The Pizza Diaries: Harlow’s Pizza

If there is anything we love as much as tacos, it’s pizza. We order it quite a bit. One night when we ordered delivery from one of our favorite pizza joints, we had an idea. We have the same favorite pizza places on our rotation and we rarely venture far from what we love. It seems like a new pizza restaurant is opening every month in CLE and we haven’t made it to many of them…yet. We decided we are going to try all (a bunch of) the great pizza places in CLE and discuss what we love about them. Now we completely understand everyone’s pizza criteria is different. In fact, we both have different ideas of what makes a good pizza. For this reason, we decided we’re not going on this adventure alone, we’re bringing our friends with us. We’re excited to revisit our standard go-to’s, but hope we’ll also find some new favorites. So, please join us on our pizza journey through Cleveland!

How It Works
We have six categories we’re going to use to judge each of the pizza places. We’re judging sauce, crust, toppings, cheese, overall restaurant/experience and next day deliciousness. We’re going to leave criteria a bit open ended in these categories, as everyone has different things they look for in a good pie.

Harlow’s Pizza
First on our list is Harlow’s Pizza. If you have heard us talk about pizza then you know we love Harlow’s, so of course we had to start with them. Not only do we love their pizza but we love that they are so close to us, walking distance close! They are still fairly new, as they opened October of last year. They serve just five different types of wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizza and they have a limited beer and drink menu. Honestly, this is all they need though.

We asked our friends and across the street neighbors, Mady and Chris to join us for this visit. Mady also runs one of our favorite blogs, Wanderlust in Ohio, go check it out! They don’t describe themselves as pizza connoisseurs, they tend to get it as a late night food maybe a few times a month, but they are pizza fans. Mady’s go-to is cheese and banana peppers, while Chris’s is a thin crust Margherita pizza.

We ordered three pizzas: Margherita (san marzano tomatoes, mozzarella, EVOO, fresh basil and sea salt), Salami (san marzano tomatoes, mozzarella, genoa salami, calabrian chili, sea salt), and Leonardo (mozzarella, EVOO, pistachios, fresh grape tomatoes, fresh arugula, sea salt and no tomato sauce).

Sauce
We all agreed that they used the perfect amount of sauce on all three pizzas. We also agreed that the red sauce had a natural sweetness that we really enjoyed. Normally we’re not fans of sweet sauce, but these had just the right amount.

Crust
Mady thought the crust was ok and it didn’t really stand out. She actually could have not eaten it. Chris thought it was tasty and liked it because it was a little burnt. Broad liked it because it was thin and burnt but she doesn’t always eat the crusts and this time she didn’t. Beard’s a big fan of this type of crust: slightly crunchy, chewy, bubbly, a little charred. He could eat just the crust with olive oil and salt and be happy.

Toppings
We all agreed the toppings were amazing. They were so fresh, especially the basil. They also used the right amount and didn’t overdo it. They also came up with the perfect combinations. Chris really enjoyed the pistachios on the Leonardo, but was underwhelmed with the salami. We thought this time the salami was not as spicy or flavorful as the last time we had it. It was still good, but not the standout.

Cheese
Again, like the toppings they use the right amount of cheese on the pizzas. They don’t use too much because we think they really want to focus on the flavor of the toppings and the overall combination. Broad could have used a little more cheese on the salami, but that’s only because she is addicted to cheese.

Overall Experience
Our overall experience was pretty great.  The place is really small which we really don’t have a problem with. Pro tip: if you grab a seat by the door it can feel like people waiting for a table are hovering over you. For this reason, we recommend grabbing a seat at the bar. The workers are pleasant and service is great. The pizzas are fairly priced and the beers are super cheap. It’s no frills, which we all really appreciate. They don’t put on a fake smile or try to chit chat with the tables. ‘Come in for our awesome pizza, enjoy it, we now have more people that want more awesome pizza, thank you.’

Next Day Deliciousness
Next day pizza deliciousness is extremely important for us. Broad likes cold pizza for breakfast and Beard likes to warm it up on a skillet for lunch. In Broad’s opinion, thin crust, neapolitan pizza is not ideal for leftovers. It just gets a little weird once it’s cold, and if you want to heat it up you should do it in a skillet.  Broad had leftover Harlow’s one time the next day and it was just ok. She was super lazy and didn’t put in the work to properly reheat it. Beard on the other hand reheated his and said it turned out perfect.

Final Rating
4.5/5 Mozzarella Balls! We will definitely be coming back for more Harlow’s. We can’t wait for summer when we can comfortably walk here regularly. We’re going to go broke. If you’re in the mood for Neapolitan style pizza with the freshest ingredients then this is the place for you. We wish it was just a little bit bigger, but they’re at the mercy of their real estate. The patio will be open for summer though, so that’ll be another great seating option along with that awesome bar.

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