There are a few great reasons to hit Comet Ping Pong. Sadly, the pizza isn’t one of them.
That said, pizza is incidental to the Comet Ping Pong experience. These are the real draws of the joint:
- Ping Pong — The lower level provides a few high-quality tables, paddles, and balls. It’s a convivial scene with hipsters, kids, and policy wonks intermingling.
- Proximity —Comet lies a few storefronts away from the large flagship location of the venerable Politics & Prose, a well-regarded bookstore known for its vast selection and frequent author events. An evening involving ping pong, pizza, and books is tops in my book.
- Infamy — Comet is ground zero of the 2016 Pizzagate conspiracy theory, where a numbskull believing Hillary Clinton was trafficking child sex slaves from the Comet basement shot up the place with an AR-15.
Dishing Pizza almost forgot this is supposed to be all about the pizza. That’s how memorable Dishing Pizza finds the Comet Ping Pong pizza.
Comet Ping Pong offers only 10-inch pizzas, baked in a wood-burning oven. The lively atmosphere of the restaurant is better suited for large groups sharing bigger pizzas, where guests can grab a slice, play some ping pong, enjoy a beer, rinse and repeat. Serving small, precious pizzas feels incongruous in this energetic environment.
As Dishing Pizza alluded to earlier, there’s nothing particularly wrong with the Comet pizza. The crust is mostly chewy, the sauce is fine, and the cheese is adequate if not memorable. The tips of the slices suffer from a common malady of wood-fired pizza — the dough in the middle becomes soggy and difficult to eat without utensils. Every bite of a pizza this small and expensive should be consistently enjoyable.
Comet Ping Pong pizza is a cut above standard bar fare, but not worth the trip solely for the pies.
Comet Ping Pong
5037 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008
Type: Wood-fired
Pizza quality: 🍕🍕
Overall experience: ⭐⭐⭐
Pie price – 10″: $13
Pie price per square inch: $0.17