Il Ritrovo-Cucina Casalinga Popolare, Friedrichshain, Berlin

Die Pizzen schmecken gut. Der Gastraum hat den Charme einer Bahnhofshalle und die Lautstärke ist entsprechend. Unangemessen hohe Preise für Berliner Verhältnisse. Personal ist arrogant und unfreundlich.

Für Takeaway also grad ok, telefonische Bestellung vorab ist allerdings nicht möglich.

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.

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 as well, 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.

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.

Awesome pizza! Some of the best I've had (outside of Naples, of course... duh). If you can, do take away, as the service is hit or miss (especially when they are packed).

Great pizzas for sure. I think it's nicer to order for take away because the place is so noisy and cramped. I feel that no matter where I sit, I'm blocking someone's way.

They're really arrogant sometimes, but I think it's because they're stressed, warm and have to run back and fourth with guests all over the place. But it's cool. You can get a horse meat pizza here. A lot of people say it's the best pizza in Berlin. I know another place close by which is just as good!

The pasta and the service is just ok. But that doesn't really matter since the pizza will make forget any complaints you might have about this place. When you get a perfect pizza with good cutleries I don't think anything else matters. But maybe that's just me :)

Problem is: you get a very good pizza there. Staff is not friendly, you have to wait for at least 1 hour and the wine is bad. But the pizza....I keep going there!

ok, another great Italian. definitely the best pizza in berlin, sometimes they have lasagna too. can't really say much bout the service, coz im tattooing guys from there, so i always getting the best one, never heard anyone complaining, though..

easily the best pizza i’ve had in Berlin. Thin crust, chunky rustic-style toppings, and good ingredients - defintately worth the extra euro or two price-wise from the other local pizza places. Also, it was nice that the bill was accompanied with an offer of a complementary lemoncello or grappa. I opted for the grappa which was a healthy sized measure and left me leaving the premises in a happy haze.

The pizza is delicious – as described: thin and crispy and huge. We did not try anything else – I couldn’t bring myself to do it ;-). Up till now I have cannot cofirm any bad experiences with the service. They’re maybe not always the quickest, but usually very attentive (last time they put the canopy down as we wanted to sit in the shade with the baby, and then the staff purposefully sat further away when outside (!) for a cigarette, so that the baby was not affected). Maybe it also depends on the time you go. We were there in the late afternoon/early evening and it was not so full. Prices for pizza are in a decent range (at least cheaper than for example the 12 Apostel). Usually about 7-8 Euros.

this is the friedrichshain branch of the famous Il Casolare in Kreuzberg. it’s exactly the same, really. good pizza at higher-than-average prices. pasta wasn’t anything special, but the salads are huge and quite good. i haven’t found much better outside of italy.