I was in the East Boca Raton area and decided to hit one of my favorite quickly lunch spots. I went to Tomasso’s East Palmetto Park Location in Boca Raton, Fl. I know over the years there have been a few different Tomasso’s pizza places in the Boca Raton Area but, I believe they were owned by different members of the Tomasso family.
Big City Tavern is located in the Boca Center. Those of us that have been here long enough remember this location as the Crocker Center. After winning a $50.00 gift certificate, we decided to embark on a journey to eat there.
While the others in my party were comtemplating on what to eat, I noticed on the bottom of the page that they had a pizza section. Its choice of placement was almost univiting, but if there is pizza on the menu I have to try it. Big City Tavern is not known as a “pizza place” so I wasn’t expecting much. When the pizza arrived I was amazed at its presentation. It looked beautiful, with the cheese all melty and gooey.
My first bite wasn’t great, but certainly not terrible. It reminded me of a time in college at a bar when I met what appeared to be this incredible looking chick, based upon the shadow of her body, and ended up getting into her building and seeing what she really looked like. Didn’t stop me from having fun, but the packaging was a bit off. Moral of the story… pizza doesn’t always taste as good as it looks. After seeing this pizza on the table, I thought it would be much better then it was
Big City Tavern had the perfect blend of sauce to cheese for me. The cheese had a wonderful taste to it. The crust was the issue. It did not taste like a good crispy pizza crust. Holding the pizza to my mouth took two hands to keep it from falling over. I would suggest baking your pizzas for at least 2 full minutes more, and possibly try using a new dough recipe. I will give Big City Tavern in Boca Raton 4 out of 8 slices.
For those of you who enjoy Big City Pizza’s Sicilian as much as I do in Boca Raton, you will have to wait until Wednesday’s do dig in. Unfortunately, they will only be making their Sicilian Pizza on Wednesday’s – Sunday’s now. They will still be making their regular pie, but personally, the Sicilian is better. Thank you for all the emails I received regarding the poor readers who have been going in on Monday’s and Tuesday’s to try this pizza. After reading dozens of your messages, I went there myself yesterday and got the news first hand. I hope you will all continue to frequent this pizza establishments. It is one of the few real style pizza joints down here. You can walk in and grab a slice, and sit down, without the nuisance of some server having to walk up to the counter and bring you the slice. The owner here is also very passionate about his pizza, and is happy to answer any of your questions. As far as yesterdays regular slice, I will give Big City Pizza in Boca Raton 5 out of 8 slices. Will see you guys next Wednesday!
My son and I were visiting an acquaintance at the Casablanca Isles community off Boynton Beach Blvd this weekend. After leaving the apartment, my son asked if we could go get some pizza. Who am I to not abide by his pizza wishes. Especially since he is quite the young pizza expert in training. The first place we drove by was Vito’s Gourmet Pizza in Boynton Beach.
Vito’s was pretty empty when we walked in. When I say empty, I mean not a single other soul was in there, but since we never tried this place before, we gave it a shot. I was a little taken back at the way Vito’s displays his Sicilian pie in the rack. Seems like Vito bakes his Sicilian dough, and puts uncooked sauce and uncooked shredded mozzarella cheese on top. Once you order the slice he then places it in the oven. Although this is a unique approach, it didn’t make sense to me. Once the slice came out of the oven, after cooking for a while the cheese wasn’t fully cooked and the slice wasn’t at a peak temperature to enjoy.
The regular slice on the other hand was quite hot. The pizza tasted fine, and I didn’t have many complaints about the regular slice, but I was still dumbfounded by the Sicilian technique. Vito, I think it is ok to be different nowadays, but your style of heating the Sicilian did not work for me. It seemed like the pizza would have been quite tasty if you cooked it the traditional way. Do you not cook it through so you could refrigerate it to use the next day? If so that is really “cheesy” for lack of a better word.
I will give Vito’s Pizza in Boynton Beach, 5 out of 8 slices, and I hope they will re-think their Sicilian pie and cook it differently.
While I am usually a purist when it comes to toppings, I admit I love a good
clam pie. That’s what I was thinking when I saw one on the menu of this
Mario Batali Restaurant in Las Vegas. While I had a reservation, the
restaurant was “hawking menus” to everyone passing by and was very surprised
when I brushed the menu away and insisted I did, in fact, plan on eatingthere. This was not a very well run restaurant. Service just seemed
awkward and off. When I finally got the pizza though, I had to laugh. Just
LOOK at the picture! How is someone supposed to eat a pizza with SHELLS on
it. I folded the slice and jokingly tried to eat it. I had to pick the
shells out of the hot cheese? This was completely ridiculous. Again, look
at the picture. 0 of 8 slices.
We are getting early word that Nino’s in Boca Raton, Florida has changed ownership to one of the shareholders instead of Nino himself. Supposedly Nino has relocated his main operations to his Delray Beach location. Should the quality of the pizza at Nino’s change due to the new management, Boca Raton will be losing one of their finest pizza places.
I haven’t had a chance to go in and try the pizza since the change, but usually any change turns into a negative. After trying the slice I will let you all know if it has gone down the tubes. An early report from one of our readers, has indicated the pizza is terrible. STAY TUNED!
