Forno Italiano

In my opinion the best pizza in Cambridge. Crisp, fresh, delicious toppings. If you are after overloaded cheesy pizzas this is not your place. But if you are after the Italian original (or at least one excellent representative) then this is your place. Sometimes there is a wait of 20min but it's worth it. Excellent with Calverley's brew at the Engineer House to kill the waiting time.

To be honest, I have some mixed feelings about this place (Engineer’s House and Alforno’s pizza) and I feel like there are some pros and cons that should be noted. Pros: When it is nice out, the ambiance of this restaurant is really stellar. Great outside seating, particularly the seats in the front facing the river, in a relaxed family-friendly atmosphere. Really nice place to meet up with friends and enjoy a beer or two in the sunshine. The bar staff are also always quite pleasant and friendly whenever we have come. Cons: 1. Pizza is only mediocre, in my opinion from having visited 10+ times. Not sure exactly what the issue is, but the pizzas served are often quite dry, as if they were overcooked or do not use enough sauce. This has been a consistent trend across multiple visits. I would give the pizza 3.5 stars in general – enough to satisfy me on a day I come quite hungry, but not all that tasty relative to other spots around town. 2. In general, pizzas can take a long time to get. On a Thurs/Fri/Sat, we have routinely waited an hour or more to get 1 or 2 pizzas, which is something to keep in mind if you are coming hungry. 3. The restaurant was recently re-owned, and the new owners do not allow you to reserve any of the tables facing the river (e.g., the good tables), which is a bit annoying. This basically forces everyone to reserve a table in the back of the restaurant and then spend their entire meal half paying attention to conversation, half hawk-eying the front of the restaurant hoping a better table will become available, and then make you run across the restaurant to hopefully get the table, despite that you had called days in advance to make a reservation. Why not just allow customers to reserve the front tables with a 1 hour maximum, like the old owners used to do? 4. The restaurant only serves "chilly honey" if you specifically ask for it, but does not provide chilly flakes or chilly oil. It would be great if the owners could provide another option, as we found chilly honey a bit off-putting, combining sweet and spicy together. Surely buying chilly flakes in bulk must be pretty cheap -- it would be nice to offer patrons to enhance the flavor! Overall I like this place when it is nice out because it is close to where we live, but the food could be improved as well as the policy around reservations.