Il Ritrovo-Cucina Casalinga Popolare

Go when it’s not overcrowded (e.g. for a late lunch) and you will have one of the bests pizza’s you’ve ever had. The ingredients are all really top notch: very good mozzarella, parmesan, tomato sauce, bresaola, (spicy) salami, pepperoni, etc. And very important… the bread is delicious & crispy!

The Italian crew has always been very friendly to us, so no complaints there, although I heard different stories as well.
The place looks pretty cool, it’s a nice orchestrated mess and oozes atmosphere. Berlin really meets Italy in here.

Next to the pizza we also like to order the always changing things on the daily menu, like eggplant with good olive oil, herbs and garlic, or a zucchini lasagne.

House-wines are nothing special, but certainly not bad and “easy to drink”.
If you don’t want to drink alcohol, the biological apfelschorle (apple juice with mineral water and bubbles) is very nice and also available in a big bottle. Or have an alcohol fee whitebeer (hefeweise) – excellent!

I’m in doubt whether I should give 4 or 5 stars… thing is, it’s really a fantastic place, so good that it can be really overcrowded, and then the service and waiting times can become long. But they can hardly help that, can they…?
I’ll stick to 5 stars for now… just make sure you make a reservation or take my advice and go there for a late lunch or early dinner.

Il Ritrovo? Il Casolare? No Way!!!I would not call it an Italian Restaurant!!!
The restaurant's standard is very low.
- Pizza: does not taste like Pizza should taste, bad quality and poor ingredients
- Staff: unfriendly and not polite, never smiling... It seems that you are making them a favour to eat there...Just because the service in Berlin might be a bit rough sometimes that doesn t mean that they can treat people s...t...sometimes they even give you the food in the western style... (I have never seen such a horrible service + energy)
- atmosphere: not Italian at all, they just pretend to be cool because they run a Pizzeria in Berlin...
- they just keep on making money because some people do not know how real pizza tastes and because going to Il Ritrovo is cool. It is easy to find better restaurants and better real Pizza in Berlin and also in FH.
I gave them more than one chance, no way.
Enough said.
Never Again.

PS: wrote in English so everyone can get the message

The most rude, obnoxious and immature service i have ever experienced! The manager refused all of our feedback regarding the meal (which was consequently te worst italian i have ever tasted). I have never been treated with such impolite staff. Avoid at all costs

Good food, Atrocious service.

The Lady and I had eaten there a few times, the pizza is good and the service average. On this occasion, however it was terrible. We waited at the door for fifteen minutes catching the eye of waiters and waitresses, and they just ignored us. I asked to be seated and we were given a table. No menus arrived, in the meantime, three other tables were seated and given menus and orders taken. I had to go adn ask for a menu at the service hatch, and was told it was coming. 5 minutes later I went again to ask for a menu, the waiter went off to get one, evidently expecting me to follow, but I went and sat down again. The waiter shouted at me, walked to the table and threw the mus at it from couple of meters away. We stood up, thanked him for his friendly service and left. We have not been back since.

There are other places in Berlin which do equally as good, and better, pizza and have impeccable service. Pizza Lubau in Friedrichshain is one top choice and Papa Panne in mitte is another. I would heartily reccomend these two over Il Ritrovo-Cucina Casalinga Popolare.

Our pizzas were burned and the service were totally ignorant. One of the staff just sneered at us when we wished to pay. On top of that, the prices in the menu do not include VAT, *suprise suprise* so you got to pay some 20 % extra in VAT on top of price, when you finally receive your tab. I know service and staff in Germany rarely are good, but seriously this was the worst experience ever. 

