Pizza in SLC? (Millcreek: houses, neighborhood, to buy)

[MtDreamer16]

Hi, everyone. We moved to SLC almost 3 years ago from St. Louis. We've been very pleasantly surprised at the great restaurants we've found - lots of non-chain food we really like here. We're pretty set on Mexican, Thai, Chinese, breakfast places (a favorite), and plain old American type food.


Pizza? Notsomuch. Odd as it sounds to say, STL was a great pizza town. We were really spoiled for specialty pizza, from deep dish, to thin crust. It's the only food we really (really) miss from STL.


We've been to 3 or 4 different places here and found them all to be not quite what we expected (again, we were spoiled). Last week we tried Smoky Mountain Pizzeria, and it was the best we've had so far. It's the only one we'll go back to for sure. I do make my own from scratch on occasion, but you know they're homemade and not gourmet


Thought I would ask, especially for those of you who moved here from elsewhere and perhaps been on a good pizza hunt - where's your favorite pizza joint in town? And why is it your favorite?


Thanks in advance for suggestions we can try in our quest!

[kletter1mann]

As a NY transplant the pizza scene is rather bleak I'm afraid, but I'll take a stab at it. First, what are my pizza criteria?

• Thin crust that isn't sweet or too salty. Utah food often seems to be noticeably sweetened for some reason. I've been shocked to discover how often "fresh, house-made" pizza crust here is either inedibly sweet &/or salty.
• Baked enough for crust to be stiff (enough to fold) but not so crisp that it breaks when folded. [All NY'ers recognize that this is the only legitimate way to eat pizza. ] Cheese needs to be slightly browned on the surface, not just a melted mass.
• High quality ingredients - house-made sauce, good cheese
• Not too much cheese! More is NOT better when the result is just a gooey mess (a very common failing). In fact, drowning in anything is a no-no.

The only acceptable places I've found have been Nuch's (#1) and Big Apple Pizzaria (#2). Both are in Millcreek and both are somewhat inconsistent. The owner of Nuch's is a NJ transplant and seems to get it.

Numerous NY guests have validated both the criteria and findings. Maybe there are other places but I kind of gave up searching further cause the rest were so unacceptable.

[Katzpur]

Pizza Nono in the 9th and 9th neighborhood makes the best thin-crust pizza, IMO. Stoneground and Settabello are also both good, but not as good as Nono. Litza's, on the corner of 7th East and 4th South, would be my recommendation for a more traditional chewy, thick-crust pizza. It's been around since 1965, and I don't care what anybody says, you don't keep a restaurant going for over 50 years if you don't serve pretty decent food.

[slomofo]

You're pretty much SOL when it comes to pizza in this town. If I were to list a top 10 of pizza places in Utah, I'm pretty sure Papa John's would make the list, I'm not even joking.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by kletter1mann

As a NY transplant the pizza scene is rather bleak I'm afraid, but I'll take a stab at it. First, what are my pizza criteria?

• Thin crust that isn't sweet or too salty. Utah food often seems to be noticeably sweetened for some reason. I've been shocked to discover how often "fresh, house-made" pizza crust here is either inedibly sweet &/or salty.
• Baked enough for crust to be stiff (enough to fold) but not so crisp that it breaks when folded. [All NY'ers recognize that this is the only legitimate way to eat pizza. ] Cheese needs to be slightly browned on the surface, not just a melted mass.
• High quality ingredients - house-made sauce, good cheese
• Not too much cheese! More is NOT better when the result is just a gooey mess (a very common failing). In fact, drowning in anything is a no-no.

The only acceptable places I've found have been Nuch's (#1) and Big Apple Pizzaria (#2). Both are in Millcreek and both are somewhat inconsistent. The owner of Nuch's is a NJ transplant and seems to get it.

Numerous NY guests have validated both the criteria and findings. Maybe there are other places but I kind of gave up searching further cause the rest were so unacceptable.

