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Amadeus Pizza – Take Two

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 by virginia

I raved so much about Amadeus Pizza that Josh wanted to try it as well, since he was in Las Vegas the first time I ordered in from there. We placed an order on seamless web for a large cheese pie and garlic knots, and it arrived a short while later. I would have to give points for fast delivery, except that when we opened the box, the pizza looked disgustingly white.

An extremely pale pie

It was way undercooked, as the cheese was barely melted and didn’t have any bubbly brown spots to it at all.

Doesn't look much better close up

The crust was also a sickly pale color on top, though when I flipped it over to look at the bottom, it looked brown. Maybe their oven was on too high and they were worried about burning the pizza?

Underside shot

The garlic knots were nicely brown and still had an ample sprinkling of chopped garlic on top, but they were cold. They did come with a container of tomato sauce for dipping this time though, which I thought was a nice touch. The sauce was still warm at least.

At least the garlic knots were properly browned

The pizza was obviously horribly undercooked and cold. It was almost like they brought us a par-baked pizza, and we finished cooking it in our oven on our pizza stone. At least then it came out hot and crispy but to me, reheated pizza just isn’t the same as pizza fresh from the oven the first time. It still tasted pretty good after we re-baked it but I can’t get over how they would send out a pie that looked the way it did when it arrived. Seriously, it just looked gross, and Josh couldn’t believe that I liked it the first time. Believe me, it certainly didn’t look like that. I was embarrassed for having so highly recommended it in the first place. I was sorely disappointed, and don’t think we’ll be ordering in from them again any time soon.

Tags: Delivery, Midtown West, Pizza
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Papa John’s

Saturday, July 18th, 2009 by virginia

DSCN1311

Since I tend to divulge a lot of “secrets” on this blog, I’m going to share with you our shameful secret food indulgence: Josh and I absolutely love Papa John’s. Not because we think it’s great pizza, but because it’s just delicious and addictive in a junk food kind of way. Whenever one of us gets a craving, all we have to say is “Papa John’s!” and the other person will immediately crave it as well. It doesn’t matter if I’ve just gone to the supermarket to pick up ingredients for dinner, or if we’ve already planned to order in something else, as soon as Papa John’s is mentioned, everything else is forgotten.

We usually get the same order every time – cheesesticks and a large pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, and black olives. The cheesesticks are really just a pizza without tomato sauce that they slice into strips, but it’s a bit thinner and crispier, and the cheese gets more browned and bubbly. We love the garlic dipping sauce, which is really just some sort of butter product mixed with garlic powder and is extremely bad for you but oh so tasty. They also provide pizza sauce so you can dip just the right amount of tomato sauce and garlic sauce together.

Cheesesticks with pizza sauce and garlic sauce

The pizza itself is thicker than standard NYC pizza, but thinner than pan pizzas (although they do have a pan pizza option).

Large pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, and black olives

The crust is a bit sweet, as is the pizza sauce, which is why we get pepperoni to counteract the sweetness. The mushrooms go really well with the pepperoni, and the olives provide a bit of a sour tang. This is my favorite combination of toppings. The crust isn’t really crispy but it has a nice dense chew to it.

Underside shot

Papa John’s in the city is more expensive than in the suburbs, but a quick search on the internet will usually turn up coupon codes that drastically reduce their prices. We always order online and delivery is quick. Anytime a craving hits, we know we can get a piping hot pizza and chewy cheesesticks in less than an hour. Now please don’t make fun of us for our shameful secret indulgence. We don’t usually eat fast food unless we don’t have many options available, but this is our one exception. C’mon, everyone has a shameful secret food indulgence – what’s yours?

Papa John’s (multiple locations)
594 Amsterdam Ave. between 88^th and 89^th St.
New York, NY

Tags: Delivery, Pizza, Upper West Side
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Amadeus Pizza

Monday, June 15th, 2009 by virginia

After all the Chicago pizza we had over the weekend, I was craving good old NY style pizza, so I decided to try out a different pizzeria on my quest for the perfect go-to place to order in from. A quick look on seamlessweb showed Amadeus Pizza on 8^th Ave. between 51^st and 52^nd. I guess it was formerly a Ray’s pizza (whatever that means these days), but the menu had all my standard favorites, plus they were offering a 20% discount on all orders – sweet! So even though I’m on my own this week, as Josh is still in Vegas, I ordered all the things we would normally order, and figure that I can just pop any leftovers into the freezer for a quick reheat later on.

After the discount, my chicken parm hero, an order of garlic knots, and a large cheese pizza came out to just around $22 total, including tax and tip. Not too shabby. But how did it taste? It was by far the best pizza that I’ve had in a while. Please note though that we’re talking basic NY pizzeria style pizza, not the fancier kind, a la Grimaldi’s or Lombardi’s or even John’s. Those are a separate category, and are not included in my quest for the best ordering-in place.

Large plain cheese pizza

The chicken parm hero was seriously huge, though not as hot as I would have liked.

The chicken parm sub is almost as large as a bottle of wine

The chicken parm sub is almost as long as a bottle of wine

The chicken was meaty though, the breading wasn’t too soggy, and the sauce was well seasoned and nicely tangy. The cheese could have been melted a bit longer (I like when it turns a little brown and bubbly), but the bread was great. It’s a softer Italian roll without a crispy crust, but it was supple and chewy in a good way that complemented the sandwich. It kept everything together nicely and didn’t fall apart from the ample filling.

Chicken parm innards

The garlic knots were also a bit cold, but tasted great. Lots of real garlic, herbs, and just enough oil to keep it soft and moist, but not too much so that it drips on your hand and makes you feel gross.

Garlic knots topped with lots of fresh chopped garlic

The pizza was a bit floppy in the middle (I couldn’t get a good upskirt shot because it sagged too much), but the outer rim of the crust was super crispy and snapped audibly when I folded a slice in half. It wasn’t hard or brittle though, just crackly on the outside and chewy on the inside. The cheese was a bit salty, but otherwise, it was a pretty darn good pie.

Underside shot

I’m almost tempted to stop my quest right here but it’s not much of a quest if I quit after two places, right? So I’m moving on for now, and who knows, I might find a place that’s even better!

Amadeus Pizza
856 8th Ave. between 51^st and 52^nd St.
New York, NY

Tags: Delivery, Midtown, Pizza
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9th Avenue Pizzeria

Sunday, May 24th, 2009 by virginia

We took a lovely stroll through Central Park after brunch and decided to burn a few calories by walking the whole way home. It was a beautiful day outside and there was lots to see along the way.

The reservoir

A family of geese taking a swim

Belvedere Castle

Boaters on the lake

A few hours after brunch and our walk through the park, we were in the mood for a snack so we ordered in an extra-large pizza ($14.50) from a local pizza place, 9^th Avenue Pizzeria. It’s a decent pie with a thinner crust than most places, which Josh likes, but it was a bit too thin for me (I like a crispy outside with a bit of a chew on the inside).

Super thin crust

Underside shot

We’re always looking for a good go-to pizza place to order in from. In our old neighborhood, most pizza places catered to lunch crowd in the Financial District and closed early at night, around 7 pm, so our pizza choices were limited. We don’t have the same problem in our new neighborhood so we plan on trying each place in our delivery range until we find something we really like. This pizza was good but I won’t pass final judgment until we’ve tried everything else.

9 ^th Avenue Pizzeria
791 9^th Ave. between 52^nd and 53^rd St.
New York, NY

Tags: Delivery, Midtown West, Pizza
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Oyishi

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 by virginia

We recently moved to the Columbus Circle/Lincoln Square area and are still exploring the vast culinary options available in this neighborhood. We’ve tried a few restaurants in Hells Kitchen and are always searching for good places to order in from. We’ve only had one takeout menu slipped under our door so far, however, and figured that we would give it a shot. According to the menu, Oyishi offers standard Japanese food and sushi but there are lots of choices and pre-set combination plates that appear to be great deals.

We selected Special Roll Combo F ($11.95), which included a spicy tuna roll, a salmon avocado roll and a house special roll (a “jumbo” roll with salmon, tuna, yellowtail, white tuna, red snapper, crunch and tobiko). It also came with a choice of soup or salad. Our next selection was the all day sushi roll special, which is a choice of any two rolls for $6.66 or any three rolls for $8.99 and also includes a choice of soup or salad. The list of rolls to choose from doesn’t include any “deluxe” options, but all standard rolls are available. We went with a tuna roll, yellowtail with scallion, and white tuna with cucumber. Lastly, we decided to try a hot item and ordered a chicken katsu kitchen platter that is served with rice and salad ($6.25).

The delivery came pretty quickly, arriving in approximately 30 minutes. We opted for miso soups with our roll combinations, and those arrived still hot, which is a definite plus.

Still hot miso soups

The chicken katsu was warm but the coating was no longer crunchy, something to be expected from delivered fried food. It had a nice peppery flavor but lost points for the prepackaged manufactured katsu sauce that came in foil packets. The accompanying salad was just iceberg, a single slice of cucumber, a single slice of tomato and, oddly, a wedge of lime. The dressing was standard ginger but they didn’t even give us enough to cover the small salad. Maybe I should have squeezed the lime wedge over the rest of the lettuce?

Chicken katsu with prepackaged katsu sauce and a side salad with ginger dressing.

The main event for us was the sushi. If there were just one food that Josh could eat for the rest of his life, it would be sushi. As such, he takes his fish pretty seriously and freshness is obviously a huge issue. Overall, the rolls were decent.

House special roll (top), spicy tuna roll (left), salmon avocado roll (right)

Yellowtail is my favorite fish and this version tasted pretty fresh. The scallion, usually just side note, was nicely crisp and brightened up the flavor of the roll. The tuna and salmon were a bit pale but tasted ok. Josh really didn’t like the white tuna, however, and found it to be too stringy.

White tuna cucumber roll (left), tuna roll (top), yellowtail scallion roll (bottom)

Our biggest complaint was that the soy sauce was too sweet – kind of an oxymoron. At first we thought the sushi rice had too much sugar but when we tasted each component individually, the sauce proved to be the culprit.

The verdict: meh. Not bad, and certainly not the worst sushi we’ve ever had, but that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement. It was just slightly better than average. The prices, however, were very reasonable, and in fact, it would be a great Midtown Lunch place if it weren’t just out of bounds on 46^th St. between 8^th and 9^th Aves. There are lots of combo specials during lunch that are well under the $10 limit. For me and Josh, however, I think we’ll be checking out some other Japanese restaurants in our delivery range.

Oyishi
374 West 46th St. between 8th and 9th Ave.
New York, NY

Tags: Delivery, Japanese, Midtown West, Sushi
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Posts Tagged ‘Delivery’

Amadeus Pizza – Take Two

Papa John’s

Amadeus Pizza

9th Avenue Pizzeria

Oyishi

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