Il Casone Ristorante Italiano, Plaza Olavide

Where can you get a good Pizza? Well, in Madrid, or Spain for that matter, that is not such simple question. A lot of places think they sell Pizza, but believe me they don't. Once we had a Pizza somewhere on Calle Genova that was raw. Impossible? Believe me. When we sent it back we got something else (never mind what, it was just as bad), but the manager came back to our table to tell us that this was a special type of pizza....
Anyway, you know how you sometimes crave for something and you go out looking for it? That's how I found Il Casone. It was the first time I had a decent Pizza in Spain, so I went back several times and last Saturday I went again. I always order the same, a Caprese Salad and a Quatro Stagione Pizza. Again I was not dissapointed. The ingredients were fresh and tasted like they were brought in from the land only half an hour earlier. Delicious.
This obviously is the best thing about the restaurant which is quite big and divided into sections. What bothers me is that nearly half of the restaurant is reserved for smokers and what bothers me even more is that this is the nicest part of the place. Another thing that bothers me is that the plates seem to have been brought in from a Greek restaurant where they refused to break, we got a starter on a small plate that looked more like an ashtray. However, the food is great and so this is only a minor thing which, until someone cuts themselves badly, will be part of the charm.