Thursday, February 25, 2010

Andoro's Pizzeria

I drive past Andoro's Pizzeria on my way to and from work several times a week.  The first time I noticed it was last summer.  They don't have a website per-say, but they do have a Facebook page. The Facebook page list a website (Link), the link will take you to Andoro and Sons a pizza and restaurant supply company based in Wentsville, MO.  While the pizzeria has only been around for less than a year Andoro and Sons has been in business since 1957.  Andoror's Pizzeria menu includes Salads, Appetizers, Wings, Pastas, Sandwiches, Desserts and of course Pizza.  The Pizza is available in St. Louis style or New York style.  The St Louis pizza comes with provel cheese and the New York mozzarella cheese.

I started with a Dinner salad, it had Iceberg lettuce, provel cheese (one of the few good uses of provel), tomatoes, onion, peppercini and croutons. I choose the Oil & Vinegar dressing.  The salad was very good, but I would have liked to have seen red onion instead of the yellow.

For pizza I ordered a New York style crust with pepperoni, Canadian bacon, hamburger and onions (my usual).  New York style pizza in the St Louis area varies greatly from one place to the next, and Andoro's is another variation.  The crust wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.  As I was eating it There was something I just couldn't put my finger on, later.  The sauce was balanced not to sweet or spicy.  The toppings were all good and in the proper quantities, just look at the photo above the pizza looks great.  Overall the pizza was good.

A couple of days after eating the pizza I found my way to the Andoro and Sons web-site.  They sell cheese, frozen foods (toasted ravioli etc), meats, pizza crusts, redi-made pizza and tomato products (canned).  I know that most St Louis style pizza crusts (not all by any means) are pre-made, you order a St Louis style pizza and the cook just pulls a crust out of a bag.  Haven't you ever wondered why they are so perfectly round?  Andoro and Sons offers a whole variety of pre-made crust including; Original Pizza Crust, Pan Style Pizza Crust, Neopolitan Thick Pizza Crust and the list goes on.  In fact they sell 7 different styles of crust in a number of sizes.  So I have to wonder if the pizza I ate was from a pre-made crust or not.  I intend to get back there someday and I will ask when I do.  I know from my days in the pizza biz that it takes a lot of work to make fresh dough everyday, but doing so can make a good pizza into a great pizza.

The pizza and salad were good, but I'm a bit on the fence with the crust, so Andoro's Pizzeria just squeaks in to Recommeded.  I know it's not a simple task, but do something with the New York style crust and  throw some red onions at things and it would have been Highly Recommended.  It should be noted, I didn't try the St Louis style pizza so you are on your own if you order one of those.  Andoro's Pizzeria is located at 6240 Mexico Rd. in St Peters, MO.  You can reach them at (636) 926-0333, for more information check out there Facebook page (click on the title link).

Recommended.

GAW


Monday, February 22, 2010

It's my birthday and I will eat pizza if I want to.

Today was my XX'nd birthday, and though I didn't go out for pizza I did eat pizza for breakfast.  I ate the last of the leftovers from a small gathering celebrating my birthday this past Saturday.  I have been thinking about where I wanted to eat pizza on birthday for the past several months.  My only criteria was that where ever I went it should be new me.  Near the end there were 3 contenders;  Pi PizzeriaThe Good Pie and Onesto Pizza & Trattoria.  After much internal debating I finally asked my wife which one she thought would be a good choice, now she's not really a true pizza eater (sushi is another story), but I felt I needed a outside opinion. Saturday morning I decided that Onesto Pizza & Trattoria would be the lucky one and called them to make Reservations for 12 pizza eaters.

Just in case you are wondering starting in the upper left and moving clockwise the pizza's are 1.  Pesto in the House  2.  Pepperoni, Ham, Meatball & Onion  3.  Queen Margherita  4.  Italian Sausage & Mushrooms.

The pizza's were great, the company of pizza eaters was great and it was a great birthday.

GAW

Monday, February 8, 2010

Papi's Pizza

The day after having my Costco Slice (see previous post) I get a call from some of my fellow pizza eaters asking about a joint I had recently visited,  Papi's Pizza in Wildwood (see review here).  Was it any good?  Do they have seating?  Etc.  Yes, Yes and Yes.  So they said I should meet them there at 5:30, and not being someone to refuse pizza I said I'll be there.
We had a Mediterranean salad to start.  For pizza there were 4 kinds ordered, a Mediterranean, a butcher shop, a pepperoni & bacon and finally a  pepperoni, meatball, onion & red bell peppers.  I almost forgot there was a small cheese, but again my pizza eating daughter wouldn't let me have any, I'm told it was quite good.
I ordered the pepperoni, meatball, onion and red bell pepper pizza, it was very good, and so thought my fellow pizza eaters.  I had a slice of the pepperoni and bacon pizza which was also very good.  I missed out on the butcher shop, but did get a slice of the Mediterranean.  The Mediterranean is not a pizza that I would typically order so I especially wanted to try it.  The Mediterranean has artichoke, tomato, mushrooms, spinach, black olives and feta cheese.  All those veggies bring a lot of water with them and keeps the crust on the soft side.  The combination was quite good aside from the crust being a bit soft, my fellow pizza eaters thought it was very good also.

I couldn't forget the Ice Cream.  I had a scoop of Praline Pecan, a very good way to end a pizza eating session.

It was a last minute trip and I didn't have my normal pizza cam, hence the poor photo quality.

GAW

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Sbarro


Just finished watching "The Tooth fairy" and now eating pizza from Sharron.

$7.29 for a slice of pepperoni, Caesar salad and a soda. A bit on the high side, but I guess that's eating at the mall. 

GAW

Location : Chesterfield, MO, 

Update:  I would have liked to have seen a bigger slice for the price, and I would have liked the pepperoni's to have been a little more done.  The crust was good, but it looked like they made and fully cooked a cheese pizza,  then threw some pepperoni's at it.  The short time in the oven to reheat the slice did little more than soften up the pepperoni's.  This trip was not worth the price paid.

YPMV

GAW

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Costco Food Court Pizza Part 2

At about 2p.m. Last Friday, my day off, I found myself at the Costco doing some shopping.  Standing in the check-out line I decided I better get a slice of pizza (a tragic moment of weakness), it had been a couple of weeks since I had last had pizza and I wasn't expecting to get any until my holiday in late February (little did I know).  
So I got a slice of combo and a soda, it cost $2 and some change.  The combo has pepperoni, sausage, red onions, green peppers and black olives.  I'm not big in green peppers but they were pretty much on top of everything and easy to pull off.  So was it worth $2 and change?  Just, see my previous review for more on my thoughts of Costco Food Court PizzaIf I get pizza at Costco at some point in the future I will probably stick to a pepperoni slice.

On another note, the exit employee (the person who checks your receipt as you leave) said that you didn't need a Costco card to eat at the food court.  If your jones'n for a Costco pizza slice and you don't have a membership I recommend you call ahead so as to avoid disappointment.

YPMV

GAW