Looking for PREMADE pizza? THIS is it!
The Good: NY pizzeria feel, complete with exposed ducts in the ceiling. The Bad: PREMADE pizza was the WORST mistake ever introduced in NY. It used to be, that pizzerias in NY always had a hot cheese pizza up for those who wanted a slice, and they baked whole, fresh, made to order pies as well. But on my last few trips to NY, I noticed a slew of these "pizzerias" that offered up slices of premade, reheated, refrigerated pizza. Its akin to the concept of "parboiled" or "parbaked" bread, where you partially bake, then quick freeze the dough. They pull out a piece of frozen/refrigerated pizza, slap the toppings on it, put it in a VERY hot oven, and voila! Frankly, I think this method sucks and its the worst thing ever to happen to that American Institution called "pizza." As you might expect, the dough loses its flavor a bit, kind of reminds me of chef-boyardee pizza mix dough, but crispier. And while the toppings are fresh, the cheese/sauce/ingredients/toppings never quite marry each other, and seem out of sync. So indeed they have managed to import a bit of NY to the valley, unfortunately, its not NY's best. Is it horrible? No. Is it better than Pizza Hut? Yes, but then again, most are. Would I dine here again? Probably not, unless they were the only place open at the time. There you have it, the REAL down low! Oh, and in case youre wondering where I eat pizza, well, Grimaldis is one of my favorites, I used to go to their original location just under the Brooklyn Bridge in NY, back before they got all fancy, went national, and ended up with locations in Scottsdale AZ. Red Devil down on the rough side of Phoenix on 32nd St & Mc Dowell, is well worth the driveby shooting risk, lol, ***Historical fact: this restaurant actually did have a driveby shooting that left them without a front window, they never bothered to replace it and instead boarded it over. This place has been here over 30 years, have a pizza and youll see why. Being family owned, and not a franchise, sure they have an off night occasionally, but 9 times out of 10 the PEPPERONI pizza at Red Devil is superb!