L’industrie Pizzeria West Village — Restaurant in New York

Summary: very, very good pizza, which you will eat cold after a very long wait.

Full review:

The pizza is pretty great, with the typical drawbacks of an insanely popular NY spot.

I ordered a slice each of L'Industry, New Yorker and Sausage Pesto.

The L'industry (Prosciutto and Burrata) was my least favorite one. The prosciutto sits flat on top of the cheese with the burrata on top, and on my first bite I pulled the entire prosciutto slice, with the burrata and the cheese underneath. Next time I would order the burrata slice instead, which is the same minus the prosciutto.

The sausage pesto was my favorite by far. The pesto was fresh and the slice was incredibly tasteful.

The New Yorker slice (peperoni, sausage and ricotta) was very good. Good balance of spice and salt. To be honest, I was pretty stuffed by the third slice. I eat it because it was so good but two slices would have been more than enough.

Overall, the pizza lives up to the hype. The dough, the cheese, the toppings, everything was top notch.

The only problem I have with places like this (read Scars' Joe, etc) is that they are victims of their own success. They sell thousands of pies a day and they are a business after all, but when I got there they had a tower of well over 10 fully cooked pizzas sitting on racks waiting to be cut, topped and served. Even when my slices were on the table being prepared they were behind another 12 slices that the one guy was making. By the time I got my order (after 40 minute wait since I got there) the pizza was cold, and by the time I sit down to eat it it was way past its prime. The pizza was still very good and I would definitively come back, but knowing it could have been much better left a bitter taste.

Lastly, I had the pistachio gelato with olive oil and salt which was incredibly good. Fortunately you can skip the line if you are only ordering dessert or drinks.

Best decision of the night was to take my pizza next door, to TaLea, to sit down with A/C and a beer...

The slices at L’Indsutrie would be a perfect 10 if the wait times were shorter, but it is what it is — at a peak time the lines are out the door, so make sure you have the patience to wait! I arrived on a Thursday at 2:05, placed my order at 2:15, and then had my food at 2:30. By the time I left at 2:45, there was no line out the door anymore.

Is it worth a 30 minute wait? I guess every once in a while if I’m really in the mood. It’s an undeniably delicious slice: a little bit floppy at the center, but structured enough to hold in one hand, a chewy crust, and a thin, clump-free layer of cheese.

However, somehow I feel strongly that the experience of a casual NYC slice should be a relatively fast one, similar to the pace of the city. The apprehension I’m feeling about fully endorsing L’industrie comes down to the mismatch between the extremely casual/small space, very typical of a NYC pizza shop, and how high maintenance some of their slices are. I suspect that all of the extra touches that come after heating the slice — like piping ricotta, scooping burrata, grating fresh parm, sprinkling fresh basil, and drizzling olive oil — are major contributors to the long wait times because they’re all manually applied by the workers slice by slice. Of course, these details are what make their pizzas so appealing, and I feel this either calls for 1) a larger space with more tables and seating, allowing customers to wait comfortably for their orders without being shoulder to shoulder. Or 2) an “Express” line where customers can order plain slices without all of the accoutrements for a true, fast and causal NYC slice experience. I personally would be very happy to order a pepperoni pizza from here — no added basil, no parm, no olive oil — just a plain warmed slice with a wait no longer than 5 minutes.

I would probably return here on occasion, but it will not be a go-to spot (as much as I’d like for it to be) because of the long wait times and...

L'Industrie has quite a name for itself, rightfully so. I was introduced to it via Joshua Weissman YouTube searching for the best Pizza in NYC, so my expectations were high. He claimed it was a perfect blend of new and old school and after having experienced it, I can happily report he was correct. We got a half New Yorker and half Tartufo.

New Yorker - The red sauce was flavorful and not too sweet. The mozzarella was almost classic NY pizza but fresher, less salty. The pepperoni cupped and had a great spice to it, while the Italian sausage added fragrance and heartiness. The ricotta was a wonderful touch, blending sweet and creaming into the acidic mix. A true blend of new and old. 10/10

Tartufo - No sauce, same mozzarella, but the braised cremini mushrooms were so flavorful. Ricotta adding the sweetness once again, but with truffle oil adding umami to the mix. Almost perfect, but there was so little truffle oil it was hard to detect on most of it. 7/10

If you plan on going here, ORDER AHEAD. The line, on a Saturday morning at opening, was well over 70 people long. We ordered the night before, skipped the line, grabbed our pie, and left. Much better option in my opinion as ther isn't a ton of seating anyway and the place was PACKED. The service gets a 3/5 stars since they were very short with people, including myself. I understand that they are popular and extremely busy, but if you rise to that level, so should your customer service.

Either way, the manners of the staff didn't negatively impact the 5 star rating. It just adding a bitter note to an almost...