Saturday, November 14, 2009

New York Pizza Department Review | NYPD

New York Pizza Department (NYPD) is located at 140 South 11th Street (11th & Walnut), Philadelphia, PA 19107. NYPD Pizza is family operated and is not affiliated with the pizza franchise with the same name. To me this is your typical Center City Philadelphia pizza, bad to horrible. Center City Philadelphia pizza joints are the reason that Philadelphia has a bad name for pizza (or just isn’t credited with good pizza). The tourists come here, stay in Center City, and then are forced to eat the high end, low quality, convenient to tourist crap they call pizza.

This pizzeria doesn’t come close to representing New York pizza either. Many New York pizza enthusiasts probably would agree. Fortunately, I have been all over New York and come to their defense that this is not New York pizza. New York pizza is much much better. This pizza barely had any char on its crust – that is not New York pizza. New Yorkers will attest that they love a nice black char mark throughout the pie. They also like them crispy, which was not found here.

New York Pizza Department won best of Philly in 2006 and has sparked up some popularity. They are a small little hole in the wall pizzeria with various pictures around for display. There are several small tables to sit or you can pick up your food and go. They also have delivery service available too.

It is not that I have anything against this place but I was just all around not impressed. First, the service was lousy. The cashier/janitor/cook never cracked a smile once. I ordered a slice of reheated counter pizza that looked like it was sitting there since the grand opening of this joint.

The pizza that I ordered was a tomato pizza with no sauce. The pizza was traditional crust served with tomato slices on top. The size was a smaller type of slice as it was cut from about a 16 inch pie instead of an 18 or 20 inch pie. The tomato slices were plentiful on the slice and were thinly cut. The cheese under the tomatoes was an appropriate amount but the pizza was a little stale. Even though I am aware that it was reheated the question was how long was its sitting there before being reheated? All this for $3.25 – so not worth it!

I cannot make a recommendation for NYPD Pizza Department as they do not meet my pizza standards to be considered the Best Philadelphia Pizza.

NYPD Pizza on Urbanspoon

4 comments:

  1. I work in Center City Philadelphia, and am a native New Yorker as well. I have been eating at NYPD Pizza for over 3 years now, and I can attest that this pizzeria has the BEST PIZZA in Philadelphia. First of all, NYPD Pizza serves fresh, thin, and crispy pizza. As for char, this is not a wood burning pizzeria, so if you’re a true pizza critic you would know that char comes from wood burning ovens. After six months, opened NYPD Pizza won Best of Philly 2005, not 2006. Next, I would recommend trying their pizza WITH SAUCE. A true New Yorker would know that "its all in the sauce" if your going to judge the quality of their pizza. Finally, all of NYPD Pizza slices are cut from 18'' pies. (Bring a ruler with you next time).

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  2. Anonymous,

    Thanks for your comment. As for the char, I am aware that a wood burning oven was not used but this is one more reason that they should not be associated with New York pizza as this is their trademark.

    Second, as for fresh that is much debated in my book. As stated before, the pizza appeared to have been sitting there for the longest of time. Crispy… their lucky that I did not send my dental bill for my cracked teeth.
    It is great that NYPD pizza won the best of Philly for how ever amount of years that they did. If you consider the whole package including the incredibly lousy service that I encountered then you may want to reconsider.
    In terms of 18 inches or 16 inches, I am only quoting what I seen based on my small slice size. You don’t have to worry about me bringing my ruler next time because I will never eat there again.
    If you think that this pizzeria is the best that Philly has to offer then you are highly misinformed. First, I would recommend that you step outside of Center City Philadelphia and explore the pizzas in the Italian areas of Philadelphia. Then I would recommend that you follow the pizzerias located in my Best Philadelphia Pizza Club (link on the left side) so that you can experience true Philadelphia pizza. It appears that you have been eating here so long (3 years really?) that you never gave other pizzas in this city a try.

    How many pizzerias have you eaten at to be that limited in scope to call this place the best pizza? $3.25 for one of their slices and this is the best that Philly can offer. You said that you were from New York? Come on…New York pizza critics should know better than that.

    Please try the pizza places in my review and then come back with a more informed opinion.

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