California Pizza Place in Anaheim, CA

Went on a trip to California. The first couple days of the trip was in Anaheim to see Disneyland. Disney was open late, yet the majority of the restaurants surrounding the property weren't open. California Pizza Place was one of the few places to get food after midnight within walking distance. Ended up here twice.

First night I had a slice of the House Special pizza topped with pepperoni, sausage, and mushrooms.

Had a slice of pepperoni on my second visit. 

Not the greatest, most gourmet pizza I've ever eaten, but it was definitely better than walking further to a Mcdonalds. After 30,000+ steps during a day at a theme park, the pizza was very satisfying. 

Pioneer's Pizza in Punta Gorda, FL

Jersey Meatball Pizza from Pioneer's Pizza in Punta Gorda, FL. This was a pie topped with meatball and ricotta.

 

Las Olas Pizza Company in Ft. Lauderdale, FL

I had dinner at Las Olas Pizza Company in Ft. Lauderdale. This was a New York style pizza shop, serving pizza by the slice with a nice selection of pies to pick from.

I had two slices. One was their Supreme Pizza, topped with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, peppers, and onions. The other was the Margarita, which was a thin, square slice topped with fresh mozzarella. Both were nice and thin, with a nice proportion of all the ingredients. I think I preferred the Margarita of the two...

Rise Pies in Sarasota, FL

I had things to do at The Mall at University Town Center in Sarasota and got lunch there. 

Besides having a horrible, overly complicated name, this mall doesn't have a food court, which was interesting. There were restaurants in storefronts, each with their own seating rather than one centralized location. I had food from one of these restaurants called Rise Pies.

Rise Pies was the same concept/setup as Blaze Pizza. It did seem like the topping selection here was a bit more limited than what Blaze offers. I had a pie with pesto for the sauce, topped with mozzarella, green peppers, kalamata olives, basil, sausage, and pepperoni. The pepperoni here curled while cooking into a cup shape which always makes pizza feel more gourmet. The crust was puffier than a lot of the fast food pizza competitors.

Not bad for a mall pizza!

MOD Pizza in Orlando, FL

MOD Pizza. Another fast food pizza chain in Orlando near the attractions. I ended up eating here 4 or 5 times since they opened. 

  Here's two of the nicer looking pies I got from MOD Pizza:

I enjoyed MOD Pizza when they were new, but I liked them a little less on each visit. It seemed like the employees stopped caring about the pizzas as time went on. On my last two visits, the pizzas were sloppily thrown together as quickly as possible resulting in pies that weren't as good as my initial visits here. Don't know if I got unlucky with my pizza maker or...? 

Blaze Pizza in Disney Springs

Blaze Pizza has been around for a while now in the Orlando area, but they never made it onto this blog. I've eaten at a few of the Blaze Pizza locations in Florida, but these pies are all from their location in Disney Springs. 

Of the pizza chains where you pick what you want on your pie as it's being made, Blaze seems to be the most consistent. The proportions of crust, cheese, sauce, and toppings always seems to be just about what I'd expect from a pizza at Blaze. That's some good corporate fast food consistency...

1000 Degrees Pizza in Lake Mary, FL

 I had lunch from 1000 Degrees Pizza in Lake Mary. This is yet another restaurant following the formula of Blaze, MOD Pizza, etc, where you pick toppings for your pizza in a Chipotle style format. I honestly started mixing up places serving pizza in Orlando, and confused this with 900 Degreez in a brick and mortar form. Wrong temperature, wrong restaurant, and 900 Degreez is still a truck.

My pizza was topped with sausage, pepperoni, onions, bell peppers, olives, and banana peppers. Pretty tasty. Topping selection here seemed slightly more limited than some of the similar competitors, but they still had a decent selection. I'd get a pizza here again.

Hungry Howie's in Deland, FL

Way back in the day, I listed Hungry Howie's Pizza pretty high on the pizza chain hierarchy. Of the big chains, Papa John's was near the top. Domino's was near the bottom of the list. Hungry Howie's was second or third on the list. Then all the nearby Hungry Howie's near me closed.

