cincinnati pizza quest 2009 (march): pomodori

cincinnati pizza quest took liberal foodie, the husband (hers, not mine), and me to pomodori's in march. we liked it. the toppings were interesting and fresh, the service was good, and the pizza itself was damn tasty. our only real complaint is that we did not think there were enough toppings for the price. it's pretty much a one pizza per person kind of place, and at $12-14 each for the pizzas we ordered, we just thought we would get more.

fig and prosciutto pizza

actually, my pizza (fig and prosciutto) and the husband's (prosciutto and mushroom) were fine. but LF's (shrimp, red pepper, and asparagus) was kind of sparsely covered, and all the toppings were clumped up in the middle of the pie. since it had no sauce on it, a lot of the bites she got were just dough and cheese. blah.

shrimp, red pepper, and asparagus pizza

other than the lack of toppings everything was pretty good. it's not the cheapest pizza, and there are no drink specials, but i think it's worth it. the crust is flavorful and soft and chewy and delicious. the service was friendly and attentive. next time i would like to try their pizza margherita.

wood fired oven = damn tasty crust

here are our ratings:
crust - 4
toppings - 3 (the quality was excellent so this would be higher if LF's pizza had more toppings)
sauce - n/a (none of our pizzas came with sauce)
cheese - 3.5
service - 4

overall - 3.5 slices

there are other items besides pizza on the menu, but i can't tell you what they are because i forget. anyway everyone else in the restaurant was ordering pizza so i'm thinking that's pretty much the thing. however, they do make their own pasta so that would probably be worth trying.

(all photos courtesy of LF)

cincinnati pizza quest 2009 (february): adriatico's

after hearing great reviews of adriatico's from like half the people we knew, liberal foodie and i decided that the second stop on our pizza quest had to be there. adriatico's is carry out or delivery only, so i stopped by to pick up the pizza on the way to LF's house one sunday evening.

when i got to the restaurant, i explained that i was new to their pizza and i needed some help deciding what to get. they were really friendly but almost everyone who worked there claimed that they were so sick of the pizza from working there that they couldn't advise me on what to order. one guy said he liked the thick crust but that it was all good. so i didn't really know what to do. i called LF and we decided to do 2 mediums: one thin crust with just cheese, and one thick crust with pepperoni.

adriatico's, you have been hit by the cincinnati pizza quest

LF's husband really wanted us to get "the bearcat," but when i asked what that was, everyone was like "it's this big!" and held their arms out as wide as they could go. i did not think that we needed the bearcat for just the three of us so we didn't get it.

i got our pizza's and drove to LF's house. now here is the thing. she lives kind of out in suburbia. and i got lost trying to find 75 from the restaurant. so it was probably a good half hour between the time the pizza came out of the oven until the time it got to LF's house. so i am thinking that may have affected the pizza quality. on the other hand, a delivery could take just as much time, especially if there was more than one pizza stop on the delivery guy's list.

anyway, by the time i got there and we snapped a few photos and bit in, we were like "well this pizza is... ok." we did not think it was great. we did not think it was the best pizza in cincinnati. the flavor of the crust was good, but especially with the thick crust there was too much of it. i like a thick crust, but only if it is really dense and more crusty than doughy. this crust was puffy and there was not enough sauce or cheese to balance out the mouthful of just... bread.

thin crust with cheese

the sauce was good. it was spicy and rich and slightly sweet. i liked the cheese but LF thought it was kind of bland. also, it was not really melty anymore since it had been out of the oven for so long. the pepperoni was good but nothing special. i didn't really like the bigger than average size of the slices, but then again i just am really not a toppings person.

the husband really thought we should have gotten the bearcat (which is described on the menu as being huge and having a bunch of toppings) because he says it is their specialty and it is why people eat at adriatico's. however, based on the orders they were making in the restaurant, it seemed that most people were ordering large pies with just cheese or one topping. and anyway, i really do not like a ton of toppings on my pizza. plain cheese is my favorite.

