I so want to be wrong, but I'm starting to realize that finding awesome food in Staten Island is not an easy task.
I've moved to the island at the beginning of 2013, and while we spent most of the first year renovating our new home we ordered a lot of pizza delivery (especially when we didn't have a kitchen sink yet!).
Let me specify that we are located in the "North Shore" and so I've been ordering and looking at North Shore pizzerias, because what's the point of finding a great pizza if they won't deliver it to you?
So what are the "supposedly" best pizzerias on the North Shore? Well, during my research and my constant prodding of neighbors, 4 name consistently came up: Brother's Pizzeria, Jimmy Max, Pat and Joe's and Denino's (that fact should have already warn me, because if there was a best I would have only gotten one name).
Before I delve deeper in a pizza review, let me say that I really want to love Staten Island. This place holds a special meaning for me and I really want to enjoy my stay here until and if I move to somewhere else in the distant future. For now I am here to stay, so I have every intention of finding things to love about the island, but I can't help it if I love pizza and I can't find some great slices (yet)...
Anyway, here it goes...
Brother's Pizza: The main problem I see here is that they are not constant. Some days I can find decent pizza, some other days the pizza is not good at all. I'm thinking there are a couple of different pizza makers and while one of them is good, the others not so much. I prefer their Sicilian pizza, but, again, some days not even the Sicilian is good. If I have to pray each time I walk in the place that the good pizza maker is working that day, I can't call this the best pizza place in Staten Island.
Jimmy Max: Pretty much the same issue as Brother's: pretty good pizza one day, and not so much the next day. One time we got a very salty pie. When their pie is good, is pretty good, though. But I need it to be always good...
Pat and Joe's: I've only eaten here once, with the entire family, and I have to say the pizza was good. We ordered a few different kinds and everybody enjoyed themselves. But was the pizza spectacular? No. Was it amazing and like no other pizza I've ever had? No. Was the bill a little high? Yes. So all in all, a good place to go sit down for a nice family or friends reunion, but I couldn't take my Manhattan friends here and tell them it's the best of the Island.
Denino's: I took my family here with high hopes. I've heard so much about Denino's, and I was so looking forward to finally finding my favorite pizza joint in Staten Island. When we arrived here by car, I was happy to see people flocking out with boxes of fresh pies and quickly stuffing them in their cars' trunks and driving away. I was ok with the line before we were able to sit down because I saw it as a good sign. But when we ordered a Margherita and received a soggy pie I was not so ok anymore... A soggy pie. That's all I remember. Maybe they put too much tomato sauce on it? Maybe it was just a fluke? Who knows? I'm planning on giving them one more chance and updating this review afterwards, because too many people seem to love this place and there must be a reason other than soggy pie...
And so the quest for great pizza continues...
About the author's pizza knowledge: You might be asking yourself what my pizza qualifications are so here they are: I was raised in Italy, and ate pizza on the weekends with my friends for decades, and in Italy, or at least where I come from, you never got a "bad" pizza. The pizza was delicious! The tomato sauce was perfect! Moving to NY was a bit of a shock, because pizza here is a little different, so when I judge NY pizza I am comparing it to other NY pizza and not to Italian pizza because otherwise NY pizza would always lose. My NY pizza experience includes Grimaldi's, which is not my favorite but pretty damn good and perfect if you prefer thin sliced pizza. Lombardi's, which is my favorite because I'm more of a chewy crust and Lombardi's crust is the perfect kind of chewy. And then I've been to Totonno's, Otto Pizzeria, Di Fara, and Patsy's in the Bronx. And oh, yes, I never ever eat Papa John's, Domino's nor Pizza Hut's pizza (yuck!).
