Bengaluru’s latest pizzeria Nomad Pizza needs to wander off on a serious flavour expedition
Indiranagar, a Bengaluru neighbourhood dotted with world-class restaurants, is playing home to a new pizzeria—Nomad Pizza. In search of a soul-satisfying pizza, here’s what the dining experience was like.
There are few things in life as satisfying as biting into a hot, cheese-stringy pizza.
The delightful struggle with the cheese surrendering to the rich tomato sauce, culminating in an explosion of flavour on your taste buds, is a symphony of textures and tastes that truly warms your soul from within.
My quest for the perfect pizza has taken me to places near and far—from the trattorias and osterias in Naples—the birthplace of pizza—and Chicago, home of the deep dish, to local gems like The Pizza Bakery and Brik Oven in Bengaluru.
So, of course, when I kept driving by Nomad Pizza in Indiranagar on my way to work, I had to try it.
Before embarking on yet another pizza-finding mission, a quick skim of online reviews told me that the co-founders of Nomad Pizzas drew their inspiration from their journeys and the diverse culinary experiences they encountered around the world.
And a scan of the menu pretty much confirmed it. From Naples-inspired pies to New York’s thin crusts and Chicago’s deep dishes—Nomad Pizza’s offerings reflected a rich tapestry of global pizza traditions.
Between me and the four friends I went to Nomad with, we ordered the Chicago deep dish—all chicken, the shiitake mushroom with goat cheese pizza, and a New York pizza-inspired artichoke and sun-dried tomato pizza.
For sides, we ordered the garlic pizza bread with cheese and some pull-apart garlic bread with truffle oil.
We paired all of this with some Jacob’s Creek Shiraz wine, but mostly because the restaurant didn’t have any of the dry white wines on their list, which usually pairs well with heavier, tomato sauce-based pizzas.
The wine list, although lacking in variety, does have some decent offerings, including a Spanish red, white, and rose wine. I would’ve loved to see some prosecco for variety, especially since it helps cut through thicker-dough pizzas, like the Chicago deep dish.
While waiting to be served, I had to mentally pause and make a note of the ambience as it wasn’t anything to write home about, truly.
The vibe leaned towards minimalism other than a few run-of-the-mill graphic posters depicting idyllic Italian villages. The sconces did add some drama to the bare white walls, but apart from that, there wasn’t anything that reminded me of my Mediterranean sojourns or the bustling streets of New York and Chicago.
Source: Nomad Pizza
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The food
Keep in mind that for a single pizza at Nomad, you’d have to shell out upwards of Rs 645, excluding taxes, for three slices. The Chicago deep dish cost Rs 995—almost a thousand rupees.
All in all, for that price tag, the pizzas and the sides were severely underwhelming.
The garlic pizza bread was quite dry and lacked that garlic-ky punch. When paired with wine, it almost instantly lost all its flavour. The pull-apart bread was soft and fluffy, and quite delicious too, but the truffle oil tasted like generic olive oil and lacked the earthy truffle taste.
The size of the Chicago deep dish was similar to Domino’s’ small personal pizza. Sadly, it wasn’t an authentic deep dish, but rather a thick-dough pizza with toppings.
By the time it was served to us, the pizza was only slightly warm and didn’t have that satisfying cheese pull. In fact, we wondered among ourselves if they hadn’t just oven-heated a leftover pizza as some sections of it were cold.
The Chicago deep dish also didn’t have a morsel of any other vegetable on it apart from thin slices of chicken.
The shiitake mushroom and goat cheese pizza was a letdown. The mushrooms had the texture of wet cardboard—reminiscent of the dried kind from Urban Platter that needs soaking before use. However, unlike the flavourful Urban Platter mushrooms once cooked, these were soggy and oddly runny, with an off-putting, eggy consistency.
Again, the pizza lacked flavour— both the cheese and the tomato sauce base were utterly devoid of character.
The New York artichoke and sun-dried tomato pizza was decent, although it was amusing that the sun-dried tomatoes had been replaced with fresh ones.
Source: Nomad Pizza
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New York-style pizzas are known for their thin, foldable crust, rich tomato sauce, and generous cheese topping—all of which the Nomad pizza severely lacked.
The crust was stiff, and the tomato sauce and cheese were the same as the other two pizzas.
In fact, our disappointment only grew with each new pizza they served. After the Chicago deep dish and the shiitake mushroom pizza, we even asked the wait staff if we could cancel the New York-style pizza as we weren’t satisfied with the taste. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to—and understandably so.
Between the five of us, we only managed to finish a third of each pie. There is profound dissatisfaction about Nomad’s pizzas—they fail on most counts.
With hopes for an improvement, I later ventured to order from one of their cloud kitchens, yearning for a glimmer of culinary redemption. Sadly, the experience mirrored the dismal dine-in affair.
With the lofty price tag attached to their pizzas, you’d expect an elevated dining experience—but Nomad’s tasteless pizzas don’t hit any notes.
For those seeking true pizza perfection, I'd suggest exploring alternatives like Little Italy, The Pizza Bakery, or Chianti—all nestled in Indiranagar, mere moments away from Nomad—that offer pizzas of unparalleled quality and flavour, often at comparable or even lower prices.
Clearly, Nomad is still wandering in search of its flavour compass.
Edited by Suman Singh