Houdini Kitchen Laboratory

Houdini Kitchen Laboratory Restaurant Review:

Houdini Kitchen Laboratory, named so because the great magician is buried nearby at a Ridgewood, Queens, cemetery, is a fitting moniker for this pizzeria. It’s a trick. Here’s the secret: open up in an industrial part of town and on a street with very little business, and don’t have a sign on the façade of the venue or any evidence of the front door (in this case, it’s just a gate and a dark staircase). Hipsters will go gaga. For everyone else, though, it’s something of a one-trick pony. It would make the journey worth it to this ‘magical’ spot if the offerings from the kitchen were good. Alas, they’re not. Not as good as they should be. Pizzas come out surprisingly crisp, as if they are cooked in a gas-lit oven (it is, in fact, a wood-fired oven) and the mix of mozzarella and cream (a stracciatella) doesn’t bode well if you’re a slow eater, as the cheese congeals and hardens. We do recommend the very fine, creamy burrata, but if you want bread with it the restaurant charges $5 for triangular slices of focaccia. There’s little by way of dessert and the wine list is short but affordable. Cash only.