Nice Pizza Place

It has been a while since I have talked about a pizza place. I can't even remember the last post I did on a pizza place. When it comes to Japan and pizza, 99.9% of Italian restaurants and pizza places do Napolitan-style pizza. Napolitan style comes from Naples in Italy. The pizza is a thin-crust, crispy pizza that is usually cooked in a flaming round pizza oven. A lot of these pizzas are great, and it has been a while since I had one. That is how the Ibaraki Eats Duo found themselves in front of Pizza Kafka.

Pizza Kafka

Pizza Kafka is located in the Omotecho area of Hitachinaka. It is about a five-minute walk from Katsuta Station. If you plan to drive to Pizza Kafka, please note that all the parking areas around Kafka are paid parking lots. Even though that is the case, I highly recommend parking at the Donki Hotte parking lot. The reason being is that if you walk into Donki Hotte and buy a drink for 100 yen, they will validate your parking, and all you paid for your parking is 100 yen. Donki is very close to Pizza Kafka as well.
My wife and I went to Pizza Kafka on a chilly Thursday evening a few weeks ago. From the outside, Kafka looks like a small homey pizza place where you can see the pizza oven from the outside window. We walked in and looked for some chairs.

Inside

When we walked inside, the staff greeted us and told us to sit wherever we wanted. We decided to grab some counter seats near the kitchen. Pizza Kafka is a small place, but it can seat up to 15 people. There are a few counter seats by the kitchen, and some tables and chairs around the restaurant. We would have sat at the table by the entrance, but a drunk party of four was having a blast and being a bit too rowdy for our liking.
We looked around the counter and found the menu.

The Menu

Sorry, my non-Japanese speakers, the menu is completely in Japanese. There are three parts to the menu, from what I can remember. There is a drinks section, a pasta section, and a pizza section (with a small dessert section). The drinks menu has a lot of wine and Italian beer, which was interesting. We tried the Italian beer and craft cola, and both were very tasty.
Pictured above is the pizza menu. From the top there is the Marinara Pizza, Margarita Pizza, Doc Pizza (no idea what that is), Burrata Cheese Pizza, Xtara Pizza, Salsiccia Pizza (sausage), Romana Pizza, Mushroom Pizza, Popeye Pizza, Gorgonzola Pizza, Mortadella Ham Pizza, Prosciutto Pizza, Salami Pizza, Bismarck Pizza, Quatro Cheese Pizza, Prosciutto Bianca (White) Pizza, Margarita Bianca Pizza, and finally Dessert Pizza.
There was also a separate specials menu that had pasta and pizza.

Margarita Bianca Pizza

After checking out the menu for a little bit, we ordered two pizzas and the tiramisu for dessert.
My wife ordered the Margarita Bianca Pizza, which came to our table first. I was a bit surprised when the pizza came to us. Usually, a Naporitan pizza is thin-crusted and small. This pizza had a fluffier dough and was bigger than I thought it would be.
My wife grabbed a slice first and took a bite. She gave it her thumbs up and liked the diced tomatoes on top of the pizza. She said she liked how the Bianca sauce and the freshly cut tomatoes went so well together. It was my turn to take a bite, and I thought it was a pretty good pizza. The dough was very mochi like and thick, which still surprised me. I agree with my wife and her assessment of the white sauce and the cut tomatoes. Everything was going well, but I do have a thought about the cheese. The pizzas aren't cheap here, so I was kind of expecting amazing mozzarella cheese, and I feel like that is not what I got. I feel like Kafka went to the local supermarket and got generic shredded cheese. I feel this way because I am used to that chemically processed cheese taste. I am not saying it is bad, but if you are trying to be super Italian, maybe get some better cheese.

Salami Pizza

Our next pizza arrived, and this is the pizza I ordered. The Salami Pizza. This pizza had the same fluffy crust with some burned edges, like it should have after being in a pizza oven.
I took a slice and gave this pizza a try. Out of both pizzas we had, this was my favorite of the night. The salami was amazing. It was fresh and cooked to perfection with the pizza. The tomato sauce was fantastic, and I loved how I got a taste of meaty salami with fresh tomatoes. The cheese was the same, and I have already said my opinion on that. My wife gave this pizza a thumbs up and liked the salami as well. Even though she liked this pizza, she thought the Margarita Bianca Pizza was the best that night. I loved this pizza and would definitely order it again.

I have a picture of the tiramisu we had, but I am not posting it. I wasn't a fan. It was frozen, and it tasted like having a hard ice cream with cake. There is better tiramisu out there, and I recommend that Kafka get their tiramisu skills up.

After finishing our pizzas, and finished listening to the drunk party talk about their Junior High School club activities days. We paid our bill, which was a bit high but not too bad, and headed back home.

Pizza Kafka, I like your place, and your pizza menu is awesome. The salami is delicious, I love how you cook your pizza crust, and your craft cola is very tasty. The cheese needs work, and so does your tiramisu, but otherwise we both enjoyed our time and pizza and hope to go again.

So if you are near Katsuta Station one evening and are craving some pizza, why not give Pizza Kafka a chance? Who knows? You might see us there. Trying some new pizza while sipping some Italian beer.
Enjoy!

For more information on Pizza Kafka, check out their Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/pizza_kafka/?hl=en