Several new entries from the last six weeks or so. By the way, my weight is staying roughly the same. The walking and no sugar are enough to offset the pizza calories…whew!
Mama’s Too: Mama’s has a reputation as being one of, if not the best pizza on the upper west side. They make excellent Roma style (square, thicker crust): We tried 4 slices between us: pepperoni, pear and gorgonzola, peppers and sausage, and buffalo chicken. Here’s my take:
Mama’s lives up to its reputation. Not only was it crowded (the line was coming out the door on a rainy night), but it was great. Excellent, crunchy crust. The crunch comes from frying the bottom of the crust in olive oil before baking. Strong buffalo sauce. Fresh mozzarella cheese- as we were waiting in line for our pizza, we watched them pile it on. The pear pizza had a bit of carmelization, which, combined with the pear, cheese and sauce, was delectable, but not too sweet. The pepperoni was spicy and moderately thick. You could not take a bite without multiple pepperoni slices. By the way, they squirted some ranch sauce on the buffalo chicken–very nice addition that upped the flavor. Mama’s is officially a contender. Not quite the top, but a contender.
Upside Pizza is located just a block from our offices near Union Square: Google reviews were good but I had not heard of them. What a nice surprise. Despite carrying the pizzas back to the office in paper boxes (the heat from the pizzas can often take the crisp out of the crust), it turned out to be the best NY style pizza I’ve tried (so far). The sourdough crust was excellent with a tanginess and touch of sour with substance. Crispy on the bottom, but chewy—near perfect combination for NY style crust. I think in NY style, folding it works, but in this case, was optional–the pizza held it’s shape with the crispy bottom. The cheese had a bit of a kick, sharper than most mozzarella, but excellent and plenty of it, a combination of low-moisture mozzarella and fresh mozzarella. The tomato-based sauce complimented the crust/cheese combo, didn’t overpower it. The pepperoni slices curled and dripped grease onto the plate. Just as it should be.
Don Antonio. When Ty visited and after the Circleline tour around Manhattan, we stopped at Don Antonio on 50th street for pizza. They’re known by professional reviewers for some of the best pizza in NYC. They make pizza with Neapolitan crust, generally my favorite. They also have a version of crust that is deep-fried before they load it with toppings and bake it. It is their Montanara pizza. We ordered two pizzas to share between three of us. One was the Montanara Classic: “lightly fried pizza dough topped with our signature tomato sauce, imported smoked buffalo mozzarella, pecorino romano, basil, finished in wood-fired oven.”
We also tried their 10-year anniversary pizza, a non deep-fried Neapolitan-crust pizza: “tomato sauce, imported organic stracciatella from Puglia, fresh basil pesto, shaved pecorino romano, fresh oregano.” How did they compare?
- Montanara Classic: deep-fried and then baked produced a crispy crust that had a nice, not as greasy as I expected, crunch and flavor. The tomato sauce was excellent, so fresh and rich with flavor. Cheese was good, but seemed a little sparse.
- 10-year anniversary: not normally a huge fan of pesto, but the combo of pesto, their delicious tomato sauce and the creamy stracciatella cheese was tasty. I like the thin Neapolitan crust, but this was too thin. Almost paper thin in the middle, reminded me of Fiorello’s.
Bottom line: Delicious tomato sauce, flavor combos, and creamy stracciatella along with a deep-fried crust were not enough to overcome the extra thinness of the crust and the sparseness of the cheese. See No Evil is safe for now. By the way, we were hungry and crushed the two pizzas within minutes. Glad we were able to taste and compare the flavors on the way down.
Soho pizza. $8 cheese, $20 other for large 18″ pies. Best price around. Not surprisingly, expectations were low. But the pizzas are better than J’s pizza. Crust was OK, not tasteless, but hint of yeast and baked just right. Cheese was not thick but tasted OK, Sauce was also OK. Pizza was great value, slightly above J’s, but not near what Upside is. Turns out they went out of business the next week; at least their doors were locked and a “For Lease” sign was in front of the store. I guess it’s too hard to pay rent when charging only $8 for a large cheese pizza. I guess the loss leader strategy didn’t work out for them.
Little Italy III Pizza. The younger service missionaries made an executive decision once they discovered the closing of Soho. They walked a couple blocks to Little Italy III Pizza. LI3 offered a different type of crust. Still NY style, but with Cornmeal or Semolina coarse flour sprinkled on the edges and bottom. It made for a crispy crust with a bit of a crunchy texture. Tasted good. The cheese/sauce combo was good. Good balance of mozzarella. Sauce was a little on the sweet side and not as tomato rich as some. Solid, not the top, but not the bottom. No pics–sorry.
Baggios. Another pizza place near the office. We and the other senior missionaries serving in the employment center provide pizza every week for the staff, so we’re trying places near the office. Baggios crust is a mix between Neopolitan and NY style. Chewy and thicker in the middle than pure Neo, but crispy and crackery on the edges like Neo. Their tangy tomato sauce was very good. Cheese was above average, but a little light. The margherita pizza had a nice pesto and basil base. The pepperoni pizza was the right amount of greasy. Solid pies. Upper half of the rankings, but not by far. Upside’s sourdough is still the NY style to beat when it comes to crust. I’m getting lazy about pics. I’ll need to start remembering to take photos.
Current Rankings:
- See No Evil. Edges out Ribalta with an excellent crust, toppings, spiciness combo.
- Ribalta. Still great pizza. Crust is outstanding. Cheese is still the best, but not by much.
- Upside Pizza. A surprise with delicious NY style sourdough crust, tangy sauce and not just plain old cheese. Currently #1 NY style
- Mama’s Too. Mama knows pizza. Crispy Roma crust with sharp tasting toppings and plenty of fresh mozzarella.
- Song ‘E Napule. Excellent Neo crust.
- Don Antonio. What’s not to like about a deep-fried crust.
- Made in New York Pizza. Excellent crust, toppings, cheese combo.
- La Traviata. Crust pushed it above the others.
- Rosetta Bakery: treating the mini-battle as an aberration and hoping (they’re very close to us) they are still delicious.
- Baggios. Tasty but no big differentiators.
- Little Italy III. The crunchy coarse semolina sprinkled on the crust boosted this one.
- Two Boots. Great toppings with good crust, good cheese, OK sauce. I think fresh vs. reheated (by the slice) makes a difference.
- Francesco’s (FranJessica’s). Very close finish to 3 and 4.
- Max Brenner’s. First pizza in NY. We liked it, but it’s quickly fading from memory.
- Pop’s pizza. Same with Pop’s. Remember it as good but fading from memory.
- Pizza Collective. Roma style with good crust (we like Roma-style crust), but lacking in the toppings, cheese, sauce. Good but not great.
- Soho Pizza. The 18 inch $8 pie did them in. Young missionaries are very sorry to see them go.
- J’s Pizza. Takeout steams the crust while in the box, rendering it non-crispy. Expected more and better from J’s.
- Little Caesars. Had some on quick visit to Utah for our granddaughter Chloe’s blessing. I guess I’m becoming a bit of a pizza snob. I still like Little Caesar’s pizza, but it doesn’t compare well with NY pizza places. Maybe it was from sitting in the box, but the crust lacked crispness and was bland. Cheese was just OK, sauce was scarce and run-of-the-mill.