For the love of pizza

People love pizza, so even with competition within five blocks in downtown Honolulu bounded by Maunakea, Hotel, Bethel and Beretania streets, you can find an audience for pizza at Rosarina, Bar 35, JJ Dolan’s and Fresh Cafe. But downtown Honolulu hasn’t cornered the market on pizza. In Waikiki, pizza also pops up in unexpected places. With National Pizza Month still underway, it’s a good time to go exploring.

Agostino’s

In a parking lot at 2463 Kuhio Ave. Call 469-7053. Open 6 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays. Cash only.

This little gem in a parking lot on Kuhio Avenue between Uluniu and Liliuokalani avenues has been around for six years, but expansion with an enclosed kitchen and more tables is drawing bigger crowds.

The street pizzeria takes its name from Agostino Trentacoste, who hails from a line of restaurateurs in Sicily. He built his mobile brick oven from scratch and turns out 24-inch Sicilian pizzas at $24 a pop, or $6 per slice, cash only.

It’s a no-frills sort of place, so you’ll have to bring your own beverages. And you know those times when pizza is so hot all the toppings slide off with the cheese as you’re picking it up? In those instances, having a fork to scoop up the treasured ingredients is nice, but there are no utensils to be had here.

What you’ll find are thin-crust pizzas with the most traditional of Italian toppings: salami, tomato, basil, sausage, mushrooms, mozzarella, garlic and artichokes. No fusion here. Teriyaki chicken would be blasphemous to these guys.

The mozzarella is your basic Kirkland out of a bag, and these pizzas are less salty and greasy than Americans have come to expect from our mass-market pizzas.

There are 17 combos to choose from, including the classic Margherita and namesake Agostino’s, with tomatoes, salami and Kalamata olives. I love the freshness of the spinach pizza with garlic and artichokes. Meat lovers will probably prefer the savory pepperoni pizzas, one with olives, mushrooms and garlic, the other with red peppers in place of the olives.

The downside is that the business is dependent on good weather, so on a rainy day, when hot pizza seems like a good idea, you might find it closed.

HAPAS Pizza

At Sheraton Waikiki, 2255 Kalakaua Ave. Call 921-4600. Open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays and 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

While hanging out at a hotel, I asked myself, what would a typical tourist want out of a hotel dining experience? For a family with a lot of mouths to feed, or anyone looking for grab-and-go bites to get them out the door and on to other destinations, it’s pizza.

Maybe the food and beverage directors at Sheraton Waikiki were thinking the same thing, because they opened up Hapas Pizza during the summer, drawing its name from the fusion of Italian technique and local ingredients.

Available are handmade, gourmet pizzas that combine any number of 35 toppings. You can go anywhere for the basics, so those that appeal most to me here are the more unusual offerings, such as the garlic chicken ($15 for 12-inch, $19 for 14-inch) with gorgonzola-marinated artichokes, drizzled with roasted garlic aioli. I also live for the occasional whole, roasted garlic clove that pops up on the pizza.

But my favorite is the Pizza Reuben ($18 for 12-inch, $22 for 16-inch), with its sliced pastrami, sauerkraut, whole-grain mustard tomato sauce and Russian dressing. It’s the next best thing to the sandwich.

You’ll also find a sweet finale of a dessert pizza topped with roasted cinnamon Fuji apples, brie, almonds and balsamic reduction, well worth a try at $18 for the 12-inch and $22 for 14-inch.

The Lovin Oven

At Aqua Bamboo Hotel, 2425 Kuhio Ave. Call 866-6489. Open 4 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays. Closed Tuesdays. Waikiki delivery available. Cash only.

This one is a keeper for a shortlist of thin-crust pizzas with some inspired toppings. It’s the work of a couple of low-key California transplants who simply wanted to live in Hawaii at all cost, and pizza happens to be their path to paradise.

Some toppings are heavier than others, causing the crust to get soggy in the center, but the toppings more than make up for having to deal with droopy pizza.

I’ve never been a big fan of the pineapple pizza, but here it’s been thought through and the result is beautiful. "True" is Lovin Oven’s interpretation of a truly Hawaii-inspired pizza that brings together all the flavors of the plantation: barbecue marinara, pulled kalua pork, Portuguese sausage, grilled pineapple that’s more caramelized and sweet than prickly sour, Maui onions and green onions.

The basics, whether veggie, Margherita or classic pepperoni, are great, too. All the 16-inch hand-tossed pizzas run $25.

For a taste of Mexico, you can get black beans, pepper jack, chilies, guacamole and cilantro on a pizza, or just as tempting, try the Heartbreaker Nachos ($12). It arrives looking like a giant flower, with all the chips laid out in thin layers for even spreading of the toppings. This does away with the half-half phenomenon of soggy chips that occur at most restaurants when the top layers are weighed down by all the toppings while the bottom layers go naked.

Start off any meal with options of spinach or Greek salads ($10 each).

Dine indoors or poolside.

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.