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Best pizza in Tulsa area?

I finally tried Umberto's. No reason I hadn't tried it in all my years around Tulsa. I tried it twice, the first and the last.

It fell on the same sword that killed La Roma's for me. The mushrooms were canned! I like mushrooms. Rarely eat a pizza that doesn't have them on it.

Canned kills it for me. It's almost as bad as canned oysters. Canned oysters on a Poboy, in Oyster's Rockefeller, etc. is worse, but not by much.
 
Anybody try Bobby O's yet?

It's right down the street from me, just never have been hungry for pizza when I thought about it.
 
I thought that was in sapulpa, in the 90's.

That was Mr. Gatti’s Pizza. I had my birthday there almost every year. I don’t remember what the pizza tasted like but I enjoyed watching The Little Rascals on their projectors and the arcade!
 
That was Mr. Gatti’s Pizza. I had my birthday there almost every year. I don’t remember what the pizza tasted like but I enjoyed watching The Little Rascals on their projectors and the arcade!
It’s a chain. Based out of DFW, I think. There’s still a few around, mainly in the Deep South. They were founded under the same concept as the old Crystals next to Casa Bonita: stuffed animal games for kids, video games for pre-teens, pizza buffet, beer and comfortable chairs for fathers, focus on cleanliness and safety for mom. I’d rate the food as somewhere between Chuck E Cheese and Pizza Hut. One thing they did do for awhile was have potato chips on the pizza buffet. Which seemed weird but works surprisingly well in hindsight. I wouldn’t try it if you have a history of angina, but buy a bag of regular Lay’s in the yellow bag and alternate between those and cheap Pizza Hut pizza and despite more salt than Lot’s wife’s kitchen, its tasty.
 
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We tried Bobby O's before the pandemic and really liked it. I've been meaning to get some take-out but I always forget. Bobby O's wife was working in there when we went and she saw my TU gear. She's actually a history prof at TU and helps out her husband in the store. Of course I had to bring up JP Ronda. Anyhoo, since our visit, she apparently has left Bobby O for another dude.

I used to go to that Mr Gatti's in Sapulpa when I was the sports editor out there. Man, that buffet was a treat! Especially considering how well the Sapulpa Daily Herald paid its sports editor lol.
 
There was a pizza place at 101st & Mingo that started with a 'G'. I ate there one time. Wasn't open all that long. Just can't remember the full name.
Wait. Wasn’t the name a play on the mafia? Not Godfather’s, but something like that. Gambino’s maybe.
 
I took one for the team and tried Mazzio's new NY Giant 18" pizza with NY style crust, a NY cheese blend and some new NY style sauce. I worked for Mazzio's in high school, and in the 30 years since, it has gone way down hill. It's turned into the old cheaper Ken's version overall. They hit a home run every once in while...I enjoy the oddball double-decker pizza for some reason, and even the pepperolis. But on the whole, it is such mediocre "midwest style" pizza, especially for the price.

So on to the NY Giant. I went in with severely low expectations. The pizza is...fine. It's not bad. But it's not New York style. Well, I mean, it is in theory. The crust thickness is about right, and it folds well, but it's missing something. Part of it is the way it's cooked, in their pizza oven, rather than brick or coal oven. So the bottom of the crust looks nothing like the real thing. The cheese isn't high quality, and it's the same pepperoni or sausage you get on their other stuff. And the sauce was okay, but not anything I've tasted on legit NY style.

So, overall, it's fairly bland and doesn't compare to legit NY style...which was to be expected. The one-topping was $12.99 for an 18 inch pie, and it's cut into 8 big slices...they did a decent job on nailing the slice size, but could be a hair bigger to really get there. For the price, I'm not going to complain, but it should be called "NY inspired" or something, because folks that have never had real-deal NY style aren't going to know any different and just assume this is actually NY style.

BTW, my 17-year old daughter said, "It tastes pretty good" and my wife said it "tasted like cardboard."

