William W.
Yelp
Civerinos is the coolest pizza joint in Edinburgh, with striking similarities to privately owned pizzerias in America, both atmosphere and taste. I love their motto branded on every cup and menu, "Death before Dominos," both because it suggests an eatery that goes above the norm, and because I despise mediocre Domino's Pizza just as much as they do.
American rock and hip hop music sets the mood, the huge wood-fired oven swallows up giant circles of dough with masterful creations one after the next, and an almost psychedelic decor is complemented by youthful, hip workers, some tossing dough high in the air.
The slices are enormous and one will suffice for most people (or three for champion eaters like me). Unlike many pizza places, you can order any style of pizza by the slice as long as it's listed on the menu. The combinations of ingredients are extremely clever, the sugo red sauce is good, and the crust is even better.
My wife and I tried The Civerinos, with toppings combining flavorful clumps of Sicilian sausage, delicious thick slices of pepperoni, an abundance of rosemary, and melted mozzarella. These slices were ultimately topped with cold burrata, a milky fresh mozzarella mixed with cream which added another dimension of texture and temperature. We also tried the Civernos fries which were heavily spiced the way I like it and covered with cheese.
Locals rate the pizzeria a 5, but I can't go that far. I know what a 5 is in the world of pizza, like Frank Pepe's in New Haven or Lombardi's in Little Italy. Civernos is no 5, it's more like a 3.9, but it's very good. And for Americans it's close to home.
I think only two things stand between a 4-star rating and a 5-star rating. First, Americans are accustomed to much more red sauce and there just wasn't enough to complement the ingredients. But I understand that light quantities of sauce is a European thing.
Second, the quality of the mozzarella was not good. At the best pizzerias in Italy and America, you can really taste the cheese as it holds together all the ingredients with a delicious quality! At Civerinos, it was more like grated tasteless tofu, failing to add anything to the flavor. That was extremely obvious on the loaded fries, with strings of tasteless mozzarella when closely examined. But no doubt, you'll get a good slice of pizza here and I'd recommend it.
