Issue #21: Answering the BIG Questions in Life - Pizza Edition
Author: Anton, Editor: Jeff Benson
Here at Machuca Elements, we pride ourselves on covering life’s biggest topics, the things that really matter at the end of the day. Saving the planet, reducing poverty, battling gentrification, finding your spiritual path, healing trauma, building thriving communities. So it’s no surprise that today we focus on answering the biggest question of them all, the one that has been on everyone’s mind regardless of political or spiritual conviction, regardless of dietary preference or community. Today we answer:
Who has the best pizza in Machuca Valley?
Background
For many weeks now (maybe months?), Siya and I have been half-jokingly discussing the idea of doing a pizza bake-off where we get people together, order a bunch of pizzas from different places in the area and do a taste test, at the end finding out which place offers the best pizza. We never took this idea too seriously and most of the time didn’t think it was going to happen, until it did!
Set-Up
On June 1, 2024, 17 adults and 11 kids from Alegria, LEV, and Maderal gathered at the Alegria Hive. The tasters were handpicked for their expertise, either coming from a place that has the best pizza in the world (Austin, Erika & sons from Connecticut), being a professional chef (Alex of Choco Tour), claiming to have baked an amazing pizza in their personal oven (Son), or having a particularly discerning palette (everyone!).
The group decided on eight pizza places throughout San Mateo, Orotina, Coyal, Atenas, and Llano Brenes. We intentionally omitted chain restaurants as we wanted to focus on locally run pizzerias. We bought two pies from each, one cheese and one pepperoni, for 16 pies in total.
After we re-heated the pizzas in the Alegria Hive oven, each participant got to eat at least half a slice from each place and then provide a rating from 1 to 5 for appearance, cheese, sauce, crust and pepperoni (optional). The points were then totaled to determine the best pizza. Participants were (mostly) not told the name of the place they were tasting.
We broke up the group into “kids” and “adults” so that we could determine the best pizza for adults and best pizza for kids, though, spoiler alert: It turns out that the top two places are the same for both groups.
Pizza Places(in the order of tasting)
Cabernet/Poza Blanca - a San Mateo expat favorite spot
Napoli - an Orotina local
Titi’s Bar - a San Mateo local’s favorite hangout spot
Ciro - a “new discovery” place on Coyal, that was praised in the MV Foodies chat
Mae Culpa - an Italian restaurant up the hill, that’s long been considered “best pizza” (but is it?)
Monsoon - an Asian Bistro & Neopolitan Pizza ran by an Indian out of a container? Yes! An odd combo, but a strong contender.
La Finca - an Atenas favorite, so much so it was ordered for the last LEV HOA meeting
Pizza eXpress - another Orotina local
Results
First, let’s start with some “surprises.” Mae Culpa, which has long been considered a proper pizza by many, did not come in the top three for kids or adults. In fact, the kids rated it dead last! It’s a bit odd, given that it’s an Italian restaurant and many make the windy drive up into the clouds to get some of that Sicilian goodness in their fancy wood burning stove. Perhaps because of the long delivery it got a big soggy when we tasted it.
Third-Best Pizza
For kids, coming in third place was Pizza Ciro from Coyal. It’s a classic take on pizza, with a nice doughy crust and decent sauce. Their cheese is a bit “regular,” but overall a great spot that’s relatively close. For adults, third place went to La Finca in Atenas. No wonder it was the place of choice for the LEV HOA.
Second-Best Pizza
Both kids and adults agreed that Cabernet (aka Poza Blanca) has the second-best pizza in the valley. Though some ranked it the best overall, it trailed our winner by a few points. If you tasted Poza Blanca pizza more than six months ago, it has changed quite a bit! It’s a decent pizza overall for both regular cheese and pepperoni, and the pies are nicely sized. It is certainly on the pricier side as you’ll pay 21.000CRC for two pies, but not outrageous.
Best Overall Pizza
Coming in first place for both kids and adults was Monsoon! It looks great and has proper crust, yummy sauce, and delicious cheese with basil leaves on top. The only downside is their pies are a bit smaller than other places, but they make up for it with quality. At 20.000CRC for two pies, it’s not the cheapest place around, but if you consider Mae Culpa at 22.000 and Cabernet at 21.000, you still get a decent value. And let’s not forget the fact that you can have an equally delicious chicken tika massala or pad Thai at the same place.
But is it “proper” Pizza?
While we established the best places to have a decent pizza pie in Machuca Valley, the question on everyone’s mind is: How does it compare to pizza you would find “back home”? Many of us who came from major metropolitan areas around the world, especially those who spent time in Italy, are used to having world-class pizza somewhere in our neighborhood. How does the best pizza in Machuca Valley compare to, say, an average or decent pizza in those places?
The consensus seems to be that while we do have decent slices in the area, they are still slightly below average compared to what you get in major cities around the world. This opinion does vary a bit and, of course, it depends on where your “home” is, but the sentiment remains.
So what’s a Pizza Lover to do?
As with many things here in the valley, the thing to do is to shift away from a consumer mindset to become a creator and make your own pizza! That’s right, we have plenty of people doing it already and quite a few home ovens in the area; I’m sure they will all be happy to teach you. In fact, for our next pizza contest we shall do a real bake-off and compare home-made pizzas to find the best pizza chef in the area.
Full Rankings Table
Data including all individual rankings available here.
Honorable Mention
While not exactly a “Pizza Place”, the Pizza guy at the Sunday’s Market at ESM Village serves up quite a decent pie that would give any of the above places a run for their money! Worth a try!
Oh, man. I wish I could be there for the future bake-off. I'd like to throw down with the other home pizza bakers. It'll be several years before I'm there full time, so maybe we'll need to make it somewhat of a tradition and do rematches every year or so...