Jack Eats Pizza
What’s a better feeling than after a long hard week, sitting down on Friday night with a delectable slice of pizza, the aroma, the ooey gooey cheese, the sauce spread perfectly around the pizza, and the crunch of the crust as you bite in for your first bite. In this moment you have no worries in the world, just you and the pizza.
But what if I could tell you I can make that experience better? I have always wondered what the best slice of pizza is around New Jersey. After a long day at Oratory – or after a sport I don’t want to indulge into a mediocre slice, I want the best. So follow me as I rate pizza places in and around Summit. Throughout this series, I will be only testing plain slices. I’ll tell you where to avoid and where to go.
This past week I went to the well-known “Zappias,” in Summit. This is a household name and people pack this pizza place on each half day. However, the wait times are often long. The question is if the pizza is worth the wait.
When my plain slice came out the first thing I noticed was the flop of the pizza, and as I bit in the bottom it was soggy and there was no stability to hold the cheese and sauce up. The tip of the slice was completely burnt and I got a huge taste of charcoal in my mouth – not pleasant. As I continued up the slice I kept noticing that the sauce was very sweet. I don’t know about you, but I prefer a much more savory tomato sauce. The cheese was pretty mediocre. I didn’t taste anything great about it. And finally, as I got to the end the crust was incredibly chewy I felt like I was chewing gum. Overall, it’s not a very good slice of pizza.
On the flip side, there were a few positives. Within 5-7 minutes my pizza was served relatively quickly and it was nice and hot. Zappias was empty though, it might be a lot slower when it’s packed. The staff was very friendly and polite, which I appreciated, and finally the price was great. You can get 2 plain slices and a drink for $7 which is a steal nowadays.
With all this taken in account….
Overall Rating – 7.1 / 10
(Full disclosure: I follow Dave Portnoy but he has not rated a lot of local pizza places, and I don’t always agree with him)
