Anthony's Pizza in Altamonte Springs, FL

Restaurants named Anthony's that serve pizza in the Orlando area can get confusing. From what I can determine, there's three Anthony's in the area, each with multiple locations. There's Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza (which is easy because of the coal), there's the Anthony's that has various locations around Orlando, and then there's the Anthony's in Altamonte Springs which is being talked about today. I believe this is the second location for this particular Anthony's, with the first located in Casselberry. This Anthony's opened recently in the same shopping center that's home to the new Whole Foods. I ordered two slices here. I tried their plain cheese slice and a vegetable slice. The cheese slice was good with a very nice balance of crust/cheese/sauce. It held together well as the slice was eaten. Cheese was good but the sauce was a bit bland.

The vegetable slice looked messy but was the better of the two slices. It was topped with spinach and a chunky tomato sauce. This slice had a very strong garlic flavor that wasn't there in the cheese slice. Again, the pizza held together well. With the toppings, it had much more character than the cheese slice.

With my two slices I tried at Anthony's, I'd say their pizza is pretty tasty!

Colorado Pizza (Anthony's Pizza & Pasta in Golden, Pizza Alley in Denver, and Beau Jo's in Idaho Springs)

Somehow I ended up trying too much pizza while I was in Colorado. I wasn't planning on having so much pizza, but the opportunities seemed to arise. What I did find out, from my limited sample size, is that the Denver area of Colorado has some very respectable pizza. I can't say this about other cities that I've had multiple pizza data points with (ie- Atlanta).

Anthony's Pizza & Pasta (Golden, CO)

My first pizza experience was in the town of Golden at a restaurant called Anthony's Pizza & Pasta. Golden is a suburb of Denver which seems like they want to be historic while the majority of the buildings in downtown looked very new. Anthony's was located in one of these very new looking buildings. I ordered a slice of cheese. It was a large slice with nice thin crust. It was pretty tasty. Not the best slice ever, but it was still good.

Pizza Alley (Denver, CO)

Pizza Alley was in Dever's Highland Park neighborhood. I stumbled upon this place as I was looking for dinner while finding out that restaurants in Colorado close very early. I was later told this is because of Colorado's outdated liquor laws that only allow alcohol to be served to 11 pm. Not sure why this causes a whole lot of restaurants to close at 8:30 pm or how accurate this was. Pizza Alley closed at 9 and they said I had plenty of time to eat there if I was only getting slices when I arrived at 8:45. My slice of cheese and white pizza weren't served until 9:10, and I was pretty much shoed out the door as soon as they were delivered to my table. I have a feeling someone forgot to put them in the oven. The pizza was good. Like Anthony's, this was thin NY style pizza. The slices were big enough to hang over the edges of paper plates. Both were good, but I preferred the very garlic heavy white pizza.

Beau Jo's (Idaho Springs, CO)

My third pizza experience in Colorado was at Beau Jo's in Idaho Springs. Unlike Golden, Idaho Springs seemed like all the buildings were actually old and historic. I wasn't planning on pizza for a third time in a four day trip, but when I noticed their sign was touting Colorado Style Pizza, I decided I must give it a try. I had never heard of Colorado having their own regional style of pizza, so I was curious.

On the menu, Beau Jo's gave options for what fell into the category of Colorado style pizza. They gave the option of Mountain Pies or Prairie Pies. They were sold by weight, ranging from 1 pound to 5 pound pies. According to my waiter, the Mountain Pies were the more unique pizzas, while the Prairie Pies were pretty much a typical pizza. I picked one of their Moutain Pies called the Yukon. It was topped with sauce, Canadian bacon, artichoke hearts, roma tomatoes, mozzarella, and provolone. The pie had an interesting twisted crust. It was definitely similar to a deep dish pizza with the crust holding the mass of toppings in. Unlike a Chicago style deep dish pizza, I don't think this was cooked in a pan. This Yukon pizza was the most interesting pizza I had in Colorado, but it was also my least favorite. The sauce reminded me of Lunchables pizza sauce. I'm not exactly sure how I remember how this sauce taste since I don't ever remember eating many of these. I wasn't a big fan. The tomatoes and artichoke hearts were soggy which made all of the juices pool over the slices of Canadian bacon. This meant a wave of liquid rolled off of the meat every time I picked up a slice, bringing the cheese with it. 

My first experience with a Colorado Style pizza didn't impress me, but at least I can say I've tried this type of pizza!

Anthony's Pizzeria in Orlando, FL

Anthony's Pizzeria is located in Thorton Park, just a block away from Lake Eola. It may or may not be connected to any of the many other Anthony's in Orlando, depending on who you talk to. I've been here several times and I can't remember ever having anything besides pizza.

The pizza at Anthony's can be really inconsistent. Sometimes it is really good, yet other times the pizza is average to bad. I guess it all depends on who is cooking on the particular day and their pizza making skills. On my most recent visit, I stopped in for a slice after walking around Lake Eola and exploring some of the surrounding neighborhoods in Thornton Park. It was a good day at Anthony's. The pizza was nice and thin with a good sauce/cheese ratio. The slice was good sized, and most importantly, it tasted good!

Anthony's Pizzeria in Orlando, FL

I picked up some takeout from the Anthony's Pizzeria at the intersection of Mills and 50. I had heard good things about their pizza so I was looking forward to giving them a try. I ordered a 16" pizza topped with spinach. After ordering, I browsed the nearby Asian supermarkets, and soon enough the pizza was ready.

This was a pretty good pizza. The sauce had a nice flavor and the cheese was nice and salty, although the amount of cheese seemed out of proportion with the rest of the pie.

A few months later, I decided to give Anthony's another try. This time around, I had the pie topped with eggplant. The crust was thinner this time and there wasn't an overload of cheese like the spinach pie. While the spinach pie was good, this eggplant pie was definitely better of the two. Different cooks perhaps?


Would I get pizza from Anthony's again? Definitely. Even the lesser of these two pizzas were still good and well made. The people at Anthony's definitely know what they're doing with pizza...

Anthony's Pizza in Casselberry, FL

The last time I ate at Anthony's Pizza was way back when smoking was still allowed in Florida restaurants. I don't remember much about the food, just that the smoking/non-smoking sections did nothing in the small restaurant. The place smelled horribly like an ashtray and left me with no desire to return any time soon.

Fast forward to 2009. After receiving several email recommendations that Anthony's has the best pizza around, I decided to go back and give them another try. Anthony's had a wait when I walked in, so that was a good sign about having good food. The servers initially seemed really flustered by the amount of people in the restaurant, but overall, the service was okay. The half spinach, half meatball pizza that we ordered came out pretty quick. It was a really good pizza with a nice thin crust, a good sauce/cheese ratio, and it was pretty tasty. The sauce had a bit of a strange flavor that I couldn't quite place, but it was otherwise pretty good. I'd gladly get another pizza from Anthony's!