Casanova Pizzeria

1204 S. Vista Ave.
Boise, ID 83705
208-331-3535

Hours: Mon-Sat 11:00am-10:00pm

Oh my PIZZA! Not being much of a pizza fanatic, pizza is one of those food I rarely get a craving for but a craving is not unheard of.

One winter day we decided to hit this pizzeria that we've both been driving by too often. Located at the corner of a well travel intersection, the outside of the restaurant doesn't speak much for the place. It's really a rather plain looking building with a small parking lot. But the moment you open that door and walk in, oh the smells of fresh ingredients, dough baking, cheese melting... drool starts forming.

A small bar off to one side of the building, the main dining area only boasted a handful of tables and even less booths. But we still had enough room for a stroller without tripping anyone up!

The menu is full of traditional and very non-traditional creations (when was the last time you ordered clam on your pizza?). The experience in ordering what to try was a daunting task, so many possibilities without even touching the 'create your own'. Do we go vegetarian? If we do, which ones? What's the difference in taste between smoked mozzarella and regular mozzarella?? How does eggplant taste with cheese?? AHHH!!! (yes, my eyes glazed over while the possibilities were giving me a mini meltdown)

I've mentioned this before and I'll repeat again: I'm a slow order-er, I'm almost famous for my indecision, the more choices there are the slower I go. It was not a good day for me, I stared at the menu for 10 minutes BEFORE my friend arrived and it still took me another 15 minutes to decide after she arrived. The only thing I was certain of before she arrived was the we should go with the "small" size. Which was 10-12".

Final decision: 1 small Eggplant (tomato sauce, mozzarella, roasted eggplant, fresh basil), 1 small Verde (Pesto, smoked mozzarella, tomato, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, pine nuts), 1 small Caesar Salad.

Don't let the word "small" fool you here, the "small" order of salad could be considered as regular meal sized salad in other restaurants. Think of it as 2 orders of side salads. It was really perfect for splitting, the waitress was real nice and brought out 2 extra plates without even being asked.

The eggplant was a nice ingredient, I was afraid it would "leak" all over the pizza causing it to be soggy but it was almost the opposite, instead the eggplant soaked up the flavors it was baked with and the pizza a nice soft texture on top of the crunchy crust.

The Verde was just like it's name, it was a "green" pizza. The pesto was strong enough to be the driving flavor of this pizza but the underlying "smoked" flavor, must have been the mozzarella, could not be out-shined. The artichoke hearts gave the pizza a nice soft crunch, it's a different kind of crunch from the crust. However, the pine nuts was lost on me. . . It's an ingredient I forgot that was in there until I found myself staring at a piece that was on my plate.


$9.00 Eggplant
$9.25 Verde
$4.50 Caesar Salad

Yes, the food was yummy and filling - we still had leftovers. Yes, there was room for the baby stroller (just barely). Yes, the staff was quick and kind and efficient.

A note: the place fills up fast, we happen to have room to park the stroller because we arrived at 11am (just as they opened) on a Weekday. But as we were leaving around 12:00pm the place was already full and more was coming in, we parked in the designated area but once all the cars were parked it becomes a little more tricky to back out of our spot. Non-compact car drivers, pray that the person parking behind you is a compact car. The spots are easy to get into, but really hard to get out of.

We're going to come back again!