Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Review: NY Gianni's Bronx Style Pizza

Name: NY Gianni's Bronx Style Pizza
Address: 1428 Burnet Ave Syracuse, NY
Phone: (315) 425-7770
Neighborhood: Eastwood
Website: www.nygiannispizza.com
Menu: View Menu
Cuisine: Pizza, Italian
Restaurant Hours: Monday to Thursday 11 AM - 9 PM, Friday to Saturday 11 AM - 10 PM, and via their Facebook page, now open Sundays 12 PM to 8 PM
Parking: On-Street, Private Lot
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Take-Out: Yes
Wi-Fi: Yes
Delivery: Yes (with a $10 minimum)

It's not too often Upstate New York gets to legitimately contend with something from our NYC neighbors. We know the story. They have better restaurants, better bagels, and even better pizz.... Wait. Could it be that Syracuse can now lay claim to great pizza in comparison to its New York City brethren?

Classic New York style pizza, as we've all known, originated and will always dredge up images of New York City pizzerias. There's a distinct look, style, and taste to the pizza that some even claim is in the water. Whatever the difference is, NY Gianni's Bronx Style Pizza, has now ushered in great, New York style pizza right here in Syracuse all the way from the borough of the Bronx.

With a location that's less than a block east of Shifty's, parking is available on-street or in the lot that's easily accessible from the entrance on Burnet Ave. When you've pulled into the parking lot with a sign that reads "Liberty Bakery / Gianni's Pizza", you've reached the right place.

Pizza is the main focus here as your toppings include traditional ones as well as spinach, broccoli, hot peppers, eggplant, and roasted red peppers. Their specialty pizzas all have clever Bronx-style nicknames like the "Grand Concourse" (the meat lovers), "Morris Park" (thick crust grandma), " White Plains" (white pizza), and "Botanical Garden" (veggie deluxe) among others. Aside from pizza, Gianni's also offers calzones, rolls, lunas, subs, wings (and dart wings), salads, and appetizers like garlic bread, jalapeno poppers, garlic knots, and breaded mushrooms. Visit the actual restaurant and you'll find a few desserts in the display case like cookies and half moons.

Inside is quite tiny with a few small, adequate tables to enjoy a slice or two. However, I opted for take-out on this occasion.

The order...

Medium Pepperoni Pizza: $13.22
Total Money Spent with Tax & Tip: $15

With a quarter of it missing because I got hungry.

Temperature: perfectly hot.

Style: it's thin crust, but not insanely thin. Enough to provide some give in the dough and partnered with a little bit of crunch on the bottom. The texture was great.

Cheese: perfectly layerd and while a bit greasy for some (I prefer a slightly greasy pizza anyway), the cheese had that classic gooey and stringy texture.

Topping: I love pepperoni and it was perfectly cooked here, but I'd think I'd opt for something else next time. Combined with the cheese, it encouraged a somewhat greasy pizza.

Pizza crust: get this - perfect. It's a bold statement coming from yours truly. For anyone that knows me personally, they know I've never been a fan of the outside ring of a pizza. It's not uncommon to see a plate of mine lined with the aftermath of several scattered crusts after downing a few slices. I usually don't enjoy crust because more often then not it tastes like cardboard and is a mere depressing shadow of its former glory. However, at Gianni's, even the crusts were consumed. The crust is that good. It's chewy on the inside, slightly charred and crunchy (but not overly crunchy) on the outside, and didn't dry out at all near the ends.

Sauce: absolutely amazing. Spicy, garlicy, and sweet. And while every other attribute of the pizza is good or above average, the sauce is pretty much the stand-out here.

Overall pizza reaction: outstanding.

My confession is that after visiting this place over the last several months, I have yet to order pizza from anywhere else inside Syracuse.

My second confession is that their tomato pie, although served warm, is awesome and would go out on a limb and say that it may rival anything in Utica, mainly because the sauce is that good.

What else can I say that The Pizza Geek, Chus On Chow, and Wandering Through Syracuse haven't already said? I'm hooked. I'm on the Gianni's bandwagon and can't get off. I have to give this 5 stars. Even more impressive is that it's served with very friendly service. I have no complaints whatsoever and their pizza is awesome. Probably some of the best I've ever had. I look forward to trying out some other things on the menu very, very soon.

And yes, taste the flava!

My rating of NY Gianni's Bronx Style Pizza:

2 comments:

Jim Johnson said...

Two words: dart wings. They are ridiculously good. Even when I don't get dart wings, I get a bit of the dart wing sauce to dip my crust in.

But yes, the sauce, the crust, the cheese... all delicious. And I LOVE their tomato pie. I've never been much of a tomato pie fan, honestly... living in Canastota and later Vernon, I've had plenty of it, but never really got into it. But the first time I had it served warm was at Gianni's and it was a whole 'nother world. I am now a HUGE fan.

Personally, I'm a fan of just straight plain cheese pizza. It's just my preference. And Gianni has the best that I've ever had.

Josef Lorenz said...

had the dart wings last week. that sauce is awesome. it's like a mix of garlic, bbq, and hot.