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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Mozzeroni's, Park Ave.: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

A few months ago, Piatza's on Park Avenue closed, and was replaced by the newest member of the growing Mozzeroni's family. Since I've tried a couple of Mozzeroni's (when they were known as Starvin' Marvin's, and then Marvin Mozzeroni's), I wasn't in a particular hurry to get over there, but I did recently check it out, as part of my ongoing quest to sample local Buffalo chicken pizzas.
There seemed to be some confusion when I was ordering this pizza. I ordered a medium Buffalo chicken pie, and at the end of the phone call, the guy, fortunately, said to confirm, "barbeque chicken, right?" I corrected him, and in fact I did get a Buffalo chicken pizza, but it turned out to be a small, not a medium. Oh well.
The medium thick crust on this pie was medium to dark brown underneath. The edge had some exterior crunch and good flavor, but unfortunately that didn't carry through to the rest of the crust, which was rather soft, with well-defined screen marks underneath.
The crust was topped with mozzarella and cheddar cheese, and small chunks of diced, breaded chicken. It was pretty mild tasting, with some faint peppery spiciness in the background. I didn't really taste a lot of Buffalo chicken flavor, frankly. This was in fact more like a white pizza with diced, spicy chicken than what I would expect from a Buffalo chicken pizza. I also did not detect any blue cheese; the menu said that blue cheese would be served on the side, but I was given none.
Having tried a few Buffalo chicken pizzas now, I'm frankly finding it difficult to give them a letter grade. Am I rating the pizza overall, or am I deciding how it stacks up specifically as a Buffalo chicken pizza?
For that matter, I'm not sure what makes a good Buffalo chicken pizza, and I think there's a wide range for opinion there. Should it have blue cheese on it? Should the chicken be breaded? Should there be tomato sauce, Buffalo sauce, or just spices? Is ground chicken acceptable?
My grades are based, ultimately, on my opinions and preferences, and I just don't have any strong feelings where Buffalo chicken pizza is concerned. So I'm going to just leave it at a description of the pizza, which should be enough for readers to decide whether they'd like it or not. (Sometimes I think I should've done that all along, with all pizzas, so I wouldn't get these nasty comments and emails every time I give a pizzeria a less than stellar review, but it's too late to change that now.) As for this pizza, I'll say that overall, it wasn't bad, kind of tasty, although the crust was a little too sofr for my taste, but it wasn't very reminiscent of Buffalo chicken wings. A few squirts of Frank's Red Hot sauce and some blue cheese dressing for dipping would do the trick, though. Mozzeroni's, 360 Park Ave. 241-0002 Mon. - Thu. 10 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri 10 a.m. - 11 a.m., Sat. 11 a.m. - 11 a.m., Sun. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

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