Washington DC and visiting USA questions

[Dalton]

And you can pretty much throw a rock and hit a good Italian restaurant.

In my experience, if anybody has ever tasted real Italian cuisine and real Italian pizza then he will not consider American Italian pizza that good. It is a whole different experience.

I have. I've been to Italy. I've had Italian food in Sorrento (fantastic) and in Venice (honestly tasted like Chef Boyardee). I've had pizza there too. I can honestly say that pizza and Italian food in NYC is just as good.

Pizza here is very much YMMV. There's places you go for pasta and places you go for slices.

[Thanas]

My experience is the exact opposite. Instead of the thin Italian pizza in Rome I got...well, US pizza with thick crust that you need knifes to cut instead. It is more closer to the thick pizza sold by Italian street vendors but still not quite the same. Might just be different restaurants though.

[Channel72]

Pizza in NYC is highly variable. Despite it's reputation for pizza, NYC probably also has the most shitty pizza places in the world, in terms of sheer volume. The best pizza places are usually the high-end gourmet stuff, like John's on Bleeker street.

And Dalton, no - most Italian restaurants in NYC are mediocre shit. The good ones are usually expensive.

But seriously, just check Yelp or Zagat when you're in a foreign country looking for a good restaurant.

It's the same with Jewish delis. Unless you go to Katz's or Carnegie deli, most of the delis are just mediocre shit.

Halal guys (a cheap street truck) is pretty good though.

[General Zod]

Joey Pepperoni's at Bryant Park and Joe's in Union Square are some of the best cheap pizza joints I've ever been to, but the quality really is all over. The higher end stuff can be just as sketchy depending on what you're looking for but I'm probably going off on a tangent.

[Borgholio]

My experience is the exact opposite. Instead of the thin Italian pizza in Rome I got...well, US pizza with thick crust that you need knifes to cut instead. It is more closer to the thick pizza sold by Italian street vendors but still not quite the same. Might just be different restaurants though.

Yeah it really depends on where you get the pizza from. We typically talk about two main varieties of pizza...New York Style (thinner crust, larger diameter pie), and Chicago style (very thick crust, smaller-diameter pie). Which style you prefer depends on your taste. A proper Chicago-style deep dish is a full meal. You eat with a fork and knife, but you can stuff it full with all sorts of goodies. A New York-style pizza is thinner and can't hold as many toppings, but the crust can be crispier and overall tends not to be quite as soggy.

Pizza joints around the country can do both styles and even some extremes like a stuffed-crust pizza, or an extra-thin crust pizza. As a general rule, the best pizzas come from the little shops on street corners and not the big chains.

[Eleas]

I've had Italian food in Sorrento (fantastic) and in Venice (honestly tasted like Chef Boyardee).

Venetian food quality and prices have almost no correlation. Outside of the Square of St Marcus, we barely found any differences in price between the most awesome home-made stuff and the crap they save for tourists.

[Dalton]

Joey Pepperoni's at Bryant Park and Joe's in Union Square are some of the best cheap pizza joints I've ever been to, but the quality really is all over. The higher end stuff can be just as sketchy depending on what you're looking for but I'm probably going off on a tangent.

Joey Pepperoni is really quite literally a hole in the wall.

[mr friendly guy]

Has anyone tried Wolfgang Puck's restaurants? I know the name mainly from watching Hell's kitchen. Apparently in Disneyworld he has a restaurant.

http://www.wolfgangpuckcafeorlando.com/

Thinking of trying him out.

[General Zod]

Never been, but it always struck me as being above my pay grade.