La Pizza — Restaurant in University City

Despite being put on hold and forgotten about the first time I called (I hung up after 7 minutes of waiting), this is a 5 star for me. Ready when I got there, he assumed I was the name on the order when he greeted me. New York accent so I was very optimistic that this would be the real deal.

I was not disappointed at all. The garlic cheese bread was hot and soft and crusty and gooey and full of fresh garlic flavor. Sauce with it was a little on the watery side, but the presentation in the box was the best I've ever seen. Loved that each of the 4 large pieces was cut in 2 so they were like 8 3-bite cheese sticks.

And the pizza. Oh wow. Soft, chewy, simple but terrific flavors. (Pepperoni and bacon, extra sauce) This was everything I hoped it would be and then some. Next time I might even forgo the extra sauce. We'll see how it reheats tonight.

No online ordering - just via phone. No dining in or by-the-slice orders right now, but they offer napkins and paper plates so you can eat in your car if you can't wait to get back home or to the office. And once you taste it, you're going to want the whole pie anyway - a single slice wouldn't cut it.

I'll definitely be going back. $24 for a 2 topping 14" plus cheese garlic bread. Well worth it.

The lot is a little weird - parking is easiest in back. Just a heads up.

Word is, they sell out of dough so...

This place is okay. It reminded me of Sbarro's Pizza (a mid-western chain), it's kinda flat tasteless pizza on what seems to be cardboard. The water (which is complementary- they act like this is really a huge favor... and will not give you tap water, despite St. Louis having spectacularly clean tap water) is the tiniest little-ist water bottle I've ever seen. This size bottle is fit for a three to six month old, not three adults. There were three of us and there were two it-sy bit-sy water bottles left; After a while, they found another little tiny water bottle. The service was good, and friendly, the atmosphere was okay, bathrooms were clean and full of good soap and paper towels. There's plenty of parking available. The employees looked genuinely Italian. There's better pizza to be found, like Talanya's (now renamed in between Delmar and the Forest Park Expressway on DeBallaver), Imo's, or Pizza Hut. I'll go here maybe once a year. The water was the biggest insult. When it's hotter THAN F-ING H*LL in St. Louis, I don't want a little thimble of water, I want 16 ounces, and complementary refills, for free. Oh, the salads were good looking, I didn't get one, but the other two people I went with did. The small salad is quite large, and the large salad is huge. At least they have that...

If you want NY Style pizza with no arguments about keeping to the particulars of the genre, this is your spot. If you want one on Friday or Saturday you better order it by 5pm if you want this STL-NY Zza. The owner was very matter-of-fact to a gent that thought his pizza might be ready 10mins before they told him it would be, but with a smile. He was super cool with me, dressed in a well-worn black Nike shirt that said "Queens" on it, explaining why/how the sausage comes in shaved ribbons on the pizza, sort of gyro-esque. The sausage comes in rolls, they bake it, cool it, then shave it thin. It's pretty great, but I'd probably order extra sausage next time. If you're eating in (my guess is that less than 10% of orders do this) I highly recommend a few dashes of the granulated garlic on the tables. If there'd been a space heater tucked around the corner with the tables my atmosphere score would've been 5⭐, but whatever...we left our coats on and it was delicious. If it's chilly out put your pie on the stand; the cold table made our second pieces almost regular room temp that fast lol. Will definitely...