IMG_20210315_1448351.jpg
 
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I took one for the team and tried Mazzio's new NY Giant 18" pizza with NY style crust, a NY cheese blend and some new NY style sauce. I worked for Mazzio's in high school, and in the 30 years since, it has gone way down hill. It's turned into the old cheaper Ken's version overall. They hit a home run every once in while...I enjoy the oddball double-decker pizza for some reason, and even the pepperolis. But on the whole, it is such mediocre "midwest style" pizza, especially for the price.

So on to the NY Giant. I went in with severely low expectations. The pizza is...fine. It's not bad. But it's not New York style. Well, I mean, it is in theory. The crust thickness is about right, and it folds well, but it's missing something. Part of it is the way it's cooked, in their pizza oven, rather than brick or coal oven. So the bottom of the crust looks nothing like the real thing. The cheese isn't high quality, and it's the same pepperoni or sausage you get on their other stuff. And the sauce was okay, but not anything I've tasted on legit NY style.

So, overall, it's fairly bland and doesn't compare to legit NY style...which was to be expected. The one-topping was $12.99 for an 18 inch pie, and it's cut into 8 big slices...they did a decent job on nailing the slice size, but could be a hair bigger to really get there. For the price, I'm not going to complain, but it should be called "NY inspired" or something, because folks that have never had real-deal NY style aren't going to know any different and just assume this is actually NY style.

BTW, the rest of my family liked it just fine.

View attachment 16
Compare that to this slice I had at Sal & Carmine's on Broadway in NYC...

IMG_2963 slice.jpg
 
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Yeah, that’s far from John’s of Bleeker Street over the top good.

Looks like they are test marketing even cheaper ingredients.

I still love a Mazzio’s large original with mushrooms once a year for pure nostalgia. Dump a bunch of cheap Parmesan on it and Fatty can finish the whole thing himself after a pitcher at JR’s. I swear every time I check into the Campbell, the lady behind the desk says to herself “Great, the guy who leaves the pizza box in the hallway is back.”
 
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Yeah, that’s far from John’s of Bleeker Street over the top good.

Looks like they are test marketing even cheaper ingredients.

I still love a Mazzio’s large original with mushrooms once a year for pure nostalgia. Dump a bunch of cheap Parmesan on it and Fatty can finish the whole thing himself after a pitcher at JR’s. I swear every time I check into the Campbell, the lady behind the desk says to herself “Great, the guy who leaves the pizza box in the hallway is back.”
Nice!! The problem is Mazzio's changed it's original crust a year or two ago, and it was a massive downgrade.
 
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Prairie Fire Pie is my current go to. Everyone is happy with it when we order. I like Bohemian a lot, too, but they aren’t doing DoorDash right now and we aren’t going out much yet. We were on a NYC kick, but I think they are inconsistent. Andolini’s is always good, too, but it’s kind of become the mainstay.

I think Hideaway was decent for a time, but it’s current corporate/ tribal ownership just wants to make a buck. No one I know gets excited for it. It’s OK for work lunches I guess.

Empire is a nice arrival on the scene. The problem is there is too much competition.

When DoorDash got big last year, I noticed that Papa Murphy’s was listed. I made endless jokes about that. “Turn your oven on while we prepare your pizza and deliver it. The oven will be ready when it’s delivered. If you don’t have hot tasty pizza in 150 minutes, don’t blame us.”
 
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I worked for Mazzio's in high school, and in the 30 years since, it has gone way down hill. It's turned into the old cheaper Ken's version overall.
when my kids were little we ate Mazzio’s a lot and it was good. When I took my wife to one a few years ago it was just cheap pizza. My wife is convinced there is no good pizza in Tulsa. If you get to Reno we’ve got several pretty good places here. Blind Onion and Wild Garlic are both owned by the same people but the pizza’s are different. Wild garlic puts roasted garlic on most of their pizza and they have a dilled ranch dressing that’s fantastic for dipping the crust in. The parent company is out of Portland.

I‘ve never been to NYC but we have two pretty good New York style places here. Grimaldi’s claims to be like the original in Brooklyn and uses a coal fired oven. It’s great fresh but not as good warmed up the next day. True New York Pizza is owned by a couple from NYC and is pretty good but I like their Stromboli better than their slices.
 
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