Diane’s Kitchen on the Corner: We are not just pizza: That should have been my warning. *

December 28th, 2010

dianesPearl River is NOT the place to go for pizza.  I haven’t looked in a while, but there is barely a place here that gets two stars.  It is such a nice hamlet though.  Hard to fathom.  This place is right next to the train station.  It looks like a pizza place, including a prominent oven.  The name is confusing though.  If I hadn’t seen the oven from the window, I wouldn’t have gone in, because that would have led me to believe that their pizza is just an afterthought.

The only good things I can say about this pie is that the crust had a nice thin and crispy feel.  Otherwise the flavors were pretty lame.  She tried to use a lot of pepper and oregano to cover up the tasteless cheese but it didn’t really work for me. I was really hungry, so I did force myself to finish my slice.  I had to go to Franco’s later in the day to get rid of the bad taste.

My suggestion is that they forget about the other stuff and concentrate on improving their pizza, or perhaps they should drop pizza from the menu, and try to make this place a better diner.

dianes slice

Posted in * - Neither particularly good nor particularly horrible, Pearl River | No Comments »

Ella New York Pizza & Pasta: Another really good New City Place *** 1/2

December 28th, 2010
Review coming soon

Review coming soon

One thing I must say is that if “New York” is in the name of the place, yet they don’t offer slices, something is amiss.  For this reason I wasn’t expecting anything special.  I was happily proved wrong.  For lunch, they offer something called a personal pizza, which is 6 small slices.  I waited about 10 minutes for my pie fresh out of the oven, and it was delicious.

Actually, this is a very traditional New York style pie made by some really talented Greek guys.  (Yes, there is a great tradition of Greek New Yorkers who make pizza.)   I don’t understand why they don’t offer slices.  Probably because the restaurant is more of a pasta place with pizza as a secondary offering. ella pie

Anyway, this place offers an exceptionally flavorful pie, with good flavor in the sauce, crust, and cheese.  The crust is nicely crispy and chewy.

I went in around lunchtime, and the place was not very crowded.  Maybe three tables filled up while I waited.  I hope they do enough business so that I can come back here again.  Next time I’ll bring the family and have a full dinner.

Posted in *** 1/2 - nearly excellent, New City, TV, Whole pies only, near nail salon | No Comments »

Cassie’s Restaurant: As good as Agnello’s plus a box to keep the pie warm. ****

October 6th, 2010

cassie'sThis is a spic and span place across the street from Lowe’s on rt. 303.  It’s not in a strip mall which is a breath of fresh air.  There is something nicer about going into a free-standing restaurant.

Anyway, this will be a short review because when pizza is made this good, it’s a simple process and shouldn’t need a lot of explaining.   This is first class coal fired pizza. It’s as good as Agnello’s (with perhaps the sauce a 9 to Agnello’s 10).  But the difference is that they serve their takeout in a box and not a paper bag.  You may recall that I downgraded Agnello’s by a 1/2 a star because by the time you take your paper bagged pizza home, it is usually a bit colder than you want it.

I was also struck by how nice the interior of Cassie’s is.  It is truly one of the cleanest restaurants I have ever gone into.

Here is a shot of their pie, half plain, and half mushroom. Obviously, since it is in a box, I am not eating it in the restaurant, but in my car.  I eat most of my pizza in my car if you haven’t guessed.

cassie's pie

Posted in **** - Excellent, My Favorites, Orangeburg, Whole pies only | No Comments »

Nanuet Restaurant: A lot of people are going to be mad when I say that this place is WAY overrated, probably three stars overrated: *

September 7th, 2010
I forgot to take a picture of the front, but there is a nice drawing of it on the front of the menu.

I forgot to take a picture of the front, but there is a nice drawing of it on the front of the menu.

OK, my cousin Jeff and I, who I hadn’t talked to in a number of years had a lot of time to catch up because this place kept us waiting at least 45 minutes for a pie.  It is virtually next door to Martios, so if I hadn’t been having such a good time with Jeff, I might have just walked out and taken him to that “best in the county” establishment.

Over the years I have heard several people tell me that the Nanuet Restaurant and/or the Nanuet Hotel serves the best pizza around. Needless to say, I have been very curious. Based on this visit, I must STRONGLY disagree however.

We ordered a pie half cheese and half onion.  What we got FINALLY, was a medium size pie with a crust that tasted like pastry dough.  Also, it obviously hadn’t been rolled out or thrown, but pressed out in a machine that made the edge look like a giant (dessert) pie crust.  There are several pizza no-nos here.   But there were more:

nanuet restaurant pie

You can see the press machine marks in the edge of the crust.

The sauce was FULL of corn syrup. The cheese was adequate I guess, but the overall effect was that the pie tasted like a pretty good frozen pizza.

Yet this place has two large rooms and was practically full on a Friday evening.  I have seen a line outside from time to time too. Go figure.  Jeff says that the Nanuet hotel is somewhat similar too.

But, ultimately, as my hero the slice harvester says, even bad pizza is really good food, so Jeff and I had our fill.  I took some home to Kathleen and warmed it up in my toaster oven, but that came out really nasty though.

All I can say is:  “MARTIOS IS NEXT DOOR PEOPLE!!!!”

Posted in * - Neither particularly good nor particularly horrible, Nanuet, Whole pies only | No Comments »

Spring Valley Pizza and El Pollo Grande Restaurant. No review.

