50 kalo - napoli, italy

Rating:  6 / 10

Though I generally prefer to eat at the hole-in-the-wall establishments, there is something to say about more upscale restaurants with chefs who have obsessed in test-kitchens to create the perfect dough (on paper) and push that out to willing participants of the "place to be seen" crowd.

50 Kalo fell into that category from my initial research. A pizza place with great reviews, slightly above average prices, and an outdoor seating area where people with sunglasses believe every passerby is looking at them.

We spent the better part of an hour walking over from Spagnoli, finding a line, checking our temperatures and green passes and being ushered to a spot on said outdoor area. We were also wearing sunglasses.

Two pizzas were ordered. Aqua Frizzante quenched the Napoli sun. Waiter was incredibly jovial. Food came at record speed. On paper it looked good, in person it also looked promising.

Here's where personal preference comes in again. The Margherita pizza was solid. Sauce and cheese was on point, but my main litmus test is always the crust. This was more pancake-texture, slightly heavier, and lacked that real decadent fluffiness you get at some spots.

The burrata pizza with spicy sausage had far too much sauce, the burrata and sausage were tasty but the whole thing just felt weighted down and sloppy. This was most definitely an knife-and-fork kinda pizza instead of the tuck-fold type I prefer.

If you're more obsessed with your image than your insides, then head over here for a meal. If on the other hand you are more of a down and dirty kinda person, then skip 50 Kalo and head to the netherworld.

These recommendations are just personal opinions based on my palate, things change, chefs get fired or replaced, places open-close, relocate, so take it all with a pinch of MSG  and discover your own gems too. But please do try a few of these, they have been researched exhaustively.