I Love N.Y Pizza — Restaurant in Florida

As a native New Yorker I know what New York pizza taste like. In fact I know how to make pizza having done it in New York as a pizza cook.

The pizza here can best be described as New York "style" pizza. As pizza it's ok. On par with many like it in Gainesville. Reminiscent of say "Five Star Pizza...only not as good. But New York Pizza it is not. Aside from that my experience here left me angry and deeply disappointed. I walked in and told the lady at the counter it was my first time there. I was met with silence. I asked what specials they had. Silence. I asked what drinks they had. Silence. I ordered two slices with extra cheese. I turned to look around to take the place in, waited five minutes. The young lady looked into the oven ( presumably to check my two slices), and said nothing to me. The next moment I saw the man who had earlier been leaning on the ledge playing with his cell phone put two slice with extra cheese into the oven. As it turned out although the place had no other customers in it, I had waited five minutes before they got around to putting my pizza in the oven. The young lady saw nothing in the oven when she looked in but spoke not a word. I got no apology for the 12 minute wait that should been just three of four max. Remember I'm a New Yorker. I know how pizza is done there. This person put the two slices on a screen and then into the oven. A BIG NO NO FOR NEW YORK STYLE PIZZA, WHICH SHOULD BE COOKED ON DIRECT HEAT TO CRISP THE BOTTOM OF THE PIZZA. Now I was really getting hot. But I said nothing. May it would still taste good after all. The slices were placed in the front right corner rather than deep inside the oven for max heat. (Now i was thinking: "These folks don't know what they're doing!") As expected the pizza was, first, underheated, and having not been place directly on the oven bed, the bread was soft not crispy, and the extra cheese was undermelted. Now I was pissed. The bread was not as thin as it should have been for true New York style Pizza. Placing pizza directly on the heating element at the right temp prevents the dough from rising and helps it crisp up nicely. Despite the fact that the cheese was really silky and had excellent texture the slices tasted relatively bland for what I was expecting. But since I was so hopeful to get a real New York style slice in Gainesville I was willing to pay the $5.00 per slice that they charged me. Listen, if you don't really know what New York Pizza tastes like you won't understand what the big deal is. But if you do know you'd know that there are few foods in the world that a New Yorker would miss from the home town , and one of those foods is a damn good slice of New York pizza. Sorry, but the folks at "I Love New York Pizza" ain't...

Since Google is asking for my opinion, I might as well share on how I like my pizza.

I moved to the Gainesville area about 2ys ago and I was extremely disappointed with the pizza options in my area. I live off Tower and tried all the pizza places within a reasonable distance from my home. Let's face it from the time the pizza comes out of the oven it has what I call an optimal eating temperature. So you don't want to go too far otherwise when the pizza gets too cool, it is not quite as good.

I was not too happy with any of the pizza restaurants in my area. Including this place. I usually eat pizza one a week, or every two weeks. After a few months of living in Gainesville. I went down to maybe once a month, or two. Maybe even longer, it was not worth getting disappointed and I like my pizza a certain way.

And yes I am one of those people who are from up North and say I'm used to good pizza. So much choice it is if I can't eat good pizza it is not to eat pizza at all. During my last visit to Connecticut which has some of the best pizzas in the USA. You can actually look that up and I've been to those places.

I took a look and was wondering why is this pizza so much better than it is down in my area? I mean I don't make pizza and when I try I hope it comes out let's just say I don't bother making pizza at home. However I would always think how hard could it be?

One thing I noticed is that the pizza always comes out with his golden orange cheese color. And I hate to use this term "greasy" but that's what everybody refers to and unfortunately it has developed a bad rap. Another thing I noticed is the crust is a lot thinner.

So when I got back to Gainesville my wife decided she wanted to eat pizza and I moaned and groaned. I decided to call I Love New York Pizza and ask can you make it thinner and "greasy"? Now the initially laughed at me but started to make the pizza don't worry I'm use to. Since they have done that not only does my wife love it but other people have come over and ate the pizza and said wow where did this come from? Once I told them where I came from most people were surprised.

Since they started making the pizza the way I like it I get it once a week. So if it works for me maybe it will work for you. I only order pepperoni pizza with extra cheese. To me that is my go-to pizza that is what I eat so this may apply to others but for the pepperoni pizza those two things are a winning...

I used to be a loyal customer of I Love NY Pizza until today. I'm not sure whether they have had a change of kitchen staff within the last year but the food quality has drastically decreased.

The pizza is sub-par and the garlic knots are bland and dripping with oil. Today was pretty much my last order with the buffalo pizza. It is usually an okay order but today it came with so much buffalo sauce, it was pooling on the pizza. You could barely pick up a slice without the toppings falling off with the sauce. I love buffalo sauce but I couldn't stomach more than a couple of slices, even when I covered it in parmesan cheese and ranch.

I will say they that they tried to be accomodating by offering a credit and the worker that answered my call should definitely get a raise as they even offered to remake it and deliver it personally so close to closing time. It is the only reason for two stars instead of one. Unfortunately, I have been so consistently disappointed and disgusted by the buffalo pizza, that I didn't even want any more of the food from this place. Will not be ordering again.

UPDATE** They did not pick up the pizza even after I let them know that I will leave it outside for them. Since they didn't pick it up, animals got to it and made a mess all over my porch. Beware of leaving the pizza out for them to pick up or waiting for them to pick it up since there is a good chance that they...