I was out in Volusia County and ended up at the Hungry Howie's in Deland. The pizza was very different than I remembered Hungry Howie's serving. The crust was thick and puffy. I remember it being much thinner than this pizza was. The flavor of the cheese and sauce were fine. It seemed like they drenched the entire pie in a disgusting amount of some sort of butter sauce. I very much did enjoy the sesame seeds on the crust.

Hungry Howie's (or at least this Hungry Howie's location) was not what I remembered at all. It was worse. If this was a good representation of the chain's pizzas, they have moved way down in my hierarchy of pizza chains.

Something else that bothered me: I ordered this pie in the days of COVID-19, but before Deland's mandatory mask order - not that it would probably make a difference since people aren't following the rule in Seminole or Orange County). Not a single person working in this store who I saw, both front of house and who I could see in the kitchen, was wearing a mask. Seems like a standard safety thing that all restaurants should be following. If Hungry Howie's ignores masks, I can imagine there's other food safety things that might be ignored. Not saying they were violating any other rules, but that seems like a logical next step...

Pizza 1905 in Lake Mary, FL

I ordered takeout from Pizza 1905 in Lake Mary. When I went in to pick up my pizza, it was promising. They had pizza by the slice on the counter that looked to be super thin NY style pies. I ordered a 16" Margherita pizza.

Pizza was mostly good. The sauce was very flavorful and the fresh mozzarella was melted nicely into the pie. The crust was unfortunately the pizza's downfall. Unlike the pie's available in the front of the restaurant, the crust wasn't exactly thin. It also seemed doughy and undercooked, like they rushed taking it out of the oven.

I want to give Pizza 1905 another try. There seemed to be potential for really good pizza, but for whatever reason, the undercooked, doughy crust on my pie was holding the pizza back from reaching that potential.

NY Food: Pizza (Vinnie's Pizzeria and Ray's)

Since nobody can travel right now due to COVID-19, let's go back in time a few months and visit New York to eat. My last visit to the New York was in December for a few days. The next few posts on this blog will focus on that trip. This particular post will discuss the pizza I sampled while there, because what trip to New York is complete without pizza.

Vinnie's Pizzeria in Williamsburg:

This was my first pizza experience on the trip to New York. Vinnie's was located in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.

I had two slices. One was topped with eggplant and ricotta. The other was a sauceless white slice. Both were a good example of NY style pizza. I preferred the eggplant of the two, but both were very respectable slices of pizza.

Famous Original Ray’s Pizza:

I ate at this chain of pizzerias in New York. I ended up getting a slice of white pizza when I saw the crazy prices of some of the more exciting toppings ($8+ for a slice). It was alright, but nothing I'd go back to seek out.

Lazy Moon Pizza in Orlando, FL (Mills-50)

Way back when this blog was pretty new, I wrote a post about Lazy Moon Pizza. This was at a location that no longer exists in a strip mall that was demolished for a newer development. Since then, Lazy Moon has expanded with a newer location nearby UCF (which I have not eaten at) and another location in Mills-50. The Mills-50 location is what this post is about.

The slices here are still huge, but the overload of half melted cheese that the UCF location was known for has seemed to improved. Lazy Moon seems like they have learned that too much cheese could be a bad thing and their slices are much more balanced in terms of cheese/sauce/toppings now.

Here's a slice with pesto as the sauce, topped with spinach and Italian sausage. They use slices of sausage rather than crumbles, which is always better in my book.

The Cuban Slice is a more unique pizza that I can't say I've had elsewhere. Its basically a Cuban sandwich in pizza form. It has mustard as a sauce, topped with pork, ham, pickles, and cheese. I was skeptical, but I ended up enjoying this.

I am glad Lazy Moon has improved since my first few experiences with the restaurant way back when!

