Joe’s Pizza in Santa Monica, CA

New York style pizza in Santa Monica. I went with my dad for a late lunch. I watched the woman in front of us order the last slice of the fresh mozzarella and basil. I was a little happy about this, thinking that I may get a slice fresh out of the oven. I asked the guys making the pizza, and he said one just went in the oven, 7 minutes. So I waited.

I watched as it came out of the oven, and he tore up some basil leaves to scatter around the pie. So it looked like a solid slice of pizza. There was a good balance of cheese to sauce to dough. It was a nice, thin crust, but could actually have been a little crispier on the outside and more tender on the inside (perhaps a result of the lack of a very hot brick oven). The sauce was just okay. It tasted fresh but a little too much like tomato straight out of the can. The mozzarella and basil were great. Fresh and not too much of either one, which is something that is done all of the time. It was solid slice of pizza, and a surprise to find in Santa Monica near the beach. I was really wishing I had gone here the day before for lunch. The Alexandria Cafe was next door, and I would have loved to replace my disappointing falafel with a couple slices of good pizza.

08/16/2009

Green Peppers in Middlebury, VT

For such a small town, Middlebury actually has a couple of places to get good food at reasonable prices. This may be a little more expensive than the restaurants I would rather go to in Middlebury, but the few extra dollars is worth it. The decor leaves much to be desired, but I almost gave this place an extra star because of the nice people. The ingredients (veggies and meat) I had in a sub were not great, and a lot of their food is a little greasy for my taste. Fried foods can be good, but the extra oil that gives it a little shine is unnecessary. And with the  pizza with a greasy crust and veggies lacking a certain brightness,  there is a little something left to be desired. Something I don’t really understand is the place in their website where they mention their wood burning oven and the fact that pizzas in this oven take 25-35 minutes. Something about that just didn’t seem right to me, as I only have a pizza stone, and rarely ever have a pizza crust that cooks for more than 10 minutes.

07/22/2009

Bill’s Pizzeria in Newton Center, MA

I like Bill’s and I am a returning customer, but I do see how one could visit Bill’s and come away with a less than favorable impression. I looked at their pizza and decided that I would not be having it. The crust does not look like it has a nice crunch with a light, chewy interior. The crust shines with the oil from it that has surfaced. It is not a traditional pizza, and the quality of the ingredients to me just looked sub par. In spite of what the first review I saw said, I judged it to be over-cheesed. To me, a pizza is not dripping with cheese, but contains a good balance between crust, sauce, and cheese. But of course, I say everything about it because I did not order any pizza, and I probably won’t in the future.

Also, the staff may be hit or miss. I have been to Bill’s a few times, and most of the time have had no trouble. But one Saturday I showed up around 8:40pm. This did not seem too outrageous to me, since they close at 9. But apparently, It was getting a little late for the staff? We walked in, and the grill was turned off, and they were out of a couple of things that we tried to order. We finally found something for everybody to eat, and we sat down at a table (there was our table and one other still there). For the entire time we were there, we had a minimum of two members of the staff staring our table down from the register as if to say, “How could you choose to eat this food here? Don’t you know it is 9:04 on a Saturday night?”

That being said, there is a large menu, and a lot of it I think they do very well. I have ordered the Bangkok wrap, the Ultimate Veggie wrap with grilled chicken added, and a schawarma-esque Lam and Beef Gyro. The Bangkok wrap was pretty good with fresh vegetables and a good peanut sauce. The vinagrette I found a little unnecessary. The other two sandwiches I ordered I was very happy with. The Ultimate Veggie wrap is loaded with juicy, marinated grilled veggies. I found the marinated chicken to be a very nice addition. The marinade on both of these things is very good, and the chicken has been juicy whenever I have had it. The Gyro I got was also very good. There were fresh tomato, onions, and lettuce with a nice portion of a creamy tsatziki sauce. The spiced ground lamb and beef slices had good flavor, but I would be surprised if they did not get the meet from somewhere else. If they make it there, I would be impressed.

I will be going back to eat here, as my best friend lives up the street and they make some things that I like to eat. I think one can have a very good affordable meal as the sandwiches are large and not over-priced, but I also believe it will be important to order the right things. They do some things very well, but having a sub-par meal is not out of the question.

07/21/2009

Lombardi’s Pizza in New York, NY

Another stop on this trip to NYC had to be for pizza. This is definitely some of the best pizza I have ever had. I have not had much New York pizza, but I know what I like in a pizza. There was a short line when we got there between 4:30 and 5 on a Saturday, but not bad. The problem was, there were four of us that were eating, and only two of us were there. They do not sit incomplete parties, so after waiting a little bit for the other two, we ended up ordering two pizzas to go and ate them in the park next to Lombardi’s. We ordered a large, 18 inch plain pizza ($19.50) and a clam pizza ($26.00) which only comes in 14 inches. The clam pizza is not on the menu, but I had heard very good things about it. It was good. I was in the mood for pizza. If you go to Lombardi’s and you really feel like eating some pizza, I would not get the clam. It is a pie that is topped with garlic, parsley, lemon, a generous serving of lemon, a more than generous serving of clams, and a sprinkle of grated parmesan on top. It had a very good flavor, but I think you have to be in the mood for seafood as much as you are pizza if this is what you want to order, especially considering the price. The plain pizza we got was classic and very well done. It is what I look for in a pizza. It is not a pizza that is overwhelmingly cheesy or doughy or anything. You taste all of the ingredients, and each one shines and complements the other. It has a very good balance. The crust has some bite to it, and inside the dough is soft and chewy (something that can be achieved with the high heat of their great brick oven). The crust was not so much blackened as advertised, but still excellent. They use fresh mozarella which is really the only way to go if you are serving this kind of pizza. I thought they used the perfect amount of cheese. The whole pizza is not covered. You can see a fair amount of the sauce that is under the cheese. The sauce was very sweet, and the flavor of the quality tomato they use was outstanding. I have never had a sauce at any pizza place that has come near this.

Cheese is an essential part of pizza. The mozarella they use is great, but I could have eaten a whole pie consisting of just crust and sauce, maybe with a sprinkling of basil and parm on top. I absolutely need to eat more pizza outside of Vermont, as the pizza here is ultimately left wanting. At Lombardi’s, they use fresh basil, which brings the pizza to yet another level. A friend of mine who lives in New York but spends most of his time eating late night pizza at Koronet’s on the upper westside noticed the fresh basil as much as anything else. I believe the quote was something like, “Whoah, I just had a bite with some green leafy things… It was like an explosion of flavor in my mouth.” I laughed a little, and then kept eating my wonderful slice of what may have seemed like a simple cheese pizza, but was in fact much more.

07/15/2009