the husband's position is that if we are going to be doing a pizza quest and writing about it on our blogs, then we should be trying whatever is the specialty at a given pizza place. and he claims that the bearcat is adriatico's specialty. therefore, since we didn't try the specialty, we can't really comment in a knowledgeable way about the place.

thick crust with pepperoni

i disagree with him. frankly, it's fun to share my pizza experiences with you guys and this blog is about informing people about cincinnati restaurants, but at the end of the day i'm doing this for me. i'm going to order the kind of pizza i want and if it's not the specialty, too damn bad. i'm not spending my money eating pizza i don't really want regardless of what people want to read about.

so readers, what do you say? have any of you had the bearcat? is that what is really good at adriatico's? did we miss out by not ordering it? you are also free to comment on what kind of pizza you want to read about, but i'm probably not going to be basing my ordering decisions on that (unless you want to fund my eating... hint hint... haha).

the official cincinnati pizza quest ratings (on a scale of 1 to 5 slices, 5 slices being the best):

crust: overall - 3.5 slices (thin crust - 4, thick crust - 3)
sauce - 4 slices

cheese - 3 slices

pepperoni - 3.5 slices

overall - 3 slices

i liked adriatico's pizza and i would eat it again if i was in the neighborhood. however, i'm not going to travel for it. it's a good local choice if you live in clifton, but otherwise i don't really think it's worth going there for, especially since they don't have anywhere to sit. but who knows, maybe the bearcat is worth the trip...

cincinnati pizza quest 2009 (january): ramundo's pizzeria

cincinnati pizza quest 2009 has arrived! liberal foodie and i are joining forces to bring you a joint review of one pizza place every month this year. why, you ask? well we were talking about it and we realized that we really do not know much about the cincinnati pizza scene, and we decided that, as responsible food bloggers, we need to remedy that asap. and who better to bring along for the ride than you, most excellent readers?

cincinnati nomerati has a great series of posts called cincinnati pizza showdown so if you don't feel like waiting a whole year to get the lowdown on where to eat pizza in this city, i recommend you head over there.

how many times have i driven by this sign without going in?

for january, LF and i decided to head out to ramundo's in mount lookout after we heard a rave review from our pal graham over at what i ate this week. the funny thing is that graham actually went there on my recommendation for good new york style pizza... and i had never been to ramundo's. but the ecstatic ravings of a few native new jerseyans (new jerseyites?) convinced me that there was most likely good pizza to be had there.

since graham had gone there on my recommendation, i felt it was my civic duty to actually try the pie myself. LF and i went for lunch one day and met her husband there. LF and i got the thin, new york style, and the husband got the thicker regular crust. we tried pepperoni, supreme, and cheese.

it's pretty tiny in there

i liked the pizza, but i did not think it was amazing. i think the best pizza of the bunch was the pepperoni. normally i am a huge plain cheese fan, but the pizza was just a little too bland for it to be really great at ramundo's. i really liked the cheese (gooey, lots of it) and the sauce (slightly spicy and flavorful but not sweet) but i was not a big fan of the crust. it just lacked flavor.

i also felt that the new york style slices were too thin. you could not hold them flat, you had to fold them. my ideal new york style pizza can be folded, but it is not a requirement. i actually preferred the non new york style slice... it was the same crust but just thicker and smaller (and easier to eat).

our spread

the ambience: there is none. there are a couple little tables and a counter, that's it. i think ramundo's business is mainly carry out. but the staff was super nice and let us stand at the counter and eat even though we were in the way since both of the tables were taken.

prices were great. i got two slices and a large fountain soda for $5.99 (including tax). my wallet was happy.

extreme close up

the official cincinnati pizza quest ratings (on a scale of 1 to 5 slices, 5 slices being the best):
crust - 2 slices
sauce - 3.5 slices
cheese - 4.5 slices
topping - 3.5 slices

overall - 3 slices

i recommend ramundo's as a cheap place to grab a slice or two for lunch or a late night snack. the pizza is good without being great, but it doesn't try to be anything it's not, which i think counts for something.

(i forgot my camera that day so all photos are courtesy of LF)