Uncle Oogie’s Pizzeria and Specialty Sandwiches is located at 2119 West Oregon Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19145. Established in 1996, Uncle Oogie’s has a well established reputation in Philadelphia. Actually, those who like their pizza swear by it and won’t have anything else.
Uncle Oogie’s Pizzeria and Specialty Sandwiches has a giant menu of items. They serve hamburgers, Philly cheese steaks, Philly chicken cheese steaks, low carb wraps, pastas, hoagies, chicken sandwiches, salads, appetizers, wings, and of course, pizza. They serve all styles of pizza including: gourmet pizza, white pizza, old Italian pizza, classic pizza, stromboli, and a very interesting breakfast pizza. That’s right, breakfast pizza (so it does exist). They have many variations of the breakfast pizza, which include egg and cheese and western.
Uncle Oogie’s Pizzeria and Specialty Sandwiches is a small pizzeria which includes dine in and take out (or delivery). The dine in section has about 10 small tables to sit and a nice flat screen TV to watch. There is also a restroom available. An observation I made about this place was that there were about 20 people working behind the counter and only a few customers eating in. They all seemed very busy too so they may have been preparing delivery orders. But 20 people…is that necessary for this small scale operation?
My review of Uncle Oogie’s Pizzeria and Specialty Sandwiches is as follows:
I like Uncle Oogie’s Pizzeria and Specialty Sandwiches for a variety of reasons. They have good pizza, you can eat in there, there is a wide variety of food options, there is a wide variety of pizzas to choose from, and they have many specials available.
I ordered a large Margherita pizza there. I had a major problem with their pie…it was served cold. The pizza may have been sitting behind the counter for sometime before I finally was called. It wasn’t frozen or very cold but slightly less than warm. For this type of traditional pizza, the wrong temperature will ruin the quality of the pie when eaten. Pizzas always taste better hot (the degree of hot is debatable). This strikes me as odd because with twenty employees there and a giant pizza oven you would think that they could get the hot part right.
They are lucky that I have tried their pizza before or it may have swayed my opinion of them.
The Margherita pizza had a semi charred traditional thick crust (not pure thin crust). The Mozzarella cheese was about 30% of the toppings. The problem I had with the cheese goes back to the cold factor. The semi cold temperature of the pie caused the cheese to not have the warm stringy appeal. Instead it was harder and more firm.
I liked the sauce on top which had chucks of tomatoes. There was a substantially amount of tomato sauce on there compared to the cheese. The sauce was very sweet too. There were only a few sprinkles of basil on the entire pie. The basil didn’t look too fresh either and the leaves should have been bigger.
I am not impressed with my past visit to Uncle Oogie’s Pizzeria and Specialty Sandwiches. Overall, there pizza would have been so much better if served warm. These kinds of mistakes can’t happen especially when you get a surprise visit from a pizza critic. I would suggest a few changes. First, reevaluate how many employees are necessary to run your shop.
Miscommunication between many sections could have led to my pie served cold. Second, you need bigger fresher slices of basil. Third, double check the quality of the cheese and how much you are putting on your pie. Fourth, don’t change a thing about your sauce, it was good even cold.
I am going to make an exception and let Uncle Oogie’s Pizzeria and Specialty Sandwiches be a part of the Best Philadelphia Pizza Club. The reason I am doing this is because all other factors considered, they are a really good pizzeria. If the pizza was warmer I am sure that this pie would have been top quality Philadelphia pizza.
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