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.

Olive Garden in Westbury, NY

I ate at the Olive Garden in Westbury, NY. It was your standard Olive Garden eating experience with half-decent Italian food. Olive Garden isn't my favorite of the big Italian chains, but it is what it is.

The meal started out with salad and breadsticks:
I had Eggplant Parmesan for the main course. It was good, but a little too much sauce for my liking.

P.F. Chang's in Westbury, NY

I ate at the P.F. Chang's in The Source Mall in Westbury, NY. I ordered the Singapore Street Noodles. It consisted of chicken and shrimp with assorted vegetables, all served over noodles. I liked it! Interestingly, this dish was not marked as spicy on the menu, but it ended up having a nice kick to it. Someone else at the table ordered something that was supposed to be spicy, and it had a really sweet sauce. I could see people sending their food back over an issue like that, but I liked my noodles the way they were!

This stone warrior was looking over our table. I decided he was worthy of having his photo taken...