Monday, when searching for pizza, I stopped a Mamma Mia Brick Oven Pizza first, but there was nowhere to eat and the smallest pizza was 14″, so I grabbed a menu and planned for a weekday lunch visit from my office.

When I picked up the menu, the restaurant smelled heavenly! (Admittedly, I was hungry at the time, but it really smelled good.)

Their menu says, “Est 1980″ but I can only assume this was at another location. I lived in this neighborhood in the late 80′s and I’m sure it was a different restaurant back then. I also note that their menu shows they won best pizza awards in New Jersey.

They do have a few seats and I could have eaten there today, but it’s just too much pizza for one person, so I called in a take-out order. I arrived early to make sure I got it right when it came out of the oven.

While I was waiting, I was really beginning to wonder what the fascination with the Rat Pack and license plates is. This is the second restaurant in two days so adorned.

It was also clear while I was waiting that this was a restaurant that was developing a loyal following. The owner(?) greeted several of the people by name and the dialog with many of the others showed familiarity. It’s certainly been a long time since I’ve heard so many unsolicited testimonials on the taste of the food.

I could hardly wait.

It was 7 minutes from the oven back to my office and onto the plates, which is at the extreme upper limit of acceptable delay for eating. Still, the pizza was plenty hot.

The pizza was New York style and much too droopy in the middle. It had to be eaten with a fork.

Apart from that annoyance, this was a great tasting pizza. It had lots of cheese, pepperoni and sauce and all of it was good.

The crust around the outer edge was good too, but it had an unusual flavor I couldn’t quite place. The nearest thing I could compare the flavor to would be butter, but I don’t think that’s what it was.

The is definitely a shop worth stopping at for a pizza.

Cost: 14″ Pepperoni = $10.45, cost per square inch = $0.07 (0.068)

Mamma Mia Brick Oven Pizza
3937 E. Indian School Rd
Phoenix, Az

Conclusion: Recommended

Technorati Tags: Blog, Food, Pizza, Pizza Week, Restaurant, Review

Pizza Week rolled onto Thursday with an evening visit to Pat’s Pizza Plus.

Pat’s is not much to look at, located as it is in a ramshackle old strip mall on E Glendale Rd. Inside it’s got the same kind of character.

I’ve never understood why some restaurants feel the need to cover their walls with memorabilia from the Rat Pack or Marilyn Monroe? Even more mystifying are old license plates. Pat’s has an abundance of both.

The pizza itself was what I’ve been referring to as “California Style” and was… average and inoffensive.

We had two pizzas at out table, both were a little soggy, one more so than the other.

Crust, pepperoni, cheese and sauce were all… good but unremarkable.

The restaurant was doing a brisk trade for late on Thursday night, so they must be keeping their customers happy. I certainly would have no problem recommended them to anyone in the neighborhood, but I wouldn’t recommend a pilgrimage there.

12″ Pepperoni pizza = $8.74, Cost per Square inch = $0.08 (0.077)

Pat’s Pizza plus
1135 E Glendale Ave
Phoenix, Az

Conclusion: Recommended, but unremarkable

Technorati Tags: Blog, Food, Pizza, Pizza Week, Restaurant, Review