The New Jersey Pizza Hunt

Date: 06/23/2017 Location: Bound Brook, NJ Pizza Ordered: Plain Pie and the Rock '55 Website: www.chimneyrockinn.com/ The Chimney Rock Inn is always an experience. The rustic atmosphere and delicious food make any night complete. My girlfriend took me here for my 22nd birthday and I couldn't have been happier. The wait wasn't too bad, even for a Friday night. The waitress was very polite and service was quick. The menus are a newspaper style that really adds to the overall feel of the place. The loaded tater-tots appetizer was fantastic. It was like you combined loaded nachos with golden brown tater-tots....why hasn't anyone thought of this before?! I went with the classic Rock '55 pie for my main course and my girlfriend decided to get the standard plain. My pizza was perfectly crispy with a thin crust and rich marinara sauce. The cheese was very fresh, as was the basil littered on top. The combination of flavors was brought full circle with the smokey...

Date: 05/11/2017 Location: Stroudsburg, PA Pizza Ordered: Plain and Pepperoni Phone Number (in lieu of website): (570) 421-2584 My friends and I stopped at Benvenuto after several hours of hiking in the Delaware Water Gap park. It's a small pizzeria on a fairly busy street. There's plenty of indoor seating and available meter parking on the street. The service was okay and the staff seemed friendly enough. We got a few garlic knots to share and everyone got some slices. The garlic knots were superb and very flavorful and fluffy. The sauce was also very good. The pizza, however, could have been better. There was a clear over-reliance on oregano and Italian seasoning to cover the lack of flavor. The base wasn't very crispy and seemed slightly undercooked and gummy. The pepperoni was oily and wasn't really great (but perhaps I'm just used to more crispy, spicy pepperoni). The crust lacked imagination and flavor, not being well defined as crispy nor fluffy. It was s...

Date: 05/03/2017 Location: Moorestown, NJ Pizza Ordered: Plain and Pasta Website: www.passariellos.com/menu.php Passariello's Pizzeria and Italian Kitchen is a unique little restaurant along a cute mainstreet in the middle of town. The restaurant is set up in a way similar to a food court or a school cafeteria. You can get different meals from different areas and counters inside the restaurant (of course, my main interest was the pizza counter). There is plenty of indoor seating and there is street parking available. The staff was friendly and service was quick. I went with the pasta slice and the usual plain. The plain featured a crispy base with delicious sauce and fresh cheese. It served as a good, staple slice. The pasta slice was delicious and featured a rich vodka sauce, fresh basil, and some extra cheese compared to the plain slice. It held together nicely and the overall quality of the slice was very good. This is definitely the spot to get a solid slice of pizza.

Date: 05/16/2017 Location: New Brunswick, NJ Slices Ordered: Plain and Chicken Bacon Ranch Website: www.skinnyvinnies.com/ Skinny Vinnie's is a fairly spacious pizzeria directly behind the College Avenue Gym and very close to Olive Branch. This is a fairly decent location that sees a good amount of traffic daily. The first time I tried to get a slice, the pizzeria was closed, despite my arrive during normal operating hours on a normal, non-holiday. The second time I was luckier (if you could even say that). The pizzeria was hot, with not much airflow despite having a ceiling fan whirring away. There's a very artistic mural on the wall that I really liked, but the rest of the restaurant seemed dirty and unkept. There was a large piece of aluminum foil covering half the menu and there is a spacious area near the counter that seems vacant of any activities. It could certainly be better used as a kitchen extension, more seating area, or something more creative. I went with th...

Date: 5/10/2017 Location: Hillsborough, NJ Slices Ordered: Plain and Chicken Parm Website: marianaspizzeria.com/ I had high hopes for Mariana's, located near the Wawa and Rita's Italian Ice in Hillsborough New Jersey. Based on reviews and another individual's pizza ranking for Hillsborough, NJ, Mariana's scored quite high and I assumed it would be a hidden gem. Unfortunately, I must have missed something. The pizzeria itself has a fairly clean and spacious seating area that can fit larger crowds. The register and counter area seems somewhat cluttered and messy. The staff was friendly enough and the atmosphere was pretty normal. Unfortunately, none of this could make up for the quality of the pizza. The base of the pizza was clearly undercooked featuring a gummy, doughy core. The overzealous seasoning did not help the flavor of the slice, which was fairly bland overall. The chicken parmesan slice wasn't any better. That slice was also undercooked and the chicken ...