I will write in English so that the guests of the city also hear about my horrifying experience in this restaurant. I booked a table there for me and 4 guests (my brother, his wife and friends) who are russian- and english-speaking. We sat down and I asked the waiter to list the special dishes, since it is always written in Italian. About 20 minutes later when he finally nonchalantly came to take orders, I politely asked him (in German) to repeat the ingredients in one of the salad to make sure that was exactly something that one of my guests wanted. To which I got a rude answer that I did not listen to him when he was describing the dishes (i was actually trying to synchronously translate the ingredients to Russian language for my friend).   and that he will NOT repeat the ingredients and that " it is a salad but it is not a salad". To my polite apologies he continuously repeated that I am disrespectful to him and became more and more unfriendly. I pretty much didn't know what to say to that, had to get out of restaurant to calm down and felt extremely awkward towards my guests. We asked to change the server , to which the manager said that "I know him since 4 years, he is an extremely nice guy and I will not change him". We, 5 people, witnessed his unbelievable rudness to us, clients, and she did not even try to resolve the conflict. At the end we had to get up and leave and look for another restaurant on the busiest time - saturday evening. I was left embarrassed and in tears.

Need to mention another time  - the server actually brought me a pizza that was lacking the main ingredient, and then later when I noticed that it was just cheese and tomato sauce, said - "ah yes, we ran out of this ingredient". They refused to replace the ingredient by anything that would require to prepare a pizza again, and i had to go with covering my cold pizza with Arugula leaves and eating it like that. 

I do not think myself or any of my friends will ever come to that place again. Great job in losing clients, il Ritrovo! You have become arrogant and think that you can offend clients with no repercussions because there will be others anyways. This is a wrong way to lead a business. -5 stars , if i could. 

Good pizza (but you can find just as good pizza in other places around the city), we interacted with several waiters who were all cunty, the first guy started to take our order then just walked away, then a girl took our order kinda like a robot with no emotion, not even a slight smile and then a third waiter (the tall good looking one) was the most rude, he kept looking at us and laughing and then looked at our waitress who started laughing too. It was just a weird vibe, it's not the type of place you feel comfortable in. The pizza was pretty good but the atmosphere and service is piss poor. Seriously if the restaurant's management is reading this, it's really about time you made some changes, even if you have enough business to not give a crap, have some decency and self respect and have your employee treat your customers with at least a minimum amount of respect, take some pride in what you do. Needless to say I won't be going back, I don't care about top quality service but I do what to feel comfortable and not be laughed at when I'm having dinner. It's really a shame.

One of the best pizzas in Berlin - and I have been to some (it is the sister-restaurant of Due Forni in P'berg which has almost the same menu). 
Table reservations during the weekend is a must, expect waiting time regardless.
No English menu (only Italian/German), but you'll manage - even some of the waiters do not speak German.
Regarding the service (or the Italian version of service): Well, for them [the staff] you basically a disturbance (but hey, they have great pizza, so suck it).

I'm Italian and I would say that the worst pizza I've ever eat: cold, bad tomato souce, poor of mozzarella and overall expensive. Bad, slow and unfriendly service. Never again.

Best pizza I’ve had in Berlin. Its very original and rustic. Service can be humorous and hectic, but you get an authentic Italian experience and a great pizza everytime.

Il Ritrovo-Cucina Casalinga Popolare serves some of the best pizzas in Berlin. It is a rowdy, loud and hectic place, run by some hilarious and quirky Italians. It’s the best place to grab a pizza with friends.

1. The Food
Excellent pizzas. Huge. Thin, chewy crusts with big bubbles. Tomato sauce is awesome, tangy and sweet that perfectly melts together with the fresh and creamy mozzarella on top. They have lots of toppings, but my faves are the Pizza Diavola (spicy salami, olives and sweet onions) and Prataiola (divine combination of mushrooms, heaps of arugula, parmesan and delicious prosciutto). Wine is a choice of a decent red or white. Besides pizza, they also have weekly menus of decent appies and entrees, and desserts.

2. The Staff
Italian. Nice, quick and busy. Some find them rude, but they’re just being their normal Italian self. Just don’t be obnoxious and order a pizza that is not on the menu.

3. The atmosphere
A local hang-out popular with the under 35 crowd. Loud, chaotic, yellow walls signed by alternative/punk bands. Superbusy during peak hours. Try to grab a spot on one of the beer benches if the tables are overflowing.

