Hẻm Gems: In a Hẻm, on Plastic Chairs, One of Saigon's Best Pizzas Beckons

“The leopard spots. They hate them,” Hiếu Trần explains to me. “They think it means the pizza is burnt.”

Editor's note (Mar. 2025): Trần Pizza recently changed locations and this article is written about its original location. 

Getting Vietnamese customers to embrace his Neapolitan-style pizza has been the biggest challenge so far in running Hiếu's year-old shop, Trần Pizza. This came as a surprise to me, as I expected it to be something such as the rivals who messed with his Google Maps location or the asthma-like symptoms of “baker’s lung” he’s experienced. Nope, it’s the leopard spots.

Leoparding is a common phenomenon in Neapolitan pizzas.

Leopard spots are small, black blisters that can appear on a pizza crust, and are what many associate with pizzas from Naples, Italy. The gas trapped in the dough expands and bubbles up into blisters from the heat of the oven. They are supposed to be there, and pizza geeks know their presence indicates a dough that has likely gone through a long, slow fermentation process. Pizza geeks also know that such a process likely means the crust will taste fabulous. For my fellow geeks, Hiếu uses a 48-hour biga, and his is one of the most flavourful crusts I have tried so far in Saigon.

Hiếu's pizza dough.

A few years ago, Hiếu would have also thought those spots meant the pizza was burnt. He remembers his family ordering from Domino’s or Pizza Hut when he was growing up, especially on weeknights when there would be buy-one-get-one specials. As he got older, he explored more independent pizzerias in Saigon and grew to like them.

Thanks to word of mouth and social media like TikTok, Trần Pizza has earned a sizable following.

Challenges to his pizza being accepted by locals and this ho-hum-ness are unexpected given Trần Pizza’s current success. The constant social media buzz; the daily sell-outs, sometimes hours before closing time; and the promotion of him being a “self-taught baker” might suggest that the pizzeria is the culmination of years of self-determination to achieve an ultimate pizzaiolo dream. It’s not — Trần Pizza is the culmination of a pizza passion born out of necessity and generational know-how of running a Saigon street food business.

The self-taught baker

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hiếu quit a part-time barista job he enjoyed to accept a higher-paying one in a restaurant kitchen. The type of American-style pizza that you typically find in bars and pubs was on the menu, so making it was just part of the job. For Hiếu, getting good at it was part of keeping the job, a necessity with university tuition and the uncertainty of the world as stressors. But understanding and mastering a process — first with coffee beans and now with pizza dough — was something that motivated him as much as the income.

Learning how to make pizza went from an on-the-job task to Hiếu's main income.

He knew his manager liked and trusted him, and he learned just how much when the deck oven was ditched in favor of an Ooni portable pizza oven. This is where the self-taught baker moniker comes in. It was Hiếu’s responsibility to figure out how to use the oven. In the absence of real hands that could teach him, he turned to the next best thing: the recorded ones of YouTube.

Learning how to simply use the oven was the first priority. Hiếu quickly realized, however, that putting the restaurant’s style of pizza into the new oven wasn’t sustainable. He was simply cleaning off burnt cheese and toppings way too often during a shift, so he went back to YouTube to learn about the style the oven was better designed for: Neapolitan.

Pizzas only need to be in the oven for a few minutes to cook.

“I needed to learn how to make this work, or else I would have had to find another job,” he explains. “But for the first time ever, I felt like I was getting really good at something.”

The crust of a pizza Napoletana has a thin, soft center with an outer crust (cornicione) that balloons up and takes on the characteristic leopard spots when baked. The time in an ideally 480°C oven is less than 90 seconds, which means the eye of the pizzaiolo is constantly on the oven, checking the bake and turning the pie when necessary to ensure the crust cooks evenly. The short time in the oven also means that what and how much the pizza is topped with has to be carefully managed.

Much of Hiếu's pizza-making knowledge is gained through the help of the internet.

By looking to Naples and seeking help from YouTube pizza heroes like Vito Iacopelli, Hiếu began to transform the restaurant’s pizza menu. He had to learn how to make a Neapolitan-style dough to give the characteristic soft, chewy texture and importantly, the leopard spots. This would involve needing to source and use new flour, as the finely milled 00 flour from Italy is considered standard. He learned about the San Marzano tomatoes used in the traditional sauce, and the difference between a marinara and a Margherita.

Hiếu retained all the equipment he invested in after the failed partnership.

Things were plugging along until they weren’t. The restaurant changed directions, and Hiếu was left unemployed. But someone he knew from his barista days collaborated with him on a pop-up at their café, the success of which led to discussions for a permanent business partnership. Hiếu’s initial investment would be all the necessary equipment for the space he would occupy: the prep table, the fridge, and of course, the pizza oven. Still an unemployed part-time student, he borrowed most of the money from his family and friends. 

