Mozza Review: I'm not easily intimidated

So, Mozza. The headline is: good food, crap service. You want more? Of course you do.

If you get 4 foodies at a pizza place like this, they are not going to agree on an order. With around 15 different pizzas to choose from, we decided to do the American thing and vote for our favorites. We each ticked our top 3 choices and tallied the votes on the paper menus. After ordering, our waitress said "you wrote on your menus?" and then said she only wanted to take the menus that had not been scribbled on, like we were errant 3 year olds playing with crayons. This isnt bloody Le Cirque - this is a pizza place with paper placemats, paper napkins and paper menus, fer chrissakes. So far, so annoying.

For antipasti, we opted for fried squash blossoms and crispy goat cheese on beet greens. Both were fantastic: crispy and creamy in all the right places. There was an interesting spice we tasted in the greens. When asked which spice, the waitress sniffed "salt and pepper". Grrr. Then we had the Mozza Caprese - their version has roasted cherry tomatoes and burratta. Really lovely.

So for the pizza, the clam pizza was vetoed over protests, and the hanging chad controversy dogging the "accidental" vote for the sopressata pizza did cloud the proceedings somewhat. The mushroom and fontina was the clear winner in both pre and post votes. The fennel sausage, panna and red onion runner up. The not-entirely-successful-but-still-a-nice-try award goes to the rapini, black olive, cherry tomato and anchovy pizza. They do a nice crust, crispy but substantial enough to not sog-up when loaded w fillings.

The buzz over the butterscotch budino is well-deserved. Salty, sweet, creamy, carmelly....mmmm. The strawberry and cassis sorbets were fab too - why do I never order sorbet? I always enjoy it, and surely it cant be the heart attack in a giant yum that the butterscotch pudding was. Oh well.

As for the service: a fleet of rabidly over-eager bus boys hovered over us the entire meal, snatching our plates and glasses before we had even finished them. We had to stop them not once or twice, but 4 times. If the goal was to make us feel utterly unwelcome and get us out as soon as possible, then they succeeded. I would definitely go back for the pizza, but would get it as takeaway and eat it at home where I can scribble in peace.