4. The damage
Most pizzas are 6- 9 euros. Drinks are 2-8 euros.

5. Useful tidbits
Come early or late or expect to wait.

Update: Quality of the pizza varies – we’ve been several times and been disappointed with the dough and crust – not the same as the original in Xberg

The pizza is really great. The prices are OK, but not cheap at all.
Unfortunately the service is a mess and sometimes even rude.

Very good Italian restaurant. It seems quite original, so don't expect any fancy bits. It's focused on good food and wine, without making a fuzz about it.

The pizza is fantasic (some even with - typically Italian - with horse meat), but also the pasta dishes, starters, and desserts are very tasty.

Prices are affordable, not the cheapest pizza place, but again, the quality beats most places by far.

The place is usually really crowded, so you can't be garantueed to get a table immediatly, especially when you are more than a few. I like the cozy and basic atmosphere, but since it is so full, the waiters won't be super alert and always right away at your table.

Don't go there. The pizza is ok, but the staff is rude and impolite. The punk theme they use for self-promotion is only a cover for their lack of friendliness and professionalism.

Went there with a party of 6 including a toddler on a sunny saturday afternoon. Since their were the no big tables in the shadow left anymore, we put two smaller tables together. The only other option was to sit on a of their shabby beer banks in the plain sun, which we didn't want because of the toddler, or to move inside. The very unfriendly guy (calling him waiter would be an insult for all other waiters) didn't like that and faced us with the decision to either move to a table of his choosing or leave the place. We tried to stay friendly and explain the issue to him, but he was rude and arrogant. We left and took our money elsewhere.

If you want to be treated with a minimum of respect, go somewhere else.

I am italian. The pizza could be good but the owners there are totally rude. The boss treats his own workers really bad, yelling at them all the time.they make fun of german people laughing at them and talking bad in italian. Totally cocky staff, and the pizza is not so good. They even closed for dirty and unhealthy place.

Sitting at a table outside of an empty restaurant (maybe 5 other customers), we waited 15 minutes trying to get our order through. Then a waitress noticed us, but went back inside. Another waiter appeared but instead of taking our order, he started to smoke a cigarette. By the time he finished his cig, the first waitress appeared again. Well, no luck this time either. She decided that it was more important to take pictures of a bicycle standing in front of the pizzeria with her iPhone.

After seeing this, we decided that it was best for us to leave.

I am a German that has lived in FH for a long time. I was always interested by this restaurant because it is pretty much packed 24/7, but this also the reason I never actually went in since packed restaurants are not my kind of thing.

Went there for the first time today because a girlfriend of mine invited me, please keep in mind that this is a monday, not a friday/saturday/sunday.

Totally packed again, incredibly slow and unwelcoming service to the point that it felt unfriendly, and keep in mind, I am used to "Berliner Schnauze," but this just screams unprofessionalism, which might be acceptable at most pizza joints, but not at the prices this place sells their Pizzas.

After not even getting our drinks after half an hour of waiting to order me and my girlfriend left.

They must make really good pizza though for people to come back to such (even for Berlin standards) incredibly bad service.

okay food. messed up our orders. good customers do not need to be treated like dogs.

Given all three restaurants a go. Casolare in Kreuzberg is still the best location and service. The pizza is good...The horsemeat piza is delicious BUT... Overall expect to spend 1.5 hours there. Especially on a Sunday where you get to share the pain of your waiter's hangover: Factor in 15 minutes wait to be noticed you are there, a waiter who would rather you weren't, then 15-20 mins for your drink, and hour for your pizza, and then try your luck at getting the bill!
There are much friendlier, quicker and smaller pizza restaurants around.

The only authentic Italian pizza in Friedrichshain. Delicious! Though i wouldn't dare venture there on a Friday or Saturday night, it's always packed and getting a table can prove to be a nightmare. Perfect for Sunday lunch though.