Gran Forno Pronto Pizza Fort Lauderdale, FL
A few weeks back my wife and I decided to get out of Boca Raton and explore Fort Lauderdale a bit. Little did she know that our exploration was really a way for me to go and eat at a pizzeria that a fellow foodie told me about and I had tried once before but forgot to take notes. So after driving through some neighborhoods and saying “look how cute that house is”, we ended up miraculously at Gran Forno Pronto Pizza on Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale.
Gran Forno Pronto has a lot more than just pizza. There is a menu that consists of salads and panini sandwiches as well as some antipasti. We will only focus on the pizza for the sake of this review. We sat outside, which was a mega mistake since it was just so crazy hot out. A rather pleasant server came out and took our order. I naturally ordered the plain pizza, and my wife ordered one of the salads that Gran Forno Pronto offers.
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Rice & Dough Pizza Fort Lauderdale, FL
The other day I was meeting some friends for a long overdue catching up session. They ended up choosing some new place called Rice & Dough in Downtown Fort Lauderdale since it had pizza and also sushi. Yes the combination seemed kind of gross to me too, but since I never tried the pizza here, I was up for the challenge. Rice and Dough was a little hard for me to find since I am seldom on that particular side street in Fort Lauderdale. It was located on SE 2nd St. and SE 5th Ave. I parked across the street in some parking lot that had more potholes than I recall NYC having and headed over to check it out. (more…)
Big C’s Downtown Pizza Fort Lauderdale
We were looking for a pizza place on Andrews Ave in Fort Lauderdale that we ate at once before and kind of liked, after going to a convention at the Broward Convention Center. Yes it was exxxotica, but that is besides the point. Based upon the location, I thought we arrived at the right place, but I just didn’t think the names matched up. We put money in the meter and headed inside anyways since hunger was becoming an issue.
After walking into Big C’s Pizzeria it became quite clear we weren’t at the right place. A little research showed that we meant to eat at Pie-Zan’s Pizza but miscalculated the location. Man am I sorry we made this error.
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Osteria Acqua & Farina Pizza Fort Lauderdale
A friend of mine named Eric that I haven’t seen for years posted a photo on his Facebook wall the other day that looked delicious. It was a picture of a pizza from a place in Fort Lauderdale called Osteria Acqua Farina and I was amazed I hadn’t heard of this place before.
I reached out to Eric and asked him where it was and if it was as good as it looked. He responded by saying it was in his top 3 pizza places in South Florida, so I knew I would have to try it. After suggesting to him that we meet up to try it, we ultimately met there the other day.
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Riverside Market Pizza, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Not that I try to go and check out all the chic places that open in South Florida, but one place always seem to come out of my friends mouths. The Riverside Market in Fort Lauderdale. I thought I knew where this place was, as I thought I remembered passing it once, but upon trying to navigate my way to find it off of Davie Road, it quickly became evident that I had no clue where The Riverside Market was.
This place is like an oasis, situated in between some old Florida style cottages, and a tennis court. For a moment, while driving around looking for parking (which is almost impossible to get), I felt like I was somewhere else. This didn’t feel like Fort Lauderdale at all. After about 15 minutes of driving around these narrow tree lined streets, we finally found a spot. It took us about 3-5 minutes of walking through nats, mosquitos and some other unidentifiable insects, but we ultimately arrived at this completely inconspicuous establishment. I didn’t even know they had pizza, let alone food at this point.
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Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza Plantation, FL
A client of mine took me to lunch at Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza in Plantation the other day since I naturally insisted on pizza when the topic of food came up. I am touch and go when it comes to Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza since I feel that every place they open a new location, it just further dilutes the original experience I had eating at the first one that opened in Fort Lauderdale.
But since it was the only pizza my client could think of nearby that he liked, I was more than happy to go and try out another one of their locations. I think I have tried each and every one in South Florida by now, and even one in Long Island, so when it comes to taste, I know what I am looking for with them.
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Galaxy Pizza Fort Lauderdale Inside The Coral Ridge Mall
My wife dragged me to the Coral Ridge Mall the other day. I never even realized there was a “mall” in this location, I just thought that there was a Target, Marshall’s and TJ Maxx located in the same strip mall. Once inside the Coral Ridge Mall I quickly learned there wasn’t much more to it other than these stores, and a few smaller straggler stores every now and then. I guess there was a reason I had never been in this mall before, and probably won’t find myself going back to.
While my wife was looking around in one of the stores mentioned above, I took a walk to see if there was any food around. Mainly I wanted a drink, and not to eat, but when I discovered Galaxy Pizza inside this Fort Lauderdale mall, it seemed only natural to have a taste.
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Mannino’s Pizza Margate, FL
We were heading back home from the car dealer down in Sunrise, and I decided to take 441 North and see if I could stumble upon any pizza places I hadn’t tried before. We drove by a couple that didn’t look too good from the outside, and in lieu of possibly having my car broken into, I decided to just drive past and find another place.
When I was about to make a turn onto Coconut Creek Parkway, I noticed a sign from the street that said Mannino’s Pizza. Since I couldn’t see where it was in the plaza, I wasn’t even sure if there was such a place anymore. We made a quick turn into the Crossroads Plaza in Margate and found it midway through, hidden behind another outparcel. If you didn’t know Mannino’s Pizza was here, you would pass it daily and never know it was back there.
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Pie-Zan’s Pizza Fort Lauderdale
A friend of mine asked me to journey on down to Fort Lauderdale the other day, since he found some good pizza that he figured I should try. The place he was recommending was Pie-Zan’s Pizza on Andrews in Fort Lauderdale. Andy and I decided to drive down last week to check the place out and see if it was any good. When we arrived, I realized it was a place I had noticed previously, but didn’t really care for the area, and kept driving. Usually any place that is located next door to a bail bondsman, is a place I try not to stop at.
Since I had big Andy with me, I felt safe enough to venture out of the car and check Pie-Zan’s Pizza out, and I am quite happy I did. Upon arriving I noticed a sign that said that Pie-Zan’s was voted best pizza by WPLG Local 10 news, so it seemed that someone liked this place already.
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Primanti Brothers Pizza Fort Lauderdale on Oakland Park
Although I found the pizza at Primanti Bros Pizza on Sunrise and a1a on the beach in Fort Lauderdale to be decent, I just couldn’t get over how filthy the place was, and how unsanitary the cooking conditions were. This was not a place I would rush back to go, so I never really thought their other location on Oakland Park, right outside of Wilton Manors would be any different. Recently I had to meet Andy and we decided that Primanti Brothers (or Primanti Bros.) on Oakland Park would be a decent choice since neither of us had tried it before, and we wanted to see if it was as gross as the beach location.
From the outside, Primanti Bros is located in a nice clean looking brick building. The parking lot was a bit full but they had plenty of spaces to accomodate more. We wandered on in and found a booth. Although Primanti Bros at this location was clean and nice, it wasn’t as nice as I had hoped from the outside appearance. We got a couple of sodas and looked over the menu debating on what appetizers to check out since they all appeared delicious.
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