This visit to the pizzeria took place on June 29, 2025.
In central Athens, just a few steps from Syntagma (Constitution) Square, Ovio is a contemporary Italian restaurant – that also serves pizza – none other than listed among the recommended restaurants in the Michelin Guide. When you add to this the fact that the restaurant is also right in the city center, how high do you think the prices will be? Spoiler: very high.
I walk in, look around, and see a modern and elegant place. The service is top-notch: they welcome me with an amuse-bouche which is a micro-bruschetta with a mozzarella pearl and tomato. It seems like a trivial thing, and maybe it is, but I have to say it was really good. Though I’m looking for the main event. I open the menu and don’t even look at the list of other dishes, to avoid falling into strange temptations. I need to focus on the pizza. And there it is: a nice Margherita for “only” €14. We’re going a bit far here, but I can only swallow the bitter pill if I want to broaden my horizons. I place my order.
My table is positioned right in front of the pizza station, and while I wait, I have plenty of time to observe the pizzaiolo’s movements. He does all the moves to stretch the dough ball: first kneading it with his fingers, then spinning it like a disc, then tossing it from one hand to the other, finally stretching it over his fists to use gravity… the only thing missing was the classic Neapolitan slap, but maybe that was too ordinary. Honestly, it’s a good thing this isn’t just a pizzeria, because considering the time it takes to stretch a single dough ball, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the pace of orders. I watch the pizza go into the gas oven and settle back in my seat.
And here it comes to my table: a canotto (inflated rim), I have to say rather clumsy and misshapen, with uneven baking. Additional classy service: they cut it with a wheel cutter right at the table. What the… For one thing, I don’t understand this prevailing trend of not leaving the pizza whole, but since we’re dealing with a pretty big cornicione (crust), at least use scissors to avoid devastating it, no? Anyway, what on the menu was just a Margherita had its own interpretation: the buffalo mozzarella was added cold, torn into pieces, and some cherry tomatoes were added to the sauce. None of this was mentioned on the menu, and okay, I’m not going to complain, but I don’t see the point. Let’s proceed to the tasting.
I’m very skeptical about the dough. I see that swollen cornicione, apparently doughy and badly dented by the wheel cutter, without showing a single sign of an air pocket. And instead… well, what do you know, I’m surprised: sure, not super light, but still chewable without too much effort, and flavorful. I really expected worse.
On the ingredient front, I can also say I’m satisfied. The pizza is good, no doubt about it. Not fabulous, but good. However, I remain very disappointed by the cold mozzarella. It might be a pet peeve, but in my opinion, using cold bufala doesn’t make sense unless you can consume it where it’s produced. An imported mozzarella will have already been refrigerated and lost the organoleptic qualities that make it the top of the dairy products. At that point, you might as well cook it on the pizza. But that’s just my point of view.
In the end, I can say the experience was pleasant. Yet, I wouldn’t go back. Because beyond everything, €14 for what is basically a mass of dough covering a meager proportion of ingredients is not worth it. Unfortunately, here I identify a problem I’ve encountered in the past in many other cities, especially in the early days of the spread of Neapolitan pizza abroad: the canotto made just for the sake of having an Instagrammable dish, without criteria, and no expertise. And this is not meant to be a lack of respect for the pizzaiolo, because here I get the impression the fault lies with an absence of direction from the chef. The latter, I read on their website, is named Panos Ioannidis, an unmistakably Greek name. And I don’t doubt that the rest of the contemporary Italian cuisine might be good. But being a chef and being a pizzaiolo are two different jobs: if you don’t know how to make pizzas, you can’t teach others how to make them.
Ovio, Apollonos 4, Athens 105 57, Greece
How to get there: Ovio is a 3-minute walk from Syntagma Square, which is served by the Athens metro (stop: Syntagma) and is reached by several bus lines.
Have you tried it? What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
This is an AI-assisted translation of the original Italian article, which I have lightly edited. Please let me know if you notice any mistakes!
