Mama Mia!: Paying More for Less at Mother Dough

Mother Dough (spelled hipster/ee cummings style with no caps - "mother dough") is a Neapolitan style pizzeria on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Feliz that's been getting a lot of praise, and while the pizza is generally good, the prices are way out of whack for what you get.

We orderd two appetizers. The sardine crostini, for $8, was two slices of bread topped with a single basil leaf and a white sardine with lemon juice and orange zest. It was fine, but very small. The charcuterie plate, on the other hand, was quite good with a variety of salumis, speck and other cuts.

The pizzas are the single serving, traditional Neapolitan style and range from $15 to $19 per pie. The Margherita pizza was quite good, with a thin, chewy crust, and a tangy sauce that went well with the gooey buffalo mozzarella. The sausage pizza was less interesting. The house made sausage sliced over the top was decent but not great, lacking much in the way of spice and it seemed like an afterthought, tossed on top without a sense of how it would meld with the sauce and cheese.

I must say I don't get the hype around this place (given there is an Umami Burger across the street, this may be the most overhyped block in LA). In the world of LA pizza, Mother Dough is pretty decent, though not fantastic. Unfortnately, the place is a terrible value. The prices at MoDo seem to average about a dollar more than Mozza, while the pizza is nowhere near as good as those revelatory pies, and the portions are much smaller. Of course, it's a lot easier to get a table at Mother Dough, so maybe you're paying for the privilege of being able to dine-in, sort of a reverse delivery charge. Still, I'll take Mozza2Go over a table at MoDo any day of the week.

In any case, while the food was decent, I had no desire to return.


mother dough
4648 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Phone: (323) 644-2885