Even though the BF claimed that anywhere in New York would have better pizza than what I could get in LA, we still trekked all the out to Brooklyn for some famous New York style pizza.
After what amounted to a practically all-day pizza expedition in New York, I ended up waiting in line for two hours. For pizza. In 20-degree weather. But hey, New York is famous for their pizza, so it’ll be worth it, right?
When I finally got seated in Grimaldi’s, I was happy to see that I had the prime viewing spot for pizza making. The guy behind the glass was expeditious in his pizza making and judging from his look of concentration, definitely thought that making pizza was Serious Business.
The BF and I split a pizza. Most of it was tomato sauce, olives and basil while a quarter of it, my portion, was sausage and cheese. I didn’t think that having my first taste of New York pizza would be mind-blowing, but it was a bit disappointing after all the build up.
The crust was too thin in the middle and just kind of flopped over. If this pizza were served in LA, I know the BF would have complained about it. What I did like was the tomato sauce, which wasn’t too spiced or zesty and used in moderation. I hate it when pizza is drowning in overbearing pizza sauce. The cheese was also good and creamy with that nice stringiness that hot pizza cheese always has. I wasn’t impressed by the sausage on the pizza, but maybe it’s because I’ve been spoiled by the sausage at Mozza. The oil-cured olives were incredibly salty and should have been used more sparingly, but they were much better than the canned, rubbery stuff that usually passes for olives on pizza.
Overall, it was a decent pizza, but tasted like what I’d get at Joe’s in Santa Monica on Broadway, or even Vito’s. Maybe if I hadn’t been waiting for 2 hours in below-freezing weather, I’d think of the pizza more fondly, but for now, I just think of it as “good, but not 2 hours good pizza.”
For dessert, I ordered a cannoli and this monstrosity came out. It was huge! With sprinkles! I don’t think I’m a fan of cannoli with sprinkles.
Grimaldi’s Pizzeria
19 Old Fulton St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 858-4300
btw, I know there are better places than Grimaldi’s, but a lot of places aren’t open on Monday afternoon, and we were already sort of out that way. Next time we’ll hit some better spots.
That said, I thought the pizza was pretty good – charred about the right amount, passes the fold test, the right amount of chewiness and give in the dough, but maybe could have been just a tiny bit crispier on the bottom of the crust. I liked the olives quite a bit, despite the saltiness.
Huh, I actually like the super thin, somewhat floppy crust like that.