While it might be more economical to share an entire pizza with friends, savvy Dublin restaurants have found a way of catering to individual preferences.
Enabled by the pizza-by-the-slice wave, Dublin 2 is now a hot bed of happy customers wolfing down singular portions of cheesy pizza. One slice will cost you anything from €4.50 to €8 depending on style and toppings.
By our count, there are at least eight pizza-by-the-slice joints in Dublin 2 alone. Among them are social media favourite Bambino , the newly opened Cutie Pi, Temple Bar’s Pizza Prince and Detroit Style Squaredish Pizza on Stephen’s Green .
We have taken it upon ourselves to try some of the most popular places; DiFontaines, Doom Slice , Little Slice and Mani. In the interest of fairness, each pizza slice ordered was a simple margherita for comparison.
A veteran of the scene, DiFontaine’s on Parliament Street has been serving New York -style pizza since 2002. Their eponymous slice DiFontaine is priced at €5.50 for a generous portion of crispy pizza. Although paper thin, the crust is the perfect vehicle for tomato sauce and piping hot gooey cheese. It is undeniably a greasy pizza, but with its location just a few short metres from nightclub Street 66 and a 3.30am close time on Fridays and Saturday nights, that’s no bad thing either. Ready in less than two minutes, this is cheesy, gloopy fast food in all its glory.
Another American-inspired pizza shop, Doom Slice operates out the back of Dame Street’s Pawn Shop and is an entirely different experience. Although it is ostensibly the same order, Doom Slice’s take on the margherita pizza is the Detroit Red Top (€5); a rectangular slice of pillowy pizza dough with mozzarella cheese, marinara sauce and lashings of grand padano grated on top for good measure. It is more bread-y than pizza-y but the frico crust, where the cheese melds with the dough and caramelises, is the pièce de résistance. Denser than the New York style, Doom Slice also offer some more playful toppings on its menu such as caramelised shallots, cabernet sauvignon glaze, ricotta flowers and blue cheese drizzle.
Little Slice joined the ranks earlier this month, backed by the same team as nearby Pygmalion restaurant on South William Street, and has hit the ground running judging by the busy lunchtime queues. Today it has the longest wait time of any of the pizza slices at about 10 minutes, but it is also the cheapest at €4.50 for a single cheese slice. The pizza has a thin and crispy base that balloons into chewy and airy crust just begging to be dipped into a sauce; they offer garlic mayo, sriracha mayo and spicy honey (€2). On top of the delectable dough sits a sauce made with San Marzano tomatoes, fior de latte mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, parmesan and fresh basil.
The only Italian-style pizzeria on this list, Mani on Drury Street dishes up rectangular trays of pizza, or pizza al taglio , with a focaccia-like dough. It is less deep and heavy than the similarly shaped Detroit style pizza and this is the only pizza on this crawl simply called a Margherita. At €6.50, it is the most expensive slice but while that might be a premium, the taste is too and the overall experience is good value. Combining three kinds of cheeses; fior de latte, stracciatella and parmesan, house-style tomato sauce, extra virgin olive oil, plenty of fresh basil on top, the Mani slice is deceptively simple and completely flavourful.