Amazonia Pizza Review (Cleveland, OH)

Oct 6

Walking into Amazonia in Cleveland, I was instantly drawn to the glowing wood-fired oven tucked in the back. For pizza lovers, that’s always a good sign. Pair that visual with their excellent cocktail menu, and I was excited to see how their pizza stacked up.

On paper, it's a strong contender for pizza in Cleveland. Amazonia leans into true Neapolitan-style pizza, using a poolish dough for added depth of flavor, DOP-certified tomato sauce for lower acidity, and firing each pie until it developed the signature leopard spots on the crust. All the right boxes were checked.

The Pizza

The rim of the dough was big, 1.5 to 2 inches thick, dominating valuable pizza space and making the overall experience feel overly dough-forward. Meanwhile, the base of the pizza was thin.

I went with the spicy salami, which was a great ingredient choice. The salami was piled that each slice flopped over, forcing you to use a fork and knife, which is not inherently a problem.

I think some small tweaks could elevate the experience further:

Less is more with toppings. Cutting back on the volume would let the quality ingredients stand out.

Crisping the base. Resting the pizza on a wire rack right out of the oven (instead of dropping it directly on a pan) would prevent moisture from softening the base crust.
Refining the crust rise. A slightly smaller rim would give more room for the center to shine.