On a hot summer Sunday in Boca Raton I took the kids to Coconut Cove Water Park. While the lunch choices leave much to be desired, I am easily distracted by a nice slice of pizza. This didn’t cut it. It was heavy, laden and not pleasant to eat. But when finished, we got back to swimming and forgot all about lunch. We will probably make the same mistake next time. 3 of 8 slices, works in a pinch
After leaving Groovy’s Pizza disappointed the other day, while down in South Beach, Miami, I walked down the street and found Gino’s pizza again. My last visit to Gino’s took place when I first started the site, so I was anxious to review it again. The placed smelled great, and had air conditioning on which was excellent on this hot day.
Ordered just one regular slice, which just came out of the oven so it was nice and hot. Gino’s is substantially better then Groovy’s Pizza, and if you are seeking out a place that is open late at night with fresh pizza, you should try Gino’s over the competition. Should you go to the beach and want a slice during the day, all the pizza comes out fresh and isn’t sitting around waiting in a fancy design for you.
The sauce was tasty, and sweet, the cheese was delicious, and the crust was tasty. The crust however, did not hold up very well, and was a bit soggy maybe due to the heat of the pie just coming out. All in all I found this to be a great slice, and one I will go back and try in the future.
I will give Gino’s Pizza in South Beach, Miami, 5 out of 8 slices. Skip the other establishments and come straight to Gino’s.
Hadn’t been back to Brooklyn Boys Pizza in Boca Raton since my parents were here back in May. During my previous review of Brooklyn Boys Pizza, I noted that the place was filthy. It came as a shock to me, but it appears the new owners actually spent a few hundred bucks to make the place look less disgusting.
Today’s trip to Brooklyn Boys included my sons friend and his father. We ordered a large pie, half meatballs, half pepperoni. Usually I do not brag about pizza to anyone, but in order to make the dad want to try it, I portrayed this pizza as one of the best that Boca Raton has to offer. Once again I learned, I should have just kept my mouth shut. When the pizza came out, it was smoking hot, and looked utterly appetizing. After it cooled down for a minute or two, we dug in.
One of the things I have always enjoyed about Brooklyn Boys Pizza, is the crust. Usually the crust is crispy and you can hold up a slice without it flopping down and having the cheese fall off. This is mostly due to the amount of sugar they put in the crust. Today’s pizza was far from crispy. As a matter of fact, the pie was extremely undercooked. The pizza I had today was nothing like the pizza I had during any other previous visit to this store. Not sure if they cheapened out on the ingredients they are using in order to pay for the dozen or so new tiles they installed in the place, but whatever they are doing different shows. Perhaps they just have a new pizza guy who doesn’t give a crap, and that shows too. Just to make sure it wasn’t a random bad pizza, I proceeded to order a slice of Sicilian pizza as well. When that came out, I was equally disappointed.
Brooklyn Boys, it was evident to me that business is hurting, due to the lack of patrons in the store. It used to be in the past, that on a Saturday afternoon, it was difficult to find seating. This apparently has changed. Based upon the lack of customers, you might want to consider going back to your original recipe, and putting a little more love and care into your pie. The changes you have made to clean up the place are welcomed, and the new flat screen tv is a big improvement, compared to the other old one from 1973 that used to hang on the wall. You know the one that looked like it was going to fall on the customers head above the spot where they order from. Another change you should make is in the appearance of your staff. 
Having to order and eat pizza from a girl who has zero interest in looking half way decent is unappetizing. Make your staff cover their bras and put a little more effort into their jobs.
I will give Brooklyn Boys Pizza in Boca Raton 4 out of 8 slices for this visit. It hurts me to do this, since Brooklyn Boys was always a quality slice of pizza. Also, you should consider having your employees smoke somewhere else besides the front of the store, it just looks classless.
Ed. Note: This is the first post from one of our newest Pizza Experts. Please join me in welcomming Billy.
After running around Fort Lauderdale doing various odds and ends, I found myself in the East Oakland Park area. I was told in the past that there was a great pizza place in this area called Times Square Pizza and I figured now would be the time to check it out. Times Square is a small New York style pizza parlor (hence the name). There are 5 or 6 tables inside with 2 tables just outside, the decor is a mixture of NY landmarks and Miami fan favor. It takes me back to my days of growing up in NY. The pizza kitchen work area is about the size of my Guest Bathroom but, these guys prove that you don’t need a lot of work space to make a great quality pizza pie. I ordered two slices, 1 meatball, 1 mushroom and asked for them “well done”. Well done meaning not burnt but crispy so that the pizza crunches when you bite or cut into it. My biggest pet peeve when it comes to a good slice is the crispiness of the slice. Nobody in South Florida, until now know what “well done means”.
If I pick up a slice, fold the crust to hold it and the front end of the slice drops out it makes my hair stand. This slice was so hot that when I was cutting into it, the plastic fork started to melt. I went through 1 knife and 2 plastic forks to eat 2 slices, that is a nice hot slice of pizza. Now keep in mind each slice had 1
topping, when I picked it up and folded the crust there was barely any bend to the tip of that slice. A good sign from the start.
The slice was excellent. The sauce was a great combination. A little sweet and a little spicy. The tomatoes were not clumpy and there was an even amount of sauce and mozzarella. The only thing I didn’t like about the slice was they chop up the meatballs in to small pieces, I like them sliced into thin circles and placed on the pizza like pepperoni. A small set back to a great slice of pizza. With the way that the economy is right now for the more than fair price of $5.25 for 2 Slices and 1 can of soda, I proudly rate this slice 6 out of 8 slices. Kudos to you Times Square Pizza. Keep kneading the dough!