Trần Pizza as we know it would not have existed if the partnership had worked out. It went south before anything even began. All that equipment, however, was his. “I thought, I'm not going to waste all of the energy that I put into coming up with the money and getting everything,” he says. “And so I decided I would work for myself.”

The descendant of street food vendors

As the son and grandson of women who ran street food stalls from the same hẻm where you’ll find his pizza shop today, Hiếu knew that opening up his own place in Saigon didn’t have to mean looking through “for rent” ads or talking to a real estate broker. The only thing he had to do was ask mom and dad if he could carry on the family and city tradition with an Italian twist.

The alley on Cống Quỳnh where Hiếu's family has lived for decades — now also the home to Trần Pizza.

Less than two weeks after the partnership’s dissolution in December 2023, Hiếu was already slinging pies from the small alley in District 1. He figured out a way to make all the equipment bought for a completely different space work for the one he lived in. He employed social media as best he could and has steadily grown his customer base since.

Hẻm Gems across the city are often on the first floor of a family home, and Trần Pizza is no different. Five days a week, the space used for storage and motorbikes becomes the pizza kitchen and indoor seating area. A few more short, stainless steel portable tables and small plastic chairs extend to the alley, creating a quintessential street food experience.

Keeping tasty pizzas affordable is the pizzeria's utmost important motto.

Outside of friends and fans who attended his pop-up, supportive neighbors were his first customers. The eagerness to support the son of the woman known by everyone as cô Chín, who had fed the alley previously, was matched by their openness to tell him what was wrong with his pizza. In addition to being turned off by the leopard spots, they felt the tomato sauce was too acidic, the crust too soft, and why was there no ketchup or chili sauce on the tables?

You’ll find those bottles there now, but Hiếu makes it clear that he does try to aim for as much Neapolitan authenticity as he can with his basic pizza elements such as the crust and the sauce. He tries to educate skeptical customers, convincing cô Chín herself that his pies aren’t burnt.

Ham & Mushroom (left) and Margherita with burrata (right).

The menu includes classics like the Margherita with cheese, tomato, and basil; but he also has choices that reflect options that are popular across pizzerias in Saigon, like Carbonara and Four Cheese; and ones he thought would be delicious, such as Chicken & Pesto and Pork & Eggplant. He offers no apologies and just a smile when the Italians he’s served scoff at his inclusion of pineapple on one of his pies — Chicken & Pineapple — a cardinal pizza sin to many. My favorite so far has been the Ham & Mushroom with added burrata, but the Carbonara is a close second. 

The star dish: Carbonara pizza.

Financial constraints are also in play in Hiếu's aspiration for high authenticity. Fresh mozzarella is simply too expensive, so he has played around with different low-moisture mozzarellas to see which one could recreate the creaminess of fresh. He makes his pesto with Vietnamese cashews instead of pine nuts, which are harder to find and much more expensive. The charcuterie is from local companies instead of being Italian imports.

The charcuterie is locally sourced.

Adjustments only go so far, though. When I ask Hiếu if he considered changing his tomato sauce recipe given the feedback that it was too sour, he was firm: “My goal was to introduce really good pizza to locals at a reasonable price. For no reason would I trade that off for any number of new or curious customers just because they want something sweeter to suit their palates.”

The hẻm pizzeria

While Italy may serve as his North Star when it comes to what he serves, he views the shop as inherently Vietnamese: “We are no different than any other street food stall,” Hiếu asserts. “We don’t see ourselves much differently than the other aunties and uncles selling their food on the street. We just sell something more unique and might use social media more. But we’re still just a family business.”

Cô Chín, Hiếu's mom (grey shirt), helps out in the restaurant.

In addition to Hiếu welcoming and chatting with customers from behind his workstation, you are likely to be served by either his girlfriend Phương or cô Chín, who also has a hand in the prep work, whether it’s cooking the chicken or pickling the chilies that you can order to accompany your pie. His father, chú Hồng, is more the silent partner, as he’s usually perched outside watching over, ever-ready to help out with setting up or moving tables. One of his two brothers helps out, too, when not too busy with school and work.

With confidence and a smile, he underscores: “I’m street.”

Just like many other popular street food stalls, if you arrive too late, you might be out of luck. The promotion of Trần Pizza on TikTok and Instagram has meant he’s often turning customers away in the evening. “I feel sad about it,” he says. “But I'm glad that many people have accepted my pizza, that many people enjoy it. It makes me feel I'm heading the right way.”

I ask him if that way is a dream towards a free-standing pizzeria with proper tables, a full staff, and the ability to book a table. “I don’t want that,” he states firmly. “I don't care, I don't want that.”

With confidence and a smile, he underscores: “I’m street.”

A beacon in the dark leading you to delicious pizzas.

Trần Pizza is open from 1pm to 9pm (or until sold out). Double-check their Instagram page for monthly off days before visiting.