Riccetta's Brick Oven Pizzeria: a Review

Ricetta's Brick Oven Pizzeria has two locations. There is one at 29 Western Avenue, in South Portland Maine. The second location is at 240 U.S. Route One in Falmouth Maine. We visited the South Portland restaurant. I have to mention that Ricetta's has been voted the best pizza in Maine in the Portland Press Herald's poll every year since 1990!

The large dining room has a glass partition separating it from the pizza-making area, so you can watch your pizza being made. There are two large brick ovens used for the actual baking, and it's fun to observe. You can watch the homemade dough being kneaded and tossed and stretched into shape. Then it is placed in the brick oven, and you see the flames being stoked. Huge, long-handled wooden "spatulas" are used to place the pizza on the hot bricks, and to remove it when it is done.

While you're waiting for your pizza to cook, you can relax and enjoy the casual atmosphere in the dining room. If you're not in the mood for pizza, Ricetta's has an extensive menu which includes mouth-watering appetizers, calzones, lasagna, chicken or eggplant Parmigiana, Italian
meatloaf, and scrumptious desserts.

At lunch time (from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) on weekdays a pizza buffet is available. In addition to
a variety of pizzas, with toppings such as sausage and mushrooms, peppers and onions, fried eggplant, or pepperoni, there's also a dessert pizza, shown below, which has a pineapple and brown sugar topping. (sorry that photo isn't quite as clear.) I was disappointed that the pizza wasn't as hot as I would have liked it to be, but in all fairness, we arrived during the last half hour of the buffet. Not a fan of buffets, I would order a pizza next time, so I know it would be piping hot. This time, though, I agreed to the buffet, as that was what my husband wanted.

The pizza buffet includes a soup and salad bar as well. Hubby chose to have some corn chowder which smelled wonderful! It was made with chunks of potato, carrots, celery, and corn. There were several salads to pick from. I saw a traditional tossed salad, Caesar salad, and pasta salad and a couple of dressing choices. The salads included fresh mushrooms, purple onions, romaine and iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and black olives. There were anchovies available if you wanted to add them.

I had a sort of cherry chocolate cheesecake creation for dessert. It was served in a glass that was a bit larger in diameter and about twice as tall as a shot glass. There were layers of graham cracker crumbs, cheese cake, chocolate mousse, all topped off with cherry preserves. Yummy, to say the least!

Unfortunately, the South Portland dining room is closing, although they will continue to make deliveries to the surrounding area. The Falmouth store is larger and newer and a very pleasant place to enjoy Italian cuisine. If you make it to Falmouth, Maine, you really need to try this award-winning pizza! It truly lives up to its reputation.