Andy B.
Yelp
I think I'm just going to have to accept the fact that I'm not going to find good pizza in Harlem. After living in Brooklyn for several years, I was spoiled on some of the greatest pizza around, but now I live in the land of the Globetrotters where there is no shortage of, and I can't get enough of, amazing soul food. Maybe pizza has no soul? And thus no place in this neighborhood? That's what I'm starting to think.
Tonight was our first call to P&M, and everything went smooth, but when the man handed me the boxes I commented on how heavy they were. I mean these were some heavy boxes. Unfortunately, heavy, wet boxes. I just did not have a good feeling about this. I read all those great reviews on this place. Several of them had "Best pizza in Harlem!!!" written all over them. IF this is the best pizza in Harlem, I going to have to stand by the very first line of this review. I respect everyone's opinions, and I've been victim of caught them on a bad night many times before, but this was just sad.
For $41 dollars we got a large Napolitan(and yes, that's how they spell it on the menu), a large P&M classic special, Large garden salad, and free 2 liter of soda(which is sitting in our recycling bin, unopened. It's a high fructose corn syrup thing, did you know they use hydrochloric acid AND caustic soda to process that stuff?, anyhow...) I mean, what a great deal.
The Napolitan was OK at best. Standard plain pizza with tangy sauce, semi crisp crust, but a bitter taste I attribute to the slight brown to black singe on the cheese.
The P&M special, I ordered, because it sounded kinda like the chef's special. The must have pizza at this place. Picking up the box, I thought the bottom was going to fall out because it was so wet. And judging from the piece of aluminum foil and the paper under the pie, I assume they know this is a wet pizza. So knowing how I am, I flip out when I grab a slice and the toppings slide off and into the box, I grabbed a spatula to escort my tasty dinner to the plate. The pizza itself was a little less than OK, and it was hard to get over how wet it was. And as for the toppings, the pepperoni and fresh tomato's were good, the bell peppers were mushy, the olives were olives(lol), the sausage was so thin it might as well not have been there, there was a TON of onions, and me being a huge fan of anchovies, was disappointed at the lack of them, maybe one per slice.
All in all, I'm REALLY trying to increase the number of stars I give these places. That little bar graph on my profile is making me out to be a very angry person, but I'm not. I swore off of what I call "corporate food" long ago. I did eat at Subway a couple years ago. It was a bad day, and necessity dictated the consumption of a $5 footlong. So I've been supporting family run shops for a long long time, but after tonight I'm starting to have second thoughts. Bad food is making Pizza Hut more and more tempting.