Grimaldi's Pizza in Garden City, NY

The Grimaldi's Pizza under the Brooklyn Bridge is pretty famous. I've seen them listed quite a few times as having some of the best pizza in the country. All that publicity must be a good thing for them because apparently the line to eat reaches city blocks in length on occasion. Needless to say, I never lined up for one of Grimaldi's pizzas in Brooklyn. Especially when I can get Grimaldi's coal oven pizza with no wait at another one of their locations in Garden City, NY.

I shared a 16" plain pie on my visit. The pizza had all of the characteristic charred marks and islands of mozzarella floating in a pool of sauce that are common on coal oven pies. I did like the pie, although it needed salt in my opinion. The fresh mozzarella nor the sauce had enough salt, but besides this issue, I liked the pizza. Grimaldi's pizza is definitely way overrated, but they do make a pretty good pie...

Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza in Orlando, FL

I've read plenty of good reviews of Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza in the Whole Foods Shopping Center in Orlando's Sand Turkey District. Anthony's slogan is "Pizza Well Done." When the waitress came over, she gave us a speech that broke down to "We burn our pizza. Warning you now so you won't send it back when the crust is black." It seemed like a funny gimmick to me, to specialize in burnt pizza, but I gave it a try anyway.

The cheese pie was served, and the crust was indeed black around the edges. I gave it a try, and it was a really tasty pizza. The crust was thin and didn't really have the burnt taste I was expecting, the coal oven actually gave it a really nice flavor. I did find it a bit strange having black hands from all of the charcoal after picking up the slice, but I guess that's part of the novelty of coal oven pizza. The cheese wasn't overloaded, the pie had a good amount of the salty mozzarella. The sauce was slightly spicy and really tasty. Anthony's makes little pools of their sauce rather than spreading it evenly around the whole pizza. I guess this makes the pizza look more gourmet, but I know a few people that have issues with pies like this. I personally don't mind the sauce puddles, as long as the sauce tastes good.

I was really quite surprised with the pizza. My hopes really weren't all that high, but it was really tasty. It wasn't necessary the best around, but it was still pretty good. I'd eat here again! Although there is one complaint I had. I know Anthony's is sandwiched between the tourist attractions and some of Orlando's most expensive restaurants, but that is no excuse not to give free refills on drinks. People expect free refills...