What It’s Like to Eat Pizza at 180 Grammi In Rome

180 Grammi, Rome’s ‘pizza tonda’ standard bearer, isn’t in the city center. Getting there can be a pain that involves taking an expensive taxi or multiple trains. Its on-line reservation system drops reservations during the booking process and calling for a reservation is an exercise in futility. Despite these issue, or maybe because of them, it’s one of the city’s most coveted reservations to score.

Considering the vast number of pizzerias in Rome, you might be thinking that making such efforts is crazy. We get it. However, we’re so pizza-obsessed that we simply had to taste the pies that made Jacopo Mercuro and Mirko Rizzo famous and landed their pizzeria on so many ‘best pizza’ lists.

Our efforts were justified. The internationally acclaimed pizzeria located near the Teano metro stop has achieved an apotheosis of Pizza Romana. As we ate our pies, we couldn’t think of a better example of the form. Our pies had a uniform crispness from edge to edge with good flavor and crust (something you don’t always see on Romana pies) with a light, slight bubble.

After our pizza dinner, when we told locals the we had eaten at 180 Grammi (pronounced chentottahnta grahmmee in Italian), they were in awe. As it turns out, even they hadn’t cracked the reservation code at the super-popular pizzeria.

Pro Tip
Consider taking a Rome pizza-making class if your pizza obsession matches ours.

180 Grammi releases reservations exactly two weeks before each dinner. Interested diners must secure them using the pizzeria’s online reservation system. It sounds so easy.

Unfortunately, the system kept dropping our reservation midway through the process. In retrospect, we should have been ‘quick as lightning’ after selecting a less popular time. (We learned this technique when making reservations at Armando al Pantheon which has an equally frustrating reservation system.)

Cancellations happen but you need to move quickly when they pop – we tried that with no success. We also attempted to call with a similar lack of success.

Pro Tip
Be cool and simply refer to 180 Grammi as 180g.

Without a reservation, our only option was to take a one-hour underground Roman odyssey via three train lines (including the recently consecrated “SubArcheo” linea C) and beg for a table. When the hostess said they were booked, we begged some more. By the third time we begged, the manager was called and we were allowed to sit at the bar.

And we did all this for Pizza Romana, a style of pizza for which we’re honestly on the fence about. It’s great if you like your pizza crunchy and thin but we generally prefer our pies in the puffier, supple Neapolitan style or the more hybrid, crunchy style of New York City.

Pro Tip
Consider ordering takeaway pizzas or delivery if you don’t have the time or energy required to score a reservation. Note that the pick-up location is at the original 180 Grammi Centocelle location.

180 Grammi derives its name from 180-gram dough balls that are the standard weight for each Pizza Romana. Using those dough balls, Mercuro channels Versace to create pies that serve as high fashion runways. While some may not make a lot of sense initially, their creative flavor combinations leave a lot to think about.

In our case, we had nine flavors to process. Our La Parmigiana Viaggiatrice (which translates literally to Parmigiano Traveler) was topped with a crazy combination of tomato, fried eggplant, zaalook cream, baba ghanoush cream with pork whey, Parmigiano-Reggiano, basil, mint and lime powder. 

Mint on a pizza working in combination with such levantine ingredients sounds like a sacrilege to pizza traditionalists. We’re not sure how we would evaluate this pie if we were to taste it blindly and didn’t know its pedigree. But, that being said, the smokiness of the baba ghanoush, the umami of the tomatoes and cheese, the slight citrus edge of the lime and the pepperiness of the mint somehow came together to create a unique flavor experience.

This avant-garde approach to pizza styling doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy a little black dress as we did with 180 Grammi’s Pepperoni Pizza. That pizza, a play on America’s pepperoni pizza, missed the mark a bit in terms of cheekiness – it’s not covered in pepperoni like an American pepperoni pizza). But the pie, topped with salami picante and vache rosso parmigiano, still tasted great.

Mercuro’s artisanally-prepared pizza romana base provides a great platform for just about any of the menu’s topping combinations. Those options include simple Marinara and Margherita pies as well as a selection of more complicated red and white pies.

Pro Tip
Order as many pies as possible. They’re relatively inexpensive and you’ll regret not trying more later. Since each pie base is only 180 grams, you can probably eat a pie and half if you’re motivated.

Don’t forget that 180 Grammie is a Roman pizza joint. In other words, there’s lots of awesome fried starters on its menu as well as Italian desserts and craft beers.

We implore you to order at least one Sampietrini, a cubic, all-at-once answer to Italy’s suppli, arancini and frittatina. Stuffed with tonarelli cacio e pepe and topped with lovely dollops of smoked cacio e pepe cream, it’s as forward-looking as the pizzas.

That fried treat, as well as our Suppli Al Telefono, seemed to be breaded with a combination of panko and bread crumbs that gave both a katsu-like crunch. Yet the Sampietrino had enough cacio pepe flavor to remain thoroughly Roman. We don’t blame 180 Grammi for trademarking the unique fried cube. It’s a must order.

Fun Fact
Each Sampietrino is crafted with a 70-gram dough cube instead of a 180-gram dough ball.

180 Grammi is located at Via Genazzano, 32, 00177 Roma RM, Italy.

Check out our guide to eating in Italy as well as our picks for the best Italian foods and the best Italian desserts before your trip.

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