appearance : Kevin touted the genius of putting dollops of sauce on top of the actual pizza, which is something I am not sold on.  To me, it did not add to the appeal but detracted from it, at least aesthetically.  It certainly did not look like the perfect cheese pizza.  Furthermore, the outer crust always looks too small, and sometimes a little overly browned/blackened.  2.5/5

Cheese: The perfect cheese!  Wonderfully stringy and flavorful, with lots of chewy bite.   I was really impressed!  This is definitely the best cheese on the cheese pizza yet.  5/5

Crust:  Debatable.  The thin crust makes for a nice, juicy bite, and it’s the kind of pizza that you have to bend in half to get a solid mouthful.  However, it does lend itself to that floppiness; I raised the pizza to my mouth and the tip, which was covered in sauce, sort of flopped down onto my plate (there is a “that’s what she said” in there somewhere..).  But, I really dislike that crunchy outer-crust bite.   It’s too tough.  Furthermore, the crust itself doesn’t have a lot of flavor to bring to the table.  3/5

Sauce: I’m going to give the sauce controversially low numbers.  But to me, a pizza sauce is a different beast than a spaghetti sauce.  The flavors are a little more potent and powerful, a little more peppery, pungent and spiced.  The sauce at Otto’s has a more tomato-y, chunky, marinara-like style.  Now, this is really *really* fucking awesome on their tortellini pizza.  It’s like eating a bowl of tortellini and red sauce…on a pizza.  But on the cheese?  I wanted something with a little more of a strong kick. 2.5/5

Overall experience: I have had lots of great experiences at Otto.  Usually, when I focus on the details of the pizza, it’s a little less overpowering than when I drunkenly down a slice, or when I grab one on my way to work, and am impressed by how fantastically good it is.  But when I sit and enjoy a single slice of cheese pizza, it simply does not have the same effect.  I’m sorry, Otto fans.  It’s yummy pizza.  But it did not rule my world, or make me sigh “Oh my God” out loud, at least with the just cheese.  We are unfortunately going to with a 3.7 for overall experience.

The time has come for math.  Average all components together, 3.2.  I feel like I’m gonna catch a lot of flak on this one.  Add that to overall experience, and you get 6.9.  I know, I know!  That feels too low for Otto’s.  It’s a lot of people’s favorite pizza.  But honesty?  With the mashed potato-bacon-scallion, with the butternut-squash-cranberry-ricotta, with the three-cheese-tortellini, with the pulled-pork-mango…how many Otto’s fans *honestly* just order the cheese?  Like Bonobo, it is more a speciality pizza joint, and the basic cheese just don’t not hold up.