MidiCi in Kissimmee, FL

I was invited to try a new restaurant in Kissimmee called MidiCi. Located in a shopping center near the intersection of Osceola Parkway and 441, MidiCi is a quick service style restaurant. Neapolitan pizza seems to be the star here, with the entire kitchen centered around a wood-fired oven. You can either choose to order of the menu, or customize your pizzas by selecting what you want on your pizzas. I wanted to leave the flavor combinations to the experts, so everything I tried came straight off the menu. 

We started out our visit with the House Cheese Board. This consisted of a selection of house cheeses: black truffle cheese (sottocenere al tartufo), smoked mozzarella, goat cheese, gorgonzola, and parmigiano-reggiano. The cheeses were accompanied with fresh pears, king walnuts, organic honey, and wood fire-toasted ciabatta bread

House Meat Board: This was similar to the cheese board, featuring a selection of cured meats. There was black truffle salami (tartufo), prosciutto di San Daniele, spicy Italian salami (calabrese), Neapolitan salami, and rosemary ham (cotto). The meats were served with gourmet pickles, two mustards, and wood fire-toasted ciabatta bread

Burrata with Melon & Prosciutto di San Daniele: Fresh soft burrata cheese, fresh melon, prosciutto di San Daniele (imported from Italy and aged 24 months).

The Devil's Pizza: Crushed Italian peeled tomatoes (sauce), fresh whole mozzarella, housemade all natural spicy sausage, spicy Italian salami (calabrese), all natural Fresno chilis, all natural Italian chilis, parmigiano-reggiano, organic non-gmo extra virgin olive oil, and fresh organic sweet basil. The pizza had a fair amount of spice for what is essentially a fast food restaurant.

Pizza Bianca e Prosciutto: Fresh whole mozzarella, oregano, fresh garlic, parmigiano-reggiano, organic non-gmo extra virgin olive oil, topped with prosciutto di San Daniele and baby arugula after bake. Of the two pizzas I sampled, this was my favorite.

Nutella Calzone with Fresh Berries: Our signature Neapolitan dough, light, thin, soft and chewy, baked fresh with Nutella, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. Topped with a hint of balsamic reduction and shaved coconut. I've had similar desserts at other fast food Italian chains. This was better.

The Drowning Gelato (Affogato): Italian vanilla gelato by Italian Master Gelatiers Leo Leo Gelato, drowning in espresso. I'm not a big coffee person so the espresso flavor was a bit strong for my liking.

Everything I tried at MidiCi was delicious. The pizzas were done really nicely. All the appetizers and desserts were quality. I look forward to returning to MidiCi in the future!

Pizza@ Artegon in Orlando, FL

When Artegon Marketplace opened as a renovated version of Festival Bay Mall on International Drive, I had very low expectations of them being successful. Yet here we are, almost two years after their opening and they seem to be doing well. Recent news is that they are working on opening a food hall in some of the unoccupied space in the mall. Before that happens though, I recently had lunch at Artegon at a restaurant called Pizza@. This is a small chain with locations around Florida, with the other Orlando location near Lake Eola. They are set up like a Subway/Chipotle where you pick what you want on your pizza at a counter. I ordered one of the pre-picked topping selections called the Artegon Ana. This had a whole wheat crust topped with alfredo ricotta sauce, fresh mozzarella, sausage, artichokes, chickpeas, red onions, olives, feta cheese, and truffle oil. When they offered to add additional toppings, I went with the green peppers and capers.

For a fast food pizza cooked on a conveyor belt oven in a mall, I enjoyed this. I don't think I've ever had chickpeas on a pizza before. They were generous with the toppings, but everything held together nicely. I'd go back to Pizza@.

Emma's Pizza in Cambridge, MA

When I started thinking about going to Boston, I got a very strong recommendation that I go try Emma's Pizza in Cambridge. Turns out the person who gave this endorsement worked for Emma's Pizza at one point, but let's not let that invalidate the recommendation. They had some tasty pizza...

