Taste Test: The Morning Culture with Frank Ski, Jade Novah & JR Try ATL Pizzeria Nina + Rafi

Photo credit Mike Jordan for The Morning Culture with Frank Ski, Jade Novah & JR

By The Morning Culture, V-103

With so many restaurants and bars in Atlanta, it can be a challenge to find the city's best food and drinks. That's why V-103 does the hard work of eating as many meals and sampling as many beverages we can find in ATL, from the most popular spots in the city to word-of-mouth favorites that have survived years of tastes and trends as neighborhoods change. Here's our latest Taste Test review:

Who: Nina & Rafi, Italian-American restaurant

Where: 661 Auburn Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30312

What: Pizza

Today Nina & Rafi delivered stacks of their most popular pizzas to V-103, and The Morning Culture with Frank Ski, Jade Novah & JR gave the pies a try. Nina & Rafi is located in Studioplex Alley on the Altanta BeltLine, and is run by cofounders Billy Streck (owner of Cypress Street Pint & Plate, Hampton + Hudson and others), and Anthony Spina, whose O4W Pizza restaurant in Irwin Street Market was famous for its New-Jersey-style, square-shaped "Grandma Pie" before it closed a couple years ago and relocated to Duluth. Now, Spina's pizzas are back inside the perimeter, feeding Beltline visitors once again to rave reviews. But do Nina & Rafi's pies pass The Morning Culture's taste test?

When asked to describe the pizza, Frank Ski said "It was really good quality pizza! You could tell the ingredients were fresh and the portions were good." His favorite was the "Old Fashion," a square thin-crust pizza made with plum tomato sauce, mozzarella (which is made in-house), and fresh garlic.

Producer Nina of The Morning Culture said her favorite was the Vodka Margherita, which is round and layered with vodka sauce, garlic, pecorino, extra-virgin olive oil, mozzarella, fresh basil and spicy meatballs. The crew also tasted the "Tony Pepperoni" pie, made with hand-cut pepperoni slices and spicy arrabbiata red sauce. Nina said the pepperoni was "a little oily" for her tastes (the pepperoni become little cups of delicious oil during baking), but other V-103 staff members happily stepped into quickly clear the entire box of rectangular pizza slices.

The team also had the "Detroit Red Top" pan pizza which has a blend of cheeses and homemade marinara sauce poured over top. It manages to stay airy for such a thick crust, which made it disappear in a hurry also. The slowest pie to be devoured by was the no-sauce "Caramelized Square," topped with caramelized onions, whipped goat cheese ricotta, shaved reggiano parmesan and roasted garlic. As a New York representative, JR admitted that he wasn't sure about all this "New-Jersey-style" pizza ("There's no such thing!" he said), but still smiled before and after eating multiple slices.

FINAL RATING: VVVV (4 out of 5)

Visit NinaAndRafi.com here to see the full menu

Photo credit Mike Jordan for The Morning Culture with Frank Ski, Jade Novah & JR