Brazilian Pizza in Hawaii

Now I don’t know about you, but I am usually STARVING after spending a day on the beach. I had pizza on the brain and nothing else was going to satisfy my taste buds. The problem was, I didn’t want to end up in some pizza shack. I wanted to go out, dress up and enjoy a date night over a delicious pizza. Turns out that’s a bit harder to find in Waikiki than I realized. Until we found San Paolo Pizza and Wine in Ala Moana, Oahu.

Just walking in you are greeted by huge smiles from the staff as they usher you in. The restaurant is exquisite from the brick walls, greenery, live music and incredible smells. The atmosphere is so high class and beautiful it really is breathtaking. Our mouths were already watering in anticipation as we looked through the menu trying to decide between all the amazing sounding pizzas, trying to choose is HARD. We had to end up ordering a half and half pizza as we couldn’t make up our mind.

The Portuguese: Long fermentation dough, tomato sauce, mozzarella, ham, hard boiled eggs, olive oil, fresh green peas and red onion.

Chicken with Catupiry: Long fermentation dough, tomato sauce, provolone, chicken, catupiry, black olives and oregano.

My mouth is watering just writing out the ingredient list… We watched eagerly as our pizza was taken out of the brick oven and brought over to the table. The server carefully placed a slice of our choosing on each of our plates before being set on our table and covered with a stainless steel lid, a thoughtful touch that was very much appreciated.

Holy cow were these pizzas incredible. I had selected The Portuguese because it sounded so unique and I’m so thankful that I did. You could genuinely taste the quality of the ingredients, it was the best ham I’ve ever had on a pizza and I loved every bite. We tried the Chicken Catupiry upon recommendation, it is made with a Brazilian cheese that gives it a truly distinct and fascinating flavor. The way that the flavors all melted together in your mouth was amazing to say the least.

Also, look at this dough!!! It is light and so texturally pleasing I had to ask more about it. The dough is made in the Brazilian and Italian style with a long fermentation that takes out majority of the gluten so that it is lighter and you can use heavier and fattier cheeses on top so that it is well balanced. Now I’m typically that annoying person who eats everything but the crust, but I ate every bite of each delicious slice.

Now we of course had to save room to try their pistachio dessert pizza! Do not skimp and pass up on this. I’ve had dessert pizzas before and they’re often too bready and sweet. But this was the exception to the rule. The pistachio glaze was so well balanced I could have eaten it by the spoonful. It didn’t taste like plain sugar, you could actually experience the pistachio flavor and the texture was on par. Not only that, but it was so beautiful to look at, you feel as though you are eating art.

We were truly blown away by our experience at San Paolo Pizzaria. Another thing that we loved observing was the staff. Even when they didn’t think they were being watched they’d have a big smile on their faces even while bussing tables. They all seem to have tremendous respect for one another, easily helping each other out, which is something you don’t see very often in the food industry.

Another interesting little tidbit that we learned while in the restaurant is just how much it deserves its name. The majority of the staff are in fact Brazilian and in fact almost everything in the restaurant is from Brazil from the tiles, brick oven, plates and even down to their sound system.

I recommend everyone in the Waikiki/Ala Moana area to make sure they stop by San Paolo Pizza and Wine and enjoy a wonderful evening listening to live music over an incredible brick oven pizza.