Olio GCM Wood Fired Pizzeria

Solid wood pizza experience. First time at the terminal.
Ordered the speck and mushroom. I enjoyed it– my friends did too. I went and ordered, got some ceviche for an app where my friends were hanging. picked up my pizza 10 minutes later for the main event. everyone licked and liked. $ 10 bucks
Thumbs up.

Somewhat snobbish preface: LA is not the America’s greatest pizza destination. (You probably didn’t need me to tell you that.) It is better than it gets credit for, but it isn’t New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut. With that out of the way, I think Olio is as good as any pizza I’ve had in LA. Here’s why:
1. The dough. Olio’s dough is fairly well documented in their reviews and self-​description, and rightly so. It’s excellent– not too dense, enjoyably floopy, and highly complementary to the other ingredients.
2. The sauce. This is the real secret in my opinion. I’ve had many other pizzas that were fantastic in almost all facets but undone by overly sweet or overly processed sauce. At Olio, the sauce really holds its own. Just a nice balance in its consistency and flavor and, most importantly, it isn’t too sweet.
3. The toppings. Haven’t tried them all, but the smoked hot peppers are superlative. And the roasted pineapple is surprisingly good!
Other elements: The cheese is fine, although it doesn’t stand out among the competition. They have a small selection of beers on tap, and the ones I’ve seen have paired well with pizza. And the staff is friendly and the food comes out in a reasonable amount of time.
So while LA won’t make me forget the best pizza of the east coast, I’d be happy to go back to Olio many times over.

My coworkers and I went here for lunch, I made the choice to get a wood fire pizza. Their menu was basic and pricey. I ordered the 3 cheese pizza and that was like $ 9. I added pepperoni, garlic, and mushrooms. Each topping is $ 1.50 so shit gets pricey. I thought it was going to be kinda like a garlic glaze. nope! Big chunks of garlic sprinkled around in which I ended up taking off to avoid some stinky ass breath! The slices were super thin and my pizza came out hella burnt. I left all the crusts cuz they were charred. Oh and they took forever to make it. Like 20 – 25 mins in which I wouldn’t mind waiting that for delicious food but since it wasn’t heaven in my mouth it was annoying. GCM has way better options inside so I don’t plan on eating here again. If you’re in the area and want good pizza, go to Pitfire.

Perfect spot for Lunch on a Wednesday. I only have an hour and the line was fine and food was scrumptious.
Ordered the classic Pepperoni 10″ pizza and it was perfect. I was a little bit hungry but not hungry enough to eat at my second favorite place Horse Shoe Thief. Price was right at $ 7.99.
Pizza was cooked perfectly. I know some people said the bottom of their pizza was burned but mine was clutch. Service was very pleasant. Atmosphere was nice and bar area was clean. I will most definitely come back!

We order the plus versions since we were starving, but I can’t imagine how thin/​light the standard Marguerita is. 1^st & last time here. Only ate here due to the crazy lines everywhere else… I should have read Unilocal before, as this is alot of people’s same reason for eating here. Not much flavor, minimal toppings (mind u I ordered the plus version $ 3 more for each pizza), not a long wait time, but then again, here weren’t that many orders on a busy Sunday Lunchtime.

Their pizzas are… boring, flavorless, dry, unsatisfying, and not filling.
Especially don’t get the Margarita pizza. It’s just so bad… I ate it for lunch today and was pissed.
Only good thing is Mushroom and Speck, but it’s pricey.
GCM deserves a better pizza joint than this. The only reason you should ever even consider ordering from here is if every other line at GCM is packed.

The pizza is quite tasty! We had a margherita pizza and a roasted veggie pizza. Both were good but the veggie pizza was much more substantial and more flavorful. The margherita could have used more cheese.
The crust was good. Flavorful, thin, crispy but chewy, lightly charred. They definitely use too much cornmeal on the crust. That made for a strange texture on the outside but I suppose some people like cornmeal.
Service was pretty fast. I didn’t time it but they said it would take 10 minutes and it seemed to take about 10 minutes. They weren’t very busy so it might’ve been longer a different day.

Writing this on behalf of my boyfriend. While we endured a long wait at the nearby Eggslut, my boyfriend decided he could wait no longer to grab a bite. He ventured here and ordered a small pepperoni pizza, about $ 8 I believe he said.
He offered me a slice, but there wasn’t a whole lot of pepperoni on it, and there were noticeable pools of oil on the cheese, so I passed.
He devoured it in a short amount of time, sans the crusts, but there was some gray ash left on his hands after eating which was a little off putting, and when I asked how it was he shrugged and said «I ate it– it’s good enough to eat while waiting for Eggslut.»
…although Eggslut turned out to be pretty disappointing, so I’m sure he was glad to have had something else in his stomach.

Pizza was doughy, and we ordered the grilled vegetable pizza but got about two cups of arugula on top of the whole thing. I regret not ordering the basic margherita. Line was long on a Saturday evening.

