NY Italian Food: Famous Amadeus, Mama Theresa's, Grimaldi's, and JFK Terminal Pizza

New York and pizza go together. Here's some of the pizza and other Italian food that I sampled on my last two visits to the New York City/Long Island area...

Famous Amadeus:

I had a slice of sausage and pepper pizza from Famous Amadeus Pizza in Hell's Kitchen. For a NYC pizza chain, I did enjoy this slice. I liked how they used slices of entire sausage instead of crumbling the  meat over the pie. The bell peppers were thickly sliced. Not the best pizza ever, but far from the worst. It was a little expensive as far as slices go.

Mama Theresa's Italian Restaurant in Westbury, NY:

I should have ordered pizza. Mama Theresa's had some delicious looking interesting pies behind the counter at the entrance of the restaurant. Instead, I decided to get pasta and ordered the Fusilli Al Pesto. At nearly $15, this dish was really disappointing. It was pasta and sauce, and nothing else. I don't know why I was expecting more, but I was hoping for at least something that I couldn't make at home for a fraction of what they charged here. Worst part was that the pesto sauce didn't even have much flavor.

Grimaldi's in Garden City NY:

I honestly don't get the huge appeal that Grimaldi's has. We ordered a half eggplant, half meatball pizza. Everything on here was bland and flavorless. The sauce had very little flavor. The cheese didn't seem to have any saltiness. The meatballs tasted like ground beef and nothing else. The batter on the fried eggplant was the most flavorful component of the entire pizza, but was still lacking. This Grimaldi's had a half hour wait. The one in Brooklyn gets lines around the block. I know the coal fire pizza thing is a bit of a novelty, but it's not worth waiting for when the rest of the is pizza lacking.

JFK Terminal Pizza:

I had a flight out of the Delta Terminal of JFK that was very delayed. I ate to kill time. I ordered a slice of vegetable pizza in the terminal. It was topped with spinach, black olives, sun dried tomatoes, cheese, and sauce. Pretty good for airport pizza. It cost way more than a slice of pizza should, but it was expected being inside an airport.

Cibo Express Gourmet Markets in JFK Airport

During my travels to Syracuse from Orlando, I had a three hour layover in JFK airport. Since I was waiting for a connecting flight, I was stuck in the Jetblue terminal to avoid going through security again. With all that time to kill, I was able to check out the airport food in the terminal! There were a few restaurants serving fancy airport food as well as a sushi bar, but I found myself at the food court called Cibo Express Gourmet Markets...

I tried food from two different restaurants inside of Cibo Express. One was an Italian chain called Famous Famiglia Pizzeria.

I tried a slice of Sicilian topped with pepperoni. The crust was hard and dry. The cheese didn't have much flavor and was congealed like it had been sitting out for far too long (not reheated long enough). The oil from the pepperoni didn't help much to hydrate the dry crust either. Of course, they sold this substandard slice for overly inflated airport prices. They definitely weren't following the rules of the New York Pizza Connection here...

I also split a sandwich from the Boar's Head Deli. They had a very cool computer ordering system here. It could have been improved if they told you which sandwich toppings cost extra and which were included. I had to go back a few steps several times to remove something that cost an extra $1.50. Those extra costs added up quick, although I'm sure most people buy their sandwich regardless of the price.

The sandwich turned out really good, considering it was from an airport food court. Salsalito turkey, brie cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pesto all came on a semolina hero.

Overall, this was a really nice food court as far as airports go. The pizza could have used some improvements, but otherwise there was a nice selection of food choices and tasty custom subs...

Weekend Trip: The Official Snack of Jetblue at 35000 Feet

After my early breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, I arrived at the Orlando International Airport, went through security, rode the people mover, and boarded my flight with no problems.

After about an hour of flying, somewhere over North Carolina or Virginia, snacks were served while at a height of 35,522 feet and a speed of 583 mph.

I asked for orange juice as my beverage. I received a can of Welch's Orange Fusion drink which was a mix of orange, apple, and pineapple juice. It wasn't the orange juice that I was expecting, but it's no big deal. For the food item, I decided to go with the Official Snack of JetBlue and got Terra Blues Potato Chips. The chips were actually made from blue potatoes and tasted halfway between a normal potato chip and a sweet potato chips.


I had my snack and I had my window seat, so I was happy.

Soon enough the plane landed in JFK, and after getting yelled at by another passenger sitting in the row who was accusing us of sticking gum on her seat while she used the restroom, I was ready for lunch.