Written by DCist Contributor Andrew Chriss

Self-deprecating moniker aside, Pizza Zero, located along on Bethesda Avenue next to the Edgemont neighborhood in Bethesda, has plenty to offer pizza explorers looking for a slightly different experience. Perhaps the best way to pinpoint what's unique about Pizza Zero is to have all the pizza joints in the area stand up and be counted. Standing? O.K.

How many of you serve pizza that I can tolerate (being a born and raised Jersey pizza snob)? I see all of the chains are sitting down. How many of you cook your pizza using a wood fire? I see the Italian Store in Arlington is sitting down. Sorry...you still rock, though. How many of you grill your pizza over said wood fire, and top it with ingredients traditionally found in South American cuisine? Hey, there's Pizza Zero!

The interior of Pizza Zero provides an inviting warm atmosphere, with relatively modest lighting levels and rich brownish-orange walls. There's a bar when you walk in, which provides seating for about ten to twelve people and has two flat panel T.V.s on the wall. The dining area contains a large flat panel television that, although the sightlines may be a bit awkward, make for a great place to sit back and enjoy your favorite sports event (Champions League fútbol on this night), though not so great if you're trying to focus on your dining companion. Mirrors line the right side of the restaurant wall, making the inside seem more spacious than it actually is.

We started the night with a couple of Argentinean drinks, a Quilmes and a glass of the Trapiche Cabernet Sauvignon. Quilmes, a cerveza which dates back to 1888, is most similar to Corona, but with a darker hue and a slightly richer taste. The Cab-Sav had a smooth dry flavor, and was recommended by the waiter as an accompaniment to the Italian-Argentinean meal.

Pizza Zero offers appetizers, salads, and empanadas as starters. Unfortunately, the appetizer menu is far from expansive, and looks lifted from a typical tapas restaurant. It seems to be constructed as an effort to keep the cooks focused on the pizzas; they likely don’t need to spend a lot of effort assembling the various meats and cheeses in their limited listing. The salad selection is slightly offbeat, with selections like a hearts of palm salad and orange and goat cheese salad; so it's nice to see some creativity here that is absent in the appetizer menu. The empanada is what beckoned to us, though; specifically the chicken option--chicken, tomatoes, and olives wrapped up in phyllo dough. The empanada is a little small, perhaps because of the phyllo exterior rather than a more doughy version, and the taste is dominated by the chicken and tomatoes; I could barely confirm that the olives were actually in there, unfortunately. Overall, the empanada is pretty bland, so I'd avoid unless you're really hungry.

If the 33 pizzas on the menu aren't enough of a selection for you, you can make your own pizza with ingredients like salami, smoked salmon, and perhaps some unsalted anchovies (boquerones ). We went with two of the pre-assembled options, La Portena and Cuatro Hongos. La Portena features the standard mozzarella and tomato sauce, and is topped with grilled Argentine sausage and a chimichurri sauce. The wood-fire that Pizza Zero uses to grill its pizza really adds to the smokiness of the sausage, which otherwise would have far less flavor. In what could be a valuable addition to the pizza, the chimichurri is somewhat of a letdown. Considering the amount of fresh herbs that go into making a classic chimichurri, I was surprised to find the dominant flavor to be...garlic. It's a valiant effort to include the great accompaniment to steak or pork in this pie, but perhaps this chimichurri is mismatched with the mozzarella and tomato sauce.

The Cuatro Hongos pizza is topped with mushrooms marinated in a white wine sauce, further topped with a thin slice of brie. On the bright side, the mushrooms really absorb the smoky wood-fire flavor, and thankfully maintain their meatiness during cooking. The brie, however, is out of place. The slice is much too thin to be of consequence, adding neither flavor nor texture; it looks somewhat like a slice of American cheese you'd throw on top of elbow pasta to call it macaroni and cheese (not that I ever did this). This is a somewhat inconsequential shortcoming, however, as the taste of the mushrooms alone make this pizza worth trying.

You can close out your night with a selection from the small, but enticing, dessert menu. Try the house-made flan, which is topped with a dollop of thick dulce de leche. The combination of the dulce de leche combined with the smooth custard is mouthwatering. The restaurant also offers crepes stuffed with the dulce de leche, which promise to be equally decadent if the custard isn't your speed.

There may be some questionable flavor combinations at Pizza Zero, but the restaurant is smart to feature smoky or smoke-friendly ingredients (prosciutto, tuna, salmon, etc.), rather than forcing traditional types of pizza to fit in with the flavor provided by the wood-fired grill. The pizza menu is quite expansive, so this place warrants a few trips back, especially because service is not overlooked. The restaurant also did a lot of little things right, like offering taste tests of the wine when we weren't sure what to order, and responding within seconds when a fellow diner spilled wine on herself. The only substantive problem I had was with the selection of Alicia Keys as the background music. Shouldn't there have been something more in line with either the culture or the clientele?

Pizza Zero might not enter into the debate of best pizza in D.C., but Pizza Zero's South American flavors, ingredients, and friendly atmosphere make it a destination worth seeking out if you're looking for something a little different. Appetizers and salads run from $4 to $10, while empanadas are $3 each. Pizzas are $7.50 to $12 for stock options, and start at $7.50 plus $1 or $2 for toppings if you'd like to build your own. Dessert is $4 to $7.

Pizza Zero
4925 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda, Md.
(240) 497.0751
Metro: Bethesda
11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday
11:30 am to 11:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday