Pizza - what is the Best Pizza in NYC? Wishing a NYC Pizza tour suggestions

I want to go to NYC and have a tasting tour of the best Pizza’s,
SEEKING ideas - Best Pizza in NYC? i LIKE thin crust so John’s is my favorite.

And Halavah - best in NYC?

And if you’ve visited Hawaii, finest restaurants in Hawaii?

Straight up,

Must get to:
Ribalta NYC
Totonnos

must avoids:
Grimaldis

Off beaten path:
Staten Island:
Giove’s
Lucastris DOUGH
Sals brick oven

Brookyn:
Davincis for square. Wait for fresh pie to come out.

Bronx:
Zero Otto Nove- sublime margarita with olives
Full Moon Pizza- great NY pie

Heres the best tip you will get: avoid anything with banners proclaiming they have won Best Pizza Award (place year here)

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There’s a big problem in NYC with pizza delivery. There are many places that offer pizza at discount prices and then take much longer than normal to deliver. All of my clients have already received their mushroom pizzas, and I am still waiting for my pepperoni.

Difaras and Totonno are far from Manhattan. Spend more time tasting and less in the subway - so try and do two days. In Manhattan try Luzzos, Co, Keste, Don Antonio and you should sample the original coal oven styles Lombardi’s and Patsy’s. When you go to Brooklyn sample DiFara, Totonno, Franny, L&B Spumoni Gardens and Grimaldi

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LOL, champagne.gif

I’ll repeat some of the already suggested ones and add a few (in bold) that aren’t listed yet:

Motorino

Keste

Luzzo’s

San Matteo Panuozzo in the Upper East Side

Forcella in EVillage

Peasant (good restaurant pizza and pasta in LES)

Don Antonio

Co

Lombardi’s

Numero 28

Isn’t Original Ray’s as close to Asia Perfect as pizza gets in NYC? That’s what I was told.

Maybe you should look on Yelp. [berserker.gif]

We did a Pizza tour last year via Scott’s Pizza tours and it was one of the highlights of our trip.

https://www.zerve.com/PizzaTours/calendar

[rofl.gif]

My daughter and I did this too and I highly recommend it. We took the crosstown walking tour. Scott is a real pizza geek.

Bingo.

I participated in 3 offlines at Di Fara’s. Dom has been making pizza there since I was a kid. He was old then, and older (78) now.
Every ingredient is imported, and you’ll pay dearly for it $5.00 a slice. The mozzarella comes out of a small plastic bag, and a drop of water comes out. This is fresh. He shreds the cheese over the pizza. None of that prepared crap. Sauce. He then pours fresh olive oil out of a gold tin that’s older the you. In the oven it goes. Keep in mind that you’re watching everyone enjoy their slice, while you wait patiently 30 - 60 minutes for yours. You watch him make the pie. You watch people eat. Eventually you’ll get a turn. Now Dom takes the pie out of the oven. A little more olive oil and freshly grated cheese. Then, he takes a scissors and cuts some fresh green stuff (basil) haphazardly over the pie. He cuts it. He serves it. Finally, you get your chance. The smell is intoxicating. You put the pizza close to your mouth. You inhale. Ummm. Now open wide and take that first bite. The smell, taste, and the ‘crunch’ are overwhelming your senses. You finally figure out what heaven is like.

Dom makes the traditional round and square pie. Go for the square. If your group is 3 or more, order a pie. It’s slightly cheaper, and you get more pizza than you can eat.

B train to Avenue J. Brooklyn is where it’s at. FYI, a serious nod to Totonnos. Take the B train to the last stop in Coney Island.
Check both places for hours of operation.

Your welcome.

For slices without going to the hinterlands;

NY Pizza Suprema 413 8th Ave (off W. 31st)
Joe’s at 7 Carmine Street (off Bleeker)
Little Italy Pizza at 2 E.33 (off 5th ave)

An FYI on Di Fara - the square pie is extremely oily. So much so that the crust often fries rather than bakes. Some people are fine with, or even like this style of pie, but I can’t stand it. Not sayin’ there’s something wrong with it, but I think it’s a good thing to know before you go. I remember the first time I went there, and my table enthusiastically ordered and extolled the virtues of the square pie. It came to the table fried and dripping, and I couldn’t eat it. I wish I had know beforehand.

Though I’ve lived in Philadelphia for nearly 40 years, I grew up in the NY area worshipping pizza and its establishments. FWIW, though I don’t think of “bests”, but, rather, favorites, I think of NY pizza a mainly slice places and full pie places (like Totonno’s) that have stood the test of time, ie, at least 75 years old. The rest are newcomers and are pretty much interchangeable. But, unlike, New Haven or Trenton, IMO, the “best” NY pizza is by the slice. I think that’s what makes “NY style pizza” , to the degree that it is a coherent concept, known accross the US: thin and somewhat crispy, usually from re-heating, as much as anything. I think Travolta in the opening scene of “Saturday Night Fever.” (Stayin’ alive on folded slices.)

For me, nothing beats a slice (or several) at Joe’s in Greenwich Village (they recently opened a new place in a location other than Carmine St, where the door wasn’t closing in January…it needed fixing.). The other “slice” place (that also has a sit down restaurant next door, using the same oven is Patsy’s in East Harlam. One of the orignal coal oven places: simple, pleasing and pure. The whole pie is less pleasing, to me.

Totonno’s in my favorite whole pie place…the orignal one on Coney Island. To me, it emdodies the NY coal oven, test of time, pie. Atmostphere; taste; original family’s descendants. A real shlepp to get to, but…nothing re-created about it. (Some of the other places, on the other hand, like John’s, Grimaldi’s and “branches” of them and also Totonno’s (if they still exist; there was one on Manhattan and one in Yonkers I visited a couple of times, but…) The current day scene is about whole pies, soft pliable crust and “wood fired” (usually with the assistance of gas flames) that put stuff on top that the traditional NY pies would have rejected. They are interchangeable and none stand out over another, for me. I’ve never taken a tour (and I do dislike Spumoni Garden; the opposite of special or NY Style to me.)

Di Fara is a whole nother issue…to me an others. Like Pat’s Steak’s in Philadelphia is (had to say it, Sarah), Di Farah is mostly about theater, IMO. (Though Pat’s originated its culture; Di Fara reacted to it.) It is about DiFara’s owner, in his pizza making “cell”,on display (The Pizza Man of Alcatraz?) maddeningly slowly and inefficiently hand turning out good pizza for admiring hordes of people snapping his picture in the process. He uses good ingredients, though nothing, other than the fresh basil he cuts on for a final flouirish, especially fresher than most good places do. Years ago, the wait was enormous; the disorganization nearly fatal…and the Birdman’s pace unaffected. (His kids took the orders and made the dough and toppings.) Then, someone there (after a failed attempt to open a branch on Canal Street in Manhattan, where there was no such theater and the pies were the same, good, stuff…called DeMarco’s, Dom’s last name), decided to reap the benefits of Dom’s dwindling pizza potential (from age) by charging $5 a slice/$35 a plain pie. I guess they figured if someone was going to benefit from all that theater/art, it should be them. I haven’t been back since. The place wasn’t that good to begin with and was super-annoying to visit and wait for , especially on a hot summer weekend afternoon. But people worship the place for some mystifying reason.

And…Sarah has pointed out something that I’ve long known and not liked. Dom drowns the square pie with oil…after it is done cooking. (Most such pies are done in a little oil to create a crust on the bottom (of the 550 gas deck oven Dom uses) and it does fry a bit…that’s good and expected. It’s the extra pana gradano and the oil thrown on top that ruins it to many. (Since it is after the cooking, it never cooks or melds.) A close friend who is not a pizza “maven” was there with me once and laughed out loud when he realized that oil was literally oozing down all sides of the slice…and into his refrigerator in Fort Greene the next day. He still laughs about that pie and won’t go again. (My family is split: one son loves the pies there; my wife is mystified why people would endure the wait, chaos, etc…and I realize it is what it is: all about theater and paying the price for such living theater, albeit without Playbills.

Re: Halvah…a question that was part of the initial one: I used to go out to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn to the Damsacus Bakery (or have friends go there for me) to get good pistacchio halvah. But, then one time I compared theirs to Zabar’s (Upper West Side) and fouind that even more pleasing…and, I think, less sweet. So…I go to Zabar’s for it now…or send my sister in law, who lives nearby, unfortunately for her and her husband…as they have no excuse when visiting us.

Now, if I could only find a good cinnamon babka in Philadelphia…like Breads Bakery on Union Square. When I finally got there, this winter…after having people bring it to me several times, they were out…only chocolate, which I don’t like. Oh, well…

When we took the Pizza tour, John’s of Bleeker St. was the best of the ones we had, and I’ve been back there since. Everything I read says that you should try the places in Brooklyn, though.

most of the pizza in nyc is NYC style and pretty crappy - and made from crappy ingredients.

i’d argue the best pizza in NYC now is Neapolitan style and the best examples can be found at (in no particular order):
Roberta’s
Keste
Motorino

for nyc style whole pie i’d go patsy’s or maybe john’s on bleecker.



I’ve only had Difara’s once - it was good. Seemed the big deal there was the cheese blend that made it seem different. I wouldn’t trek out there unless you’re interested in the NY culture/history of pizza and Dom figures prominently, but it’s not great pizza.

Wait a second. You don’t like Di Fara’s? Ok. I understand your point, but you don’t like chocolate babka?? [head-bang.gif]
Just for the record, the babka at Breads Bakery is prepared in a ‘hipster’ style, and not the original way, which most Jewish New Yorkers enjoy. Next time you’re in the east Village, check out Moishe’s Bakery on 2nd ave and East 7th street. http://www.moishesbakeshop.com/

Jamie Manley where are you ???

[rofl.gif] [rofl.gif]

I needed a good laugh today…and I thank ou.

Yes…the Breads Bakery is full of French butter. I used to buy Moishe’s every time I could, even had ordered a huge one 5 years ago for a day-after-Thanksgiving family celebration, but couldn’t get anyone to pick it up and bring it down. They use either almond or super sweet vanilla extract. I’ve concluded it’s just ok.

The best one I like is one I make every September for break the fast…from a recipe published in the NY Times long ago. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/dining/05babk.html?_r=0 But…it is a pain to make and last year the yeast quit on me…after many successful years. I won’t give it up. And, I do not like chocolate babka…at all…never did. Not a huge fan of much that is chocolate.

Having grown up in the NY area (Freehold, NJ)…moving to Philadelphia was quite a Jewish culinary shock: no tradition of hot corned beef/pastrami (right out of the fridge, sliced on ok rye bread) and lots of “Jewish apple cake”, but not tradition of good babka anywhere here. (There has been a good deli here for the last decade or so with hot pastrami, at least.)

I recently found a kosher bakery in one of the Queens-like neigborhoods and have visited twice, but won’t go back. Babka is flat, dense and like a cinnamon raisin bar. Hamentash undercooked; bowties (sugared), small and like a dense cookie instead of light and fluffy (like Moishe’s is). Good rugelach, though. It’s like someone gave them lots of great recipes, but no one knows how it should turn out when done right. No wonder it took me years of searching to even find it, I guess.

Yeah…chocolate babka. Yechhh… [pillow-fight.gif]