Personally, I was unimpressed with Lombardi's in NYC. It wasn't bad, but it was overrated. The next time I head off to New York, though, I'm going to pick your brain for all the best reasonably-priced restaurants (and I know there are some, because I've eaten at some). Maybe you can tell me where to get a really good pizza there.

[kletter1mann]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

Personally, I was unimpressed with Lombardi's in NYC. It wasn't bad, but it was overrated. The next time I head off to New York, though, I'm going to pick your brain for all the best reasonably-priced restaurants (and I know there are some, because I've eaten at some). Maybe you can tell me where to get a really good pizza there.

Wish I could help but, alas, I can't. I rarely had pizza in NYC proper and when I did it was just at whatever pizzeria was convenient. And our local pizza place, which is excellent, is way out in the boondocks. [But it still might be worth a trip on a nice weekend if you're looking for a country outing in a stunningly beautiful, New Englandy setting. Try this if you want something more upmarket that has no culinary counterpart in UT as far as I know. The area has called "The Hapmtons in the woods." Lots of weekend houses up there, and for a reason.]

Anyway, to be clear, there's plenty of mediocre pizza in NY - canned sauce, etc. Still, the bar is set a lot higher than here and there doesn't seem to be much that's actually bad, "bad" meaning gross deviations from my criteria. My main complaint is soggy, overthick crust (over about 1/4"), lousy ingredients and WAY too much cheese and sauce. Less is more.

[Katzpur]

[quote=kletter1mann;51525147]Wish I could help but, alas, I can't. I rarely had pizza in NYC proper and when I did it was just at whatever pizzeria was convenient. And our local pizza place, which is excellent, is way out in the boondocks. [But it still might be worth a trip on a nice weekend if you're looking for a country outing in a stunningly beautiful, New Englandy setting. Try this if you want something more upmarket that has no culinary counterpart in UT as far as I know. The area has called "The Hapmtons in the woods." Lots of weekend houses up there, and for a reason.]Wow! Jean-Georges looks amazing -- at least ambiance-wise.

Anyway, to be clear, there's plenty of mediocre pizza in NY - canned sauce, etc. Still, the bar is set a lot higher than here and there doesn't seem to be much that's actually bad, "bad" meaning gross deviations from my criteria. My main complaint is soggy, overthick crust (over about 1/4"), lousy ingredients and WAY too much cheese and sauce. Less is more.

See, if I'm in the mood for thick-crust, I'll go to Litza's. It hasn't been more than ten or fifteen years or so that thin-crust pizza has even been available in Salt Lake. The first time I ever tried it, I was like, "What's this? I ordered pizza!" I'm kind of with you on too much sauce, but I didn't know there was such a thing as too much cheese.

If you haven't tried Nono's, give it a shot. I think you'd like it. Small and zero atmosphere, but the best thin crust pizza I've had in Salt Lake by far.

[SWFL_Native]

Yep Utah pizza is gross and many of the people don’t realize it. In general their Italian food is a disaster. Robintinos and Spaghetti factory should not even exist.

The Pie is fine but not great. I like their zappis or take on a Stromboli as well as their wings. They do a spicy Thai pizza which is weird but very good.

Maxwells is another ok option although I like the location in park city better than down town.

We also have settebellos which is overpriced but decent personal pizza place.

[MtDreamer16]

kletter1mann, I have to thank you (hopefully first)! We went to Big Apple tonight, and it was really, really good. In a new place we always do a default pepperoni, sausage, and onion to test the waters, and usually something else off the menu (tonight it was BBQ chicken). Both were really good - amount of cheese, sauce was good, crust... we were very pleasantly surprised. The sausage was fantastic - don't know where they get it from but I'd like to buy just some sausage for home use.

We'll definitely go back there, as well as try some other suggestions as we have time. Thanks again!

[berger123]

Try Rusted Sun on State and about 21st, definitely some of the best pizza in Utah and I frequent it often.