Restaurant Review: Lucifers Pizza

This is a review of Lucifers Pizza, 1958 Hillhurst Ave, Los Feliz, CA

It wouldn't be Halloween if I didn't dine with the devil. Well, okay, not the fallen angel himself, but a restaurant named after him. Satan would approve of this trendy-upscale pizza establishment erected in his honor. Walk inside and you are immediately taken to the underworld--dim lighting with black walls and dark-stained wood furniture complete the urban-goth aesthetic. This is not to suggest the decor isn't inviting: While you can order your food to-go, people prefer to dine in and down a few cold ones while they're munching on the yummy culinary offerings of Hell.

The food wouldn't be satanic enough if it wasn't as hot as fiery Hades, so you can order your pizza four ways: Blazing, Fiery, Medium, and zero. While there is a no-spice option to appease boring palettes, in my opinion, if you can't take the heat, well, get out of Lucifer's kitchen. They offer two different styles of pizza: their Upper Crust Pizzas (which are more "traditional Italian") and Damned Good Pizzas. There are so many varieties and topping combinations to choose from it took me forever to decide which gourmet pizza I wanted. If you're vegetarian, the Veggie Supremo comes loaded with delicious veggies sure to fill you up. They even have gluten-free dough and vegan cheese, on request. Topped with feta, sun-dried roma tomato, basil pesto, olives, red onion, green bell pepper, mushrooms & arugula, it's basically like eating a salad on top of some bread (so it can't be that bad for you, right?).

Like I said, it was really hard for me to decide what I wanted, in the end I went for the Greek Lamb and Rosemary. Its got lots of goodies on it like lamb, caramelized onions, feta cheese, kalamata olives, rosemary, garlic, lemon pepper & chopped parsley. Forget the boring cheese and pepperoni, it's not everyday you get to say you had lamb on your pizza. I also got an order of their sweet potato fries (which are tossed in HONEY!) and their tossed salad, so I can feel less guilty about this experience.

I was very impressed with the salad, it is not like one of those scary, sitting-in-the-display-case-for-two-days salads, the kind you'll find at many pizzerias. They used fresh mesclin greens, which I love over the typical chopped romaine because meslin greens add color and variety to your salad. The balsamic vinaigrette was yummy, and the cucumbers were equally delicious, but I did not like the tomatoes. I guess I've been spoiled lately with these heirloom tomatoes I've been eating from the farmers' market, but hey, if you're not going to do the tomato justice, don't use it at all. That's my two-cents.

Their honey-tossed sweet potato fries were THE BEST FRENCH FRIES I HAVE EVER HAD!!! I am not exaggerating here. I've had gourmet fries before, but honey-sweet potato fries? Come on, that's genius! The fries were perfectly crisp, you get that first kiss of sweet from the honey on the outside, then the full dolce effect kicks in when you bite into these bright-orange beauties. Seriously, come here for the pizza, and always order the fries, you won't regret it.

When the pizza arrived I was so excited. The pie was gorgeous, all the toppings complimented the pizza perfectly, it was an edible work of art. One bite and I was whisked away to a small Greek village along the shores of the Aegean Sea. The lamb, rosemary, and olives melded together so beautifully on my taste buds. Lamb is such a great topping for pizza! While the first bite might have taken me on a tour of Greece, after some chewing the fiery-chile spice brought me straight back to Hell. The spice honestly was not overpowering for me. This is definitely a piquant pizza, but it didn't cause a gastrointestinal nightmare.

If you're tired of the same old boring deliver pizza offerings, make a deal with the Devil: head to Lucifers! This pizza is sure to cure mundane-pie syndrome.

I could definitely get used to Hell.