Pugsley Pizza

Established in 1984 in the Bronx, this is a dough lover’s dream, a true NYC football pizza. Deceptively thick with a super doughy crust, there’s just enough crunch to avoid being a floppy & mushy mess. Weightier than it looks, the dough appears to be thinnish but plays heavy. Nonetheless, this is actually a firm pie with a great undercarriage, well-charred & crisped with some semolina seeds underneath to prevent sogginess. While not a particularly creamy blend, the cheese is seasoned rather heavily with a salty & oregano flavor. Peppered with spices, the taste of the seemingly standard mozzarella is masked significantly. Also surprisingly subdued is the sauce, a rather chunky tomato purée, the flavor doesn’t quite punch through as the seasoning & spices kind of fade the taste of the sauce into the background. Lacking sweetness, the flavor of the sauce is slightly dulled but still respectably tasty. Overall, this is a fairly solid pie; good, but not distinctive enough to warrant significant travel. A tad thinner dough & crust and a little more flavor extracted from the sauce & cheese could improve the rating for sure. As it stands, this is a quality neighborhood pie, perfect Friday night pizza, really good, just not exceptional.