Riccardo's Pizza & Italian Restaurant

🏆HALL OF FAME PIZZA ALERT🏆 🍅BEST TOMATO PIE ALERT🍅 🚨BEST OF NEW JERSEY ALERT🚨 Founded in 1974 by Salvatore Russo, now owned by his son & current chef Vito Russo, Riccardo’s will be celebrating their 50th anniversary on July 12th after a fire destroyed their original restaurant in 1992 & reopening stronger than ever in 1994. One of New Jersey’s best kept secrets, this joint is hidden in Southern NJ in the middle of nowhere, halfway between the Jersey Shore & Philadelphia. While their plain cheese pizzas are outstanding, the main event here is the Browns Mills Tomato Pie. I’ve had DeLorenzo’s, Papa’s & Lillo’s tomato pies, all terrific in their own right; but this pizza is the best of them all. Without exaggeration, this is one of the most delectable, unbelievably tasty & addictive pies I’ve ever eaten…pure deliciousness, currently residing in my top-5 of all-time. Starting with the moderately crispy but somewhat soft dough of medium thickness with a firm & charred undercarriage to go along with a beautifully blackened, thin, crispy & crunchy crust; truly tasty & flavorful, the dough overrides the softer texture with just enough crisp to provide some backbone. Incredibly creamy, marvelously melty & fantastically flavorful, the mozzarella cheese blend has a dynamic combination of flavor & consistency with nearly perfