Pizzarito NY Pizza By The Slice — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I'll get right to it. This is not NY Pizza, and it is worse than Little Caesar's. They use prepackaged tomato paste then add sugar/oregano for their sauce (I asked the "chef" while he was cooking my pizza). Their ovens do not achieve high enough temps for NY style, thus their pizzas have absolutely zero char on them. They use flour that leads to a dry, structureless, flour-y pizza crust rather than a thin, airy, and charred true NY style pizza crust. Their pepperonis taste bland akin to the cheapest Kroger brand pepperoni (all pepperonis are good in my opinion...just shocked Pizzarito isn't using something better). Similar to the bottom of the pizza, the top of the pizza has no char/crisp (soggy and flat pepperonis without any crisp, undercooked crust, etc.).

I have never not wanted to finish a pizza until trying this. I've tried Grimaldi's, Juliana's, Table 87, Apollonia's, and other true NY style spots and use those as a measuring stick, but I also love Dominos, Papa Johns, Little Caesars, etc. and realize that not everywhere can be my favorite. I'm not a pizza snob at all and appreciate everything...except this place.

I can understand not having a charcoal oven, or even skimping out on ingredients like not using real tomatoes for sauce...but the problem is that you are charging $30+ and advertising this as NY style when it is not NY style, and the quality/taste is worse than Little Caesar's.

Lastly, they take cash only. Many reviews also comment on this. I have no problem with restaurants taking cash only, but THEY HAVE TO MAKE IT OBVIOUS. This place does not mention cash only on the website, and when I called in my order, they did not say anything about cash only. The owner's response is that I can simply make a "convenient" order online next time and pay with a credit card. That's not an appropriate response AFTER I have already placed an order. We are not asking you how to order with a card--we get that now. We are complaining that you don't make it clear on your website or over the phone and then make people withdraw cash from the ATM inside your restaurant that charges an EXORBITANT extra fee.

The owner also mentioned that it's expensive to purchase a card reader, so that's why they don't allow people to pay with a card in person...the expensive ATM machine by the counter costs significantly more than a card reader, so it's easy to see through that lie. A card reader costs $50 and needs a wifi connection. There ya go. That's all you need.

I am sad when I visit places like this...I love food, and I love making the best food possible with quality ingredients (yet for a good price). This place obviously is not trying to deliver a premium pizza or offer customers a premium experience, yet they are charging premium prices. I hope the owners take a few weekends to try some other pizzas around town, run some focus groups, and get feedback to improve their product and customer experience. Humbly taking critiques and always trying to improve are hallmarks of a great business--if you read the owner's response to all of the negative reviews on here, they ignore the feedback and gaslight the customer.

For anybody looking for decent NY-style options in the area, please consider trying The Good Pizza, Apollonia's, Prime Pizza, Joe's, or Slice and Pint.

Edit (responses to owner): If my claim that you use tomato paste as your sauce base is false, then please link here what you use for everyone to see. I was in your store yesterday, and your employee directly showed me what you use (tomato paste).

Secondly, you responded the same way about the payment dishonesty as you have to other customers--by gaslighting me. Sigh.

Third, you don't cook NY style pizza, so why is that what you advertise?

Lastly, your 40 year history only means that you've been around for awhile...it doesn't mean you are still improving and serving customers in the same way you used to. If you don't change, then you might not be around for another 5 years, let alone 40. At best, you're going to have to move...

Many parlors advertise a NY style pizza, or even include it in their name. Like many others, this is not a New York style pizza, in the sense defined by the online pizza community (yes, there is such a thing). The outer crust ring is puffed up, soft, not crisp, and there's a lot more cheese and sauce than you'd find on a NY. This is what I call a standard conventional oven parlor pizza, or a "football" pizza, to use DP's recent terminology (no one knows his rules). It's also my favorite style.

As you can see below, this is a very attractive pizza. The one difference between Pizzarito and its peers in range (Johnnie's, Fat Tomato) is the inner crust, it's thinner than either of those, which means there's a considerable amount of flop. That would be a negative if rating on a NY scale, but for this style of pizza it's a shrug, in fact, less dough down the pipes is not a bad thing.