September 7th, 2010

spring valley pizzaJeff and I couldn’t bring ourselves to go in here for the following reasons:

1. There is no-where to park, and even all the double parking spots were taken.  I had no mind to triple park on this busy corner of 59 and rt. 45.

2. The windows were all shaded so you couldn’t see inside which makes the place very uninviting.

3. There were more beer signs than pizza signs which makes the place look like a bar with pizza as an afterthought.

4. I actually love Latin food, but the mixture of it with pizza gives me the thought I might get a stomach ache.

Would you go in here?  If you have, write me and tell me how the pie is.

Posted in Spring Valley, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Villa Maria’s: I’m sorry I never had a chance to eat here. No review.

September 7th, 2010

villa marias closedThere is something particularly sad about a boarded up pizza place.  Funny that the sign is still lit.  Such a waste of energy.

Posted in Spring Valley, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Jimmy’s Italian Kitchen:Is this in the wrong neighborhood? *

September 7th, 2010
jimmys 2

The pizza place is one of these storefronts towards the right side of the line.

OK, I don’t know what Hamaspik means in Hebrew, or is it Yiddish, but first, it sounds too much like “Hamas” to me, and also there is another ethnic slur in there that I’d rather not repeat because I hate words like that.

This pizza place isn’t kosher either.  It was right before sabbath on Friday evening when we went here, and it was open.  Nothing else in the neighborhood was.  I had no idea that you could get non-kosher pizza anywhere in Monsey.  By the way, “we” refers to my cousin Jeff and I.  I don’t see Jeff very often, only every few years or so, but he lives fairly close to me, he is a great guy, and he is also a pizza lover like me.  We must be related!   I was thrilled as punch that he decided to join me for this month’s pizza blogging adventure.

On to the review:  Because of the sabbath, there was no-one around, and they had a bunch of dry looking pizza behind the counter for us.  It was still dry after they reheated it.  Perhaps they should close like the rest of the neighborhood.  My other complaint was that the pepper shaker gave me a flood of pepper, way more than I could palate.  Restaurant owners should pay attention to these small details.

The slice actually had a good flavor, but, as Jeff said, “It was probably old.” Nothing worse than old pizza.  The crust was too thin too, in an insubstantial way.  Perhaps there wasn’t enough cheese either.

Well, as I write this, I realize that this is quite a poor review.  Oh well.

Posted in * - Neither particularly good nor particularly horrible, Monsey, TV | No Comments »

Papa’s Pizzeria. At least someone opened up here. *

August 31st, 2010
Looks like a grand opening

Looks like a grand opening

I’ve passed by this place many times, and it has always looked like a place that was either about to open up, or one that had just closed.  (Permanently I mean.) Just when I was about to give up, I noticed that they had changed the name and opened up for real.  However if you link to HERE, you can see that they left up exactly the same grand opening banners that the old place that had closed had up.
The first time I went in here, they didn’t have any plain slices ready. (Really now.) There was also only one dry looking Sicilian I was loath to order, but I was in a hurry, and being the intrepid Pizza Blogger that I am, I decided to order it.  Well, dear readers, my instincts were right. It was an inedible dry slice I couldn’t finish.  Even Bella my Beagle didn’t like it.

I wanted to go back to give it another try.  Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for this place, I had to renew my driver’s license down the street. That brought me back into the neighborhood.  This time they did have some plain available.

What they gave me was a slice that had some good points and some bad ones.  It had good crust, cooked well and in proportio to its other ingredients, however the sauce and cheese left a slightly unpleasant aftertaste in my mouth.  I would normally have given it two stars, but I have to average in the inedible slice I had the other day, so one star it is.

I have a feeling that this is misnomered, and is a Cacciatori slice. Sorry.

I have a feeling that this is misnomered, and is a Cacciatori slice. Sorry.

Posted in * - Neither particularly good nor particularly horrible, West Haverstraw, near nail salon | No Comments »

Delizioso Pizza. ***

August 8th, 2010

deliziosa openI better write this quick review before I forget what this pizza tasted like.  It’s been a couple of weeks since I got here.

Before I get to that, I realize that it has been April since I last posted here.  The reason for that is because my phone broke.  It had a pretty good camera.  I was using an old phone for a couple of months, but it had a lousy camera.  I finally got myself a smart phone.  I don’t love Android operating system, but the camera on my LG ally is pretty good again.

Anyway, this is a really good pizza place.  It was under construction for quite a while, but now it is open in the Spring Vally Marketplace.  I hate this strip mall, because the access roads are really annoying.  Physically, it is right behind Costco, but it takes a good five or ten minutes to wind around to get to it’s entrance.

I don’t think that this pizza is special enough to actually get me to go there as a destination, but I was glad I did once.  I can’t comment on the decor of this place because I had my dog and I waited outside until the counterman brought me a slice, which was really nice of him.deliziosa slice

Posted in *** - Very Good, Spring Valley, near nail salon | No Comments »

Olympic Pizza. They do have pizza on the other side of the mountain. **

April 25th, 2010

olympic pizzaThis review is from memory.  I don’t usually get around this way, except in the summer on the way to my boat in Greenwood Lake, but I had to go do a few things the other day to get the boat in the water.

I took this picture, and was going to go in to get a slice, but there was no counterman in sight.  I had my puppy in the car, so I had to go away sliceless.

As I recall this is a decent place.  No better no worse.  I’ll report back again sometime during the summer months.

Posted in ** - Decent, Sloatsburg, near nail salon | No Comments »

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