Was meeting my uncle and aunt the other night in downtown West Palm Beach, and originally we were going to go to Hot Pie Pizza, but I remembered I hadn't yet been to Grimaldi's Pizza which recently opened up at the end of Clematis Street. Grimaldi's Pizza is located in the same spot that Fire Rock Pizza was, and didn't last too long. Recently Grimaldi's Pizza has been on a mad craze to open several locations around the country. When I go back home to Long Island, there are Grimaldi's Pizza now too. I never loved the original, so I wondered how these offshoots would taste.

Initially I wanted to try the Grimaldi's Pizza that opened in Palm Beach Gardens, but they shortened my commute and opened one in West Palm Beach. So we went to check it out, and hoped for the best.

Grimaldi's Pizza, like many places before them in this location is decorated beautiful. It has a startling view of the intracoastal during the day, and during the night, the ambiance is just right. They have a bar to your left upon entering, and a friendly hostess showed us to our table, near the back window so we could enjoy the view of the moon reflecting off the water.

We ordered a large plain pie and some appetizers. The pizza smelled excellent and I watched as the pizza maker carefully spun around the pies in the coal burning oven. I was hoping they wouldn't burn the pizza like Anthony's does, and ruin the taste under some false claim that the char is the flavor. When the pie arrived it looked great. I didn't love the fact that the pizza maker didn't pop the bubbles, but after taking my first bite I was willing to forgive him. The crispy bottom flaked off in my mouth as the fresh mozz cheese melted on my tongue, with a pleasant fruity olive oil taste. The sauce is sweet and pretty smooth. The taste of the crust wasn't too charred, and these pizza makers seemed to be trained properly. I think that is one of my biggest pet peeves with Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza. They just don't seem to train the pizza makers how to cook a pie right, and each location it gets more and more diluted. This wasn't the case with Grimaldi's in the West Palm Beach location.

I would definitely go back to Grimaldi's Pizza in West Palm Beach, and I think it s better than Hot Pie Pizza and Anthony's. Hopefully you all enjoy it as much as I did.

Grimaldi's Pizza in West Palm Beach gets 6 out of 8 slices.