So much for pizza culture, how does it eat? The first one I tried, sometime back, didn't have enough sauce, and I couldn't detect much taste either. I ranked it a 4 at that time, and promised to try it again, and I'm glad I did. This one had a moist, luscious bite at the point, exactly like it should for this style, and there was a good tomato flavor from the sauce. The cheese was just right, not gloppy or pulling off the slice. There was no trace of oil on the surface. The outer crust ring had a bit of a salt twang to it (not too much), and was delightful to eat. I should have ordered some sauce to dip it in, next time.

It's a nice looking pizza that eats well, and in my book, that's a five (as adjusted above), I can't ask anything more from a pizza. Oh, I thought there were too many mushrooms, but I can address that next time by asking them to cut back a bit. They have an extra sauce option, I might try that. I thought it was adequate, but it could have used a little more, at the risk of getting sloppy with the thin crust. Note, this is an 18", and for a substantial pizza of this type, I'd prefer 16", but that's not an option. More pizza than I wanted? Not exactly a problem.

After storing the leftovers overnight, I can report this is a fine refer pizza the next morning. There's no oil, and the droop was fixed by the solidified cheese. The outer crust ring remained pliable, good stuff if you're a fan of cold pizza. Well, who isn't?

The location is very accessible, right between CVS and Pavillions (soon to be sold apparently), on Glencoe. That puts it in range of all the apartment blocks in MdR and Playa.

Ed: I followed up on my musing above, and ordered the third pizza with extra sauce (not too much), and told them to go easy on the mushrooms. The result is below, on the right. That worked great, it was moist and full of flavor. Not saying #2 wasn't a fine pizza, but I liked this one better. Next time I might say, extra sauce, "just a bit", because maybe it was just a little too saucy, but no biggie, I loved it. The relatively thin crust was more floppy with the extra weight, but with this style, do I care? I do not. There was a slight oil sheen, as I think you can see below, and I did a paper towel wipe. Nothing objectionable.

Well that's it then. In the MdR world of this substantial "'football" style of pizza, these guys are in the game. Three really fine pizzas within blocks. No decent NY styles in range, but this might be parlor...

Decent service until their ATM machine didn't accept my card and then everything went downhill. I waited and allowed the woman behind me to even try and her card got declined as well. The gentleman behind the counter proceeded to tell me to check my account and maybe I didn't have the funds. Completely unprofessional and I told him I had well over the meager 14.50 for my meal. The woman behind me also tried and her card got declined as well. A line started forming and I asked him if he could reach out to their guy and he said it had been working all day. This is two separate customers, two separate financial institutions and both were declined. I kept my cool but the woman behind me even had to tell the man he didn't have to be nasty about it. If you can't handle a lunch rush then don't work it.

Thing is, I've also worked at a place with a 3rd party ATM and machines breakdown and glitch all the time rven if they were just working. He was absolutely dismissive and kept deferring me to ordering online but refused to do anything in the moment.

Sad I wasted my time, happy I didn't waste my money. Too bad because the reviews lead me here but my experience will never have me come back. Don't ever question a customer's finances to a point where another customer has to step in. Vile.

Annnnnd what a red flag: The brevity to respond to a review instead of their willingness to actually deal with the machine in the moment for TWO SEPARATE GUESTS, is a testament to their deflection and dismissiveness. And to try to say "customers can attest to your false statement" is further minimizing and DISMISSIVE. Let's not forget the customer that also came to my defense when you were being completely RUDE. This response is a reflection of their gross attitude. There's better pizza in the area and that are willing to help and ready with card readers. And for clarity, the guy told me to check both my receipt and definitely mentioned my finances which is why the customer BEHIND ME had to speak up as well. And when we BOTH pointed out the error messages on the ATM receipts, no one had anything to say about it and they kept deferring us to online ordering, moving us to the back of the line. Absolutely deplorable behavior to defend and again, I'm so glad I spent...