T.O. Pizza Shop Miami
Slice Rating
I had been hearing about a pizza place from my friend Carlos in Miami called Piccola Italia on Coral Way in Miami for some time now. Carlos seems to share the same taste in pizza as I do, so I had no doubt it would be a decent slice. Since I was down in Miami for a conference, a few Twitter friends and I decided to meet up there. After paying to park and walking into Piccola Italia we were disappointed to find out they didn't have any slices. Usually the pizza guy would say "I have a fresh one coming out", but the two people behind the counter just let us walk out without offering us any option but a pie. They also didn't have seats there, so be advised. They also have one of the worst looking websites I have ever seen, in my opinion.
We decided instead to go to another pizza place down the road, which had some type of previous relationship to Piccola Italia, but they were no longer in business in that locations. Ultimately we decided to get to T.O. Pizza Shop, which I guess stands for Tio, like uncle? There were no other patrons in T.O. Pizza Shop on this evening, and the owners were there with their child and were extremely nice, even though I wasn't able to communicate with them, since it appeared they only spoke Spanish. Soy un gringo!
T.O. Pizza shop has a nice selection of appetizers to choose from and after a little debate, we ordered some wings, garlic knots, and mozz sticks. When the garlic knots arrived, everyone at the table started to devour them, as they were really good. I think we went through several dozen of these tiny pieces of deliciousness. I was hoping we would get some large pies to split, but it seemed everyone at the table wanted their own toppings, so I ended up with an individual plain pizza. The ovens that T.O. Pizza Shop bake their pizza in look kind of odd. I couldn't tell if they were a conveyor belt or some other type of oven that uses these fast bake kind. The angle made it hard.
When the pizza came out, I took my first bite. Upon touching the roof of my mouth, I was quite certain that T.O. Pizza Shop uses Grande Cheese. It is nice to see such a small family run place, not skimp out on the ingredients, like so many other bigger pizza places around town do. The sauce was evenly applied and tasted nice against the crust, which although cooked around the edges, was a bit soggy when held up. This must have something to do with the oven they are using. Although I didn't totally fall in love with the taste of the pizza overall, it was decent enough not to avoid.
T.O. Pizza Shop closed at 9pm and when it was 10pm we were still sitting there talking. It was amazing that the owners didn't ask us to leave and instead let us sit there and enjoy ourselves. For that reason alone I would go back to eat here.
T.O. Pizza Shop in Miami gets 4 out of 8 slices.