Most people get all upset about having to report for Jury Duty. Not me! All I could think about was the dozens upon dozens of walkable lunch options near the courthouse. And my foodie friend was reporting for duty too! Yay! Grand Central Market was the obvious choice for the first day, cuz, you know… options.
Wexler’s? Nah… had a bagel yesterday. Eggslut? In a perfect world, sure. But that line be cray cray. Falafel? I’ll stick to Glendale for Mediterranean fare. Belcampo looked good but a bit heavy for weekday lunch.
«How about the pizza place?»
«Oh… ok»
And that’s basically how it tasted. Ok. I attempted to be «healthy» and ordered the «focaccia salad» without even really understanding what it was. An undressed heap of arugula with a meager sprinkling of cherry tomatoes and cigliene in a box with about five breadsticks. It came with a cup of pesto, which I assumed was the dressing, but it didn’t quite work to toss it around. Too thick. So I kinda just forked out the cheese and tomatoes and either dipped them in the pesto or smashed ‘em into a piece of breadstick. It was fine. My friend’s pizza looked good but I don’t think she was impressed.

Tried this place when they had a $ 5 pizza special. $ 5 is great for a pizza in this area, but I never went back to get another one so it kind of speaks volumes to me. It was the margherita pizza, maybe it was the pizza itself. It was OK, I had never had this kind of pizza before, it may just not be my taste. Nothing really stuck out about the pizza, it was just ok. Not the crust, sauce or anything. I don’t really have plans to go back.

Quick, fairly priced. Had the margarita pizza. Enough for 2. Plus ipa on tap! Hard to get disappointed here.

What is pizza, is it a pie layered with sauce and cheese on top of bread. Although definition of pizza varies by person. The end result of our content will be taste and sadly this little joint was trying too hard to be something. I like a simple slice of pizza, nothing elaborate or over the top. Unfortunately this wasn’t one of those places that I would consider or recommend. As much as I love GCM, Olio didn’t grab me.
The service here is great, they have a counter that you can sit at without trying to fight off the angry crowds for the shared tables. But when first receiving the pizza, the cheese was dripping and the sauce was bland, not much there. Perhaps the wood fire oven was too hot or rushing it to bake ruined the toppings. The experience was just okay, not horribly bad. At least it had the right toppings, it is rare to leave a slice leftover but it was worse eating only half.
At least I can mark it off my GCM list, if only there were more options. Another nice perk was that they have beer and what more could be asked for right? And like any sad review it ends short on this finial note, «where art thou good pizza?» Hopefully I won’t get scolded for not loving this place or black listed. Some natives here are sensitive to their local joints but that’s a different story.

i had high hopes for this pizza stand. the wood-​fired-​ness is its best feature. unfortunately, the cheese used is not particularly high-​quality, nor tasteful.
the pepperoni was fatty enough to leave pools of grease fat in each roundel, more reminiscent of elementary school pizza than an ‘artisan’ pizza business.
still, if you are hungry, i would call the pizza serviceable.
i would certainly rather pay $ 8 for a single pizza than the $ 11 charged for a falafel á la carte at the place i had originally intended to eat, clearly geared toward wealthy transplants to l.a. [it’s called ‘madcapra’ — a hipster neologism apparently.] i decided to save my falafel craving for mediterranean café in south pasadena, which rocks!
nice service staff, a plus!

Went here for lunch while I was on Jury duty… The market itself peaked my curiosity.
I was a little weary because a lot of the other stands had longer lines but I can’t complain. Decent service and good sized personal pizza. It really hit the spot that day. Would definitely go back for another slice.

For some reason, my caprese salad took forever even though the place didn’t even have a line! I think it was because they were cooking the dough for the «focaccia» that’s supposed to come with it. It was a pretty expensive salad at almost $ 10 but at least was pretty weight-​y with mozzerella. The «focaccia» was also pretty generous, but very doughy and not very well thought out, also kind of burnt.
My colleague got a pizza and was not impressed.

It was my first time at grand central. I originally wanted to get egg slut, but the line was ridiculously long during lunch time over the weekend, so we decided to get this place instead.
The pizza is made fresh on the spot. Even though I wasn’t hungry after stuffing my face with my homemade deviled eggs earlier, after I saw the pizza, I couldn’t resist eating. I instantly fell in love. We ordered the wild mushroom and prosciutto pizza. I thought it would be super cheesy since the pizza doesn’t use tomato sauce, but it was perfect.
I didn’t just stop after eating a slice, I ate two. I would’ve ate the entire box if I wasn’t so scared my boyfriend would judge me for eating so much hehe.

