Ella's Wood Fired Pizza

Review by agp8r on December 27, 2007

This is a great place to go for a laid-back lunch. The food is good overall, but I imagine that the value rating would up as you tasted more things on the menu and learned what to pick. The starter salad was a bit pricey for the simple pile of greens, but the garlic dressing was great. The calamari was also very tasty, but the portion size was very small for the price charged. The individual pizzas are 10 inch and not share-able, unless you fortify yourself with other items from the menu. Overall, I enjoyed this lunch and might go back again, but I'd be more careful running up the tab on dishes that are not worth it.

Review by sslomovitz on July 2, 2007

I go here quite often and have always loved the pizza. It is on par with Sette and I like it MUCH better than Matchbox, without the wait for a table (if I wanted a Totino's pizza from matchbox I'd just go to CVS instead). Their spinach and escarole salad is always incredible and a piping hot Margherita pizza is tough to beat.

Review by j1570176 on January 27, 2007

Bleh.

Review by LauraPaz on November 29, 2005

I really enjoyed Ella's. I've never noticed much variation with brick-oven pizzas, so as far as that was concerned, Ella's was on par with all the others. The thing that makes Ella's stand out in my book was was the variety of different pizza types available and the quality of the ingredients. My friend and I shared the wild mushroom (wild mushrooms, spinach, tomato sauce, mild goat cheese) and the genovese (potato, parmesan, prosciutto, pesto). Both were fabulous! Oh...and save room for dessert...the tiramisu was also great.

Review by jerseygirl on July 11, 2005

Recently had an all around terrific experience at Ella's. Two of us shared the mushroom and goat cheese pizza (wonderful, a must-try), the calamari (light batter and perfectly cooked), and roasted red pepper appetizer (skip it, just a few strips of pepper and a few olives for $6) and were very satisfied. The pizza is awesome: chewy thin crust, savory toppings, and light sweet sauce. If you are careful not to order more food than you need, you can get a lot of bang for your buck. Enhancing the great food was good service and tasty $5 wine by the glass.

Review by aon on November 16, 2004

I'm vegetarian not vegan, but whenever I come here I top my pizza with Ella's soy cheese, which has a delicious smoked-cheddar flavor. Ella's also has an interesting array of toppings: roasted red peppers, sea salt, caramelized onions, fennel, wild mushrooms, sundried tomatos, buffalo mozzarella etc. Ella's also makes, on the premises, its own fabulous white chocolate ice cream with chocolate chunks. The ambience is simple and diner-like, but the food rises above its surroundings.

Review by FoodLoverinDC on October 7, 2004

A great place to go before a show - service was excellent. They made sure that we wouldn't be late to a 7:30 curtain call.

Review by johngrimes99 on June 11, 2004

Ella's Woodfired Pizza is hard to find. Nestled under the Gallup building on 9th street, the front is easy to miss. However, if a place is worth going to, folks will make their way there regardless of how obscure the location.

Ella's has become a bit of an underground celebrity with Downtown restaurant employees. Looking at the polished, chain-like appearance of the place it's hard to see why. But what goes on in Ella's speaks perfectly to fellow food slingers: cheap, consistent, good food, reasonably priced booze, and a very low-key staff.

OK, so it took a minute for someone to see us at the door to seat us. However, once we got to the table (and obtained a pint of beer) we found the menu to be interesting and financially inviting. Simple (though not particularly exciting) appetizers for around $7 and individual (10") pies for around $10. Not too shabby. We had the calamari (damn tasty) and a pizza apiece.

The food whizzed out of the oven a little fast for my tastes - we had hardly finished chewing calamari before our pizzas arrived. I had the excellent Quattro Formaggi, while my date had the somewhat anticlimactic Lombardi (we both agreed it needed something to spice it up). Regardless of what your boyfriend might have told you, ten inches is friggin' huge! We probably could have split one and had more dessert instead.

For dessert we shared the tiramisu. Neither of us had the courage to get the chocolate pudding (I mean, really, pudding! But I hear it's pretty good) and we were quite pleased with our selection.

All told, we spent a little over $50 for what would have run us $75 or more at Matchbox. Very cool. We'll have to go back soon and get in on the free pizza at happy hour. Free is good. Free pizza is better.

Review by sanderml22 on June 2, 2004

To my pleasant surprise as a pizza lover, Ella's puts tons of toppings on its pizza and the personal pizza is rather large. The bar is eye-catching -- sleek and modern for an Italian pizza place. And, the menu has a lot of other items if you're not interested in pizza.

Review by jkeisenh on May 5, 2004

I know people who love Ella's pizza (I'm among them) and I know people who hate it. In the epic "which pizza is better" battle between Matchbox and Ella's, I'd score Ella's better for pizza but Matchbox better in the ambiance/space/beer selection category. Still, Ella's fresh ingredients, crisp crust, and understated pizza sauce are delicious. The starters are imaginative and well executed, with the beet orange salad among my favorites. The wine selection is decent but a bit overpriced.

One tip-- the free pizza happy hour isn't really all that great. They bring out a few pizzas at a time that people devour within minutes, only to wait 15 minutes for the next offering. After eating two tiny pieces, my group decided to pay for the pizza instead to avoid the wait.

Review by dmabram on May 4, 2004

Surprisingly, there aren't that many upscale pizza joints in DC. Ella's isn't the best of the best, but they make a fine pie. I strongly prefer them over nearby Matchbox, though some would disagree. I was particularly fond of the shrimp pizza, even though I am not normally a fan gimmicky toppings.

As the name suggests, the pizzas are cooked in a wood fired oven, and served at simple, closely packed tables. At times the restaurant can get a bit noisy and crowded, but the service has always been friendly and attentive. Good pizza, nice crowd, attentive service, whats not to like?

Review by kthiero on May 4, 2004

The Pomegranate Marini's are by far the best I've sampled (here & NYC)! Vodka-soaked pomegranate seeds are added to a pomegranate reduction mixture that slides smoothly down, making for a tantalizing tongue treat.

Review by adampbailey on May 4, 2004

Ella's was very good. We had a big and rather unwieldy group, but they moved tables for us, and our waitress was ready with witty retorts to our tongue-in-cheek questions and delivered our water with a very Baltimore "hon."

Some of us decided to split pizzas which were delicious. They used very fresh ingredients, and you could taste it. Their crust was just right: it had enough structural integrity to keep the toppings from sliding into your lap, but was still doughy enough to prevent the phenomenon where overly-crispy crusts explode all of your front.

It's a great addition to the Penn Quarter, and perfect for the Pizza and Movie kind of night with the new Landmark E Street.

Review by alibei on May 4, 2004

Review by lbgeho on January 26, 2004

The service at Ella's on a recent Saturday evening visit was great, in fact, the only great part of the experience. The staff was attentive and friendly and always visible, although our server brought us a different bottle of wine from the one we requested. Our appetizer was decent...after all, it is difficult to mess up fresh mozzarella and tomato. Then the horror began. My friend's pizza (no sauce, lots of meat) looked, and he claimed, tasted fine. However, my margherita was a swampy disaster. Each slice was sopping wet, slimy from the Buffalo mozzarella and the "sauce" which was more like thin ketchup. Each time I tried to pick up a slice, juicy matter dripped down my sleeve. Since I couldn't stomach the pizza I moved on to dessert. A bland, cakey tiramisu ended my dining experience at Ella's forever.

Review by kikim821 on January 5, 2004

The pizza was amazing, it was a party in your mouth! Wonderful and fresh ingredients made for a delicious, crisp brick oven pizza. I love this place and they have GREAT happy hour specials too (including free pizza)!!