I couldn't decide what type of pizza to order. Lots of the menu choices sounded really good, so I split the pie in half. One half of the pizza was topped with The Coop. This consisted of garlicky green olives, cracked black pepper, garlic olive oil feta, and goat cheese. The other half was The Red Line. This side of the pie had hot sausage, roasted tomato, scallions, traditional sauce, mozzarella, and goat cheese. Both were good, but I think I preferred The Red Line. The flavors on this side of the pizza were a bit more balanced, while The Coop was a bit of a salty overload with the olives and feta.

It wasn't exactly traditional pizza with a thin crispy crust and creative toppings. I know a couple NY style pizza purists that would have hated this pie, but I very much enjoyed my meal at Emma's.

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.

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!

Pizza Time in St. Augustine, FL

I was visiting St. Augustine and stopped for dinner at Pizza Time on St. George Street. St. Augustine's Christmas parade apparently happened earlier in the day and the city was packed. It was wall to wall people all over, and Pizza Time was no exception. The first time I walked by the restaurant, the line was out the door and up the street. At that point, I didn't try getting food at the restaurant with a line that long.

A few hours later I was walking back towards my car and the crowds had subsided substantially. The line was confined to the inside of the restaurant. I still hadn't eaten dinner, so I decided to see what all the crowds were about. They had signs hanging up that Pizza Time was voted the Second Best Pizza in the US by Trip Advisor, so I figured their pizza must be pretty good.

I ordered two slices. One was a slice of White Pizza, and the other was the Foccacia Pizza. The white was okay, but was sort of a cheese overload. This sauceless pie was topped with lots and lots of mozzarella and ricotta. I'm not a fan of pizzas where there is too much cheese for the crust to support. Here, there was so much cheese that it was pooling off onto the plate every time I moved the slice. Pizza components should be well proportioned. I liked the Foccocia much better. Like the White pizza, this slice was also sauceless but also held together much better. It was topped with kalamada olives, onions, celery, basil, tomatoes, and cheese. I have never tried celery on a pizza and didn't know quite how it would work as a topping. The crunch was nice!

I liked one out of the two slices at Pizza Time. I don't know if I'd vote them second best in the country just yet, but they do have something going for them. Beware though. They are cash only...

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!

Oreganatta in Orlando, FL

I tried an Italian buffet on International Drive called Oreganatta. They are located in a new building near Wet n' Wild. There was another Italian buffet nearby on International Drive several years ago that was above average. They ended up closing and a CiCi's Pizza took over the space. Perhaps my memory of this long gone buffet gave me hopes for Oreganatta that were slightly too high.

Oreganatta was almost completely empty except for another couple eating there. That's a bad sign for a buffet, but it was still early for the lunch hour so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I started out by trying their pasta. The pasta was custom made by a cook where you picked out sauce, type of pasta, and a choice of BBQ or spicy chicken. I had penne with pesto and spicy chicken. The pesto was okay. The chicken had a weird, slimy consistency and I didn't eat most of the meat. The option to add vegetables into the pasta as well would have been a big improvement.

I tried some of Oreganatta's salads next. I had some Caesar salad, pasta salad, and a chickpea salad. No complaints here. The salads were the best tasting food I found on the buffet.

The pizza was similar to what could be found at CiCi's, only without the big selection of pies. It was cheap conveyor belt pizza. There was a cheese and pepperoni pie on the buffet table. One of the employees offered to make another with my choice of toppings, but I passed.

They had lots of mini dessert cups on the buffet as well. I tried some sort of chocolate dessert, rice pudding, and a custard. I liked the rice pudding the best, but the desserts were mostly forgettable.

I don't think I'd return to Oreganatta any time soon. I was not impressed overall. The salad was okay. The pasta bar has room for improvement, and CiCi's would be a better option for the pizza, just based on ready made buffet selection (and I wouldn't recommend CiCi's). I personally don't see Oreganatta surviving long...