(Photo by Luiz Calado)
The Italian government claims there are 25 million Brazilians of Italian descent, which would be the largest population of Italian background outside of Italy itself.
Although such estimated may be a bit exaggerated, it does not change the fact that the Italian influence has played a significant role in the expansion of the Brazilian culture as it is known today.
That influence is mostly noticeable in the country’s cuisine and pizza – the worldwide renowned oven-baked, disc shaped bread topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella and other ingredients – is considered a national dish in Brazil.
The city of São Paulo, for example, is nicknamed "The Pizza Capital of the World", with 6,000 pizzerias and a consumption of 1.4 million pizzas daily (!). The city even has its own ‘”Pizza Day”, July 10.
That distinctive Brazilian-style pizza experience is now available in the Westside. This past Saturday, May 1st, Bella Vista opened its doors for a full house of guests, offering an ample variety in an all-you-can-eat approach.
Bella Vista was packed on opening night. (Photo by Luiz Calado)
Alongside the traditional Margherita, Pepperoni and Cheese pizzas, you’ll find selections such as Calabreza (typical Italian smoked sausage), Palmito (heart of palm), Frango com Catupiry (chicken with cream cheese and corn) and Picanha (top sirloin rump cap, typically found in Brazilian barbecue) and others, in a large range of toppings such as eggplant, fried garlic, zucchini and tuna.
Bella Vista also offers sweet pizzas (chocolate and strawberry, or banana and cinnamon, for example) and desserts. Pastas are coming soon.
The restaurant is open every day, from 11:30am to 11pm. All-you-can-eat hours are 12pm-2:30pm and 6:30pm-10pm and, currently, goes for $9.99 – quite a deal, since kids 6-12 years old pay only half-price and it is free for kids 5 and younger.
BELLA VISTA Brazilian Gourmet Pizza
10826 Venice Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 558-2374
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Comments
Just ate lunch at Bella Vista. Terrible. We sat for about 20 minutes and were served 3 tiny slices of various weird pizza combos. One with currasco strip steak was okay, but the total pizza volume equaled a little less than one normal pizza slice. Next came dessert selections, which we didn't really want because we were hoping for more regular pizza first. Then our waiter came over and asked us if we were done. We informed him we still wanted to eat lunch (all-you-can-eat?). Ten minutes later came a variety of pizzas, pretty fast and furious, but the topping selection was ridiculous. Not exotic or interesting, just random. None of the toppings seemed fresh, all canned. Also, the pizzas were undercooked so the dough was mushy, not crispy. I will say that when I finally ate a mini-slice of banana dessert pizza, it was not bad. Maybe if you knew one pizza of theirs that you liked and ordered it, it would be servicable, but you go through too many bad choices in the all-you-can-eat.
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