The first time I went to Olio Pizzeria was actually the first time I visited L.A.‘s Grand Central Market … and I wish I had returned back to this «food hall» type of venue while I was still living in L.A., because it really is a neat space. I went on a Sunday afternoon and the place was still bustling – so many people and I was fortunate to find parking – and I was a little lost, since I had never been to GCM before. But I definitely hope to return someday, since there are so many vendors here and lots of great food spots to check out!
Olio had just opened a few weeks ago, and since pizza is one of my favorite foods, I was picking up dinner for the BF and me to enjoy. After wandering around the market a bit, I was able to find Olio. Note: Next time, I need to hit up Egg Slut when I’m at GCM … there was a short line and there’s so much hype about that place!
But back to Olio. There weren’t too many pizzas on the menu, since this location had just recently opened – they have another location at The Grove – but I’m on the more traditional side when it comes to pizzas. The walk-​up wasn’t crowded at all – there was only one person in front of me waiting for their order, and no one was behind me – so I didn’t have to wait too long to get my food.
From looking online, I noticed that Olio’s menu has since expanded from the time of my first visit, and some of those features (they have brunch now) sound downright amazing! Though I still prefer Blaze when it comes to made-​to-​order, thin-​crust pizzas, I did enjoy what I got from Olio. Here’s my two cents, as well as pizzas I wouldn’t mind trying in the future:
«Margherita»: I stuck with a traditional choice for my first pizza from this place. I specifically requested light tomato sauce and was pleased with how my pizza turned out. Though the crust was a little burnt, I didn’t mind (I actually like burnt crust, as well as doughy, soft crusts, so win-​win for the pizza makers). This classic pizza comprises tomato sauce, fresh local mozzarella, fresh basil and California olive oil. The pizza itself was good and sufficiently covered in the mentioned toppings. The BF complained about the burnt taste, but I didn’t really mind. It may be not been the most glamorous margherita pizza I’ve ever ordered, but the place had recently opened, so I was willing to give them a grace period. I have to say, though, while I enjoyed the pizza and was full after it, Blaze still reigns as one of my fav pizza joints.
«Margherita Plus»: Because I enjoyed the «Margherita» pizza, I’m sure I would also enjoy this «Plus» version, which includes more cheese! Or, rather, a different cheese. I was told that burrata is a high-​quality, fresh, rich cheese, which sounds like heaven for a cheese lover for myself. This pizza includes tomato sauce, burrata, Grana Padano, fresh basil and basil-​infused olive oil. If I ordered this pizza, I would again specify light tomato sauce so I can really enjoy the flavors from the cheese and basil.
«Tuscan Chicken Sausage and Peppers»: I’m afraid this pizza may be too spicy for me to handle, so I would probably ask about the spiciness level before ordering it. It features free range, house-​made chicken sausage, fire-​roasted peppers, tomato sauce and a three-​cheese blend finished with fresh arugula. If the peppers make this pizza too spicy, I have no problem ordering the pizza sans the peppers. Everything else it includes sounds simply amazing. I’m a huge fan of sausage (hopefully there’s a good amount on top of the pizza), and the three-​cheese blend sounds ultra-​savory. I’m not the hugest fan of arugula, but for the sake of trying this pizza, I’m willing to include it (and if I really didn’t want that bitter taste, I’m sure I could just pull the arugula off).
«DOP Pizza Margherita Buffalo»: One of the reasons why I love Blaze Pizza is because they offer freshly squeezed ovalini mozzarella as part of their available cheeses. And it’s for this reason that I’m pretty sure I’d love this pizza. Though it doesn’t include ovalini, that DOP imported buffalo mozzarella sounds just as phenomenal. This pizza also comes topped with tomato sauce, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil. Basil is one of my favorite spreads, and I would just ask for light sauce on this pizza.
«Giandujia Focaccia»: I don’t recall this dessert pizza being on the menu during my first trip to Olio, so maybe it was added later on. It features artisanal dough filled with Piedmontese hazelnut paste and Belgian chocolate surrounded by glaze of caramelized raw sugar. Yum! I love Nutella, so this sweet treat sounds like it’s right up my alley. Definitely look forward to trying it one day.
«Poached Egg in the Hole»: Olio now includes brunch on the weekends, and this particular entrée sounds really yummy to me. This made-​to-​order wood fired bialy (similar to a bagel) comes filled with basil pesto and a poached farm fresh egg.

Was pretty good lunch at Grand Central Market. My friend hadn’t been there for a while so I was happy to show her all the new, interesting places to eat. I was sad to find the kabob place closed… Their stall was empty.
We ordered two pizzas and split two pizzas and split a Caesar salad. I had a Margherita pizza which was nicely sauced with basil and mozzarella squares. The crust was good, a thin Center with thick, chewy edges. The salad was good, I could taste the anchovies in the dressing. The French bread croutons and shredded cheese topped it off making it a wonderful salad. All of this for $ 7.99 a pizza and $ 6.99 for the salad, and ready in eight minutes!!!
Definitely will be back!!!

Order a margherita — something so simple is so delicious.
I think their pizzas are a hit/​miss — slice wise. One of the slices came soggy: the toppings slid off of my pizza. the other slices remained thin but crisp and in tact. Apart from the «wet» slice of pizza I had, the flavor is spot on. Well tossed, and the crust is delicious. It will take a while for you to receive your order because of the long lines, but for $ 8 for a personal box, it’s a decent deal.
I would recommend getting a pizza to share with people you are at the market with in addition to the other food choices you have at the Grand Central Market. You wouldn’t come to GCM specifically for the pizza, but if you can try it, go for it.