As surprising as this may sound, thin-crust pizza parlours are some of the easiest places to find when you leave Colombo. But, for some unknown reason, Kandy doesn't have as many pizza parlours as you'd expect them to. Vito Wood Fired Pizza actually happens to be a pretty large part of the quotation of pizza parlours in Kandy.
That and the fact that it was named after the Godfather were literally the 2 biggest reasons as to why we absolutely had to check them out before we came back to Colombo.
Ambience
The ambience at Vito's essentially comprises of a lot of open space, colourful lights and a couple of plastic tables and chairs inside a small room on top of a house rooftop turned into a restaurant. With a giant oven at the literal entrance of the place, faint traces of pop songs from a decade ago playing in the background and patio furniture that wasn't really patio furniture, the ambience at Vito's was pretty nice. But, leaving aside all that, the one thing that absolutely sold us in terms of ambience was the view.
Gaah, the view. The combination of lights, chilly, crisp air and the great expanse of space was basically the one thing that makes the process of travelling from Colombo to Kandy completely and utterly worth it.
Food
Vito's specialises in Italian fare. And while their menu isn't all that large, they somehow manage to cover the basic essentials of what a normal Italian place would have.
If you do happen to drop by at Vito's we suggest getting yourself the family pack where you get 2 large pizzas, 2 portions of Garlic bread, 1 portion of Potato Wedges and a giant Coke all for Rs. 4500.
The Chicken Teriyaki Pizza (Rs. 1620 for a large) was surprisingly very good. With bits of chicken littering the base and a symphony of mushrooms and capsicum giving it that additional push, we loved it. Spicy with just the perfect balance of sauce and mozzarella, this was a heap better than what we thought we would get and we're utterly grateful for it.
Even the dough was made well. Soft and with just the right thickness, the pie was edged with burnt bits that gave an additional smokiness to the whole thing and combined with everything else on it, we had absolutely nothing to complain about.
This is the Spicy Beef (Rs. 1200) pizza. A dusty dough topped with capsicum, well-marinated beef, onions, cheese and marinara sauce, it was great. While there wasn't too much beef involved, the pie was dotted with them and to be honest, we didn't really feel how there wasn't a lot of beef included.
This too had a wonderful balance between marinara sauce and cheese which we very much appreciated considering how there was a gorgeous tang when you bite into it.
The garlic bread turned out to be that one dark cloud in otherwise solid experience.
Basically just a couple of slices of bread toasted and smothered in garlic butter, the garlic bread was nothing more than meh, simply because they had used margarine instead of butter and that just killed the whole thing for us.
With bits of unmelted margarine lounging about in the middle, the taste of the garlic was completely lost on us. However, reducing on the margarine and maybe switching to butter would make the world of a difference.
Beautifully thick cut with a super soft steamy centre and a crisp savoury case, we loved their Potato Wedges. The wedges weren't oily and had just the perfect amount of salt and spice to give that extra punch without having it completely die down the taste of the potato.
Service
In terms of service, we had nothing to complain about. The staff was albeit friendly, unobtrusive and well versed with the menu, they managed to bring our food within 10 minutes of ordering, while the pizzas took a bit longer. But, they didn't mar our experience one bit and for that, we are grateful.
Conclusion
Although they had a bump or two along the way, Vito's proved to one of the safest bets in terms of getting your pizza on when you're in Kandy. With pretty nice staff, good pizzas, a beautiful ambience and a puppy, we thoroughly enjoyed our experience here.
Plus, you might meet this cutie on the way as well.
