NYC: Restaurant Review - Grimaldi's Pizza

Grimaldi's Pizza - dinner on November 19, 2016

I have a coworker who, every time he goes to New York, brings home a takeout pizza from Grimaldi's and posts a picture of it. Once I'm done licking my screen in pizza envy, I make plans to go visit Grimaldi's when I'm in New York.

They have several locations in NYC and there's one within walking distance from our hotel at Grand Central. Well, walking distance to me. Shawn took a cab to meet me there, lol.

The location we went to looks like it was once part of an old church but had been remodeled into a little pizzeria. It's L-shaped inside with the narrow part holding several tables and the other section intersecting it holding more tables. I got there before Shawn, a little before 5 and I was the first customer in the entire restaurant. I thought New Yorkers just didn't eat that early. Turns out I was wrong because it was only a matter of minutes before the restaurant was nearly full.

The next customers after me were several women who took a table but shortly after, one of the pizzeria folks (maybe the owner?) asked them if they would mind changing to another table as a large party, mostly of kids, had come in and they needed to put together tables long enough to accommodate them; one of the tables they needed were where the women were sitting. They obligingly moved with good grace and I saw later that the owner had comped them dessert for the minor inconvenience. I thought that was a nice exchange on both sides and reiterated to me why I like patronizing small businesses. There's still a nice touch of great customer service and caring.

Not to mention, their pizza was awesome. Shawn and I ordered a medium meat lovers pizza for $28. And when they say meat lovers, they mean business. Look at that pizza. You can't even see the cheese because there's so much meat - sausage, pepperoni, ham, meatballs and a couple of other proteins. To a carnivore like me, it was pizza heaven. From this pizza forward, any other "meat lovers" pizza I order pales in comparison. Grimaldi's knows how to do pizza.

It's the first meat lovers' pizza I've had where, if you skipped the crust, you can easily Atkins diet with this pizza. Really. Now I know why my coworker almost always goes to Grimaldi's when he's in New York and why he brings a pizza back home. I would too.