Tony's Little Italy Pizza

September 13, 2009

Tony's Little Italy Pizza

1808 N Placentia Ave Unit B

Placentia, CA 92870

(714) 528-2159

tony - the owner

deep dish pie stuffed with pepperoni, mushrooms and onions

topped off with a sprinkling of grated parmesan

it looks so good oozing with the all the ingredients...

but then this side didn't look as plentiful...BUT, i do have to say, overall, i did get a bite of everything pretty much throughout the whole pizza.

my first bite, i got a huge hit of tomato paste...that flavor was somewhat overwhelming to me and stood out the most. throughout the entire pizza, there was some unevenness in the dough, so sometimes i had so much dough and not enough moisture from the other ingredients, so i had to take a huge sip of COKE! (my favorite...with pizza, mexican food, anything deep fried, hamburgers...and so on...sorry to digress...i just try to stay away from drinking it...but i broke down for this pizza)

when i ate my second slice, (which by the way, i was already full, but for the sake of being a good critic i felt obligated to give it a fair critique) i tried to just close my eyes and retaste everything...i tasted the parmesan cheese, again, i wish there was more moisture. again, it was more tomato paste. you can see little bits of tomato, but i think what's missing here is that use of large chunks of tomatoes that provides the moisture this pizza really needs, especially with so much dough. places like zachary's and little star pizza use giant chunks of tomatoes which really adds to the flavor of the pizza as well. this pizza was not the greatest, but it also wasn't the worst. it was ok...but it could use a bit more help in the seasoning department as well as the tomato chunk factor.

you can see the golden crunchy texture on this bite of pizza which i did appreciate. but pointing out the obvious...not enough "stuff" to make it perfect...thus not enough moisture on it (or saliva in my mouth)...remember...its all about balance and ratio of ingredients.

i also ordered a basic house salad with their italian dressing, which was a light red wine vinaigrette. as i said, just a basic salad...nothing to write home about. (but i always need some type of roughage, so it served it's purpose. yah yah...i know...iceberg lettuce is 99% water, in case you wanted to share that bit of info with me...hehe thanks)

on a scale of 1 -5, 5 being best, i would give this place a 3. i would go back if i were craving a deep dish pizza (knowing what to expect), but i just might have to ask for fresh tomatoes to bring in more moisture or it will be too dry for me. i would like to try it again, but eat it there, right out of the oven. tony the owner was super nice and if you didn't notice, there is a very strong tie to anything chicago (all the walls are covered in chicago sports paraphernalia)...so bears fans...you can enjoy your pizza while you watch the game here and know you feel right at home.

i am stuffed...but i'm thinking about the haagen-dazs bars in the freezer that are covered in chocolate with bits of crunchy almonds...oh mama! i just might have to break down and eat one soon. until my next meal...i hope you all had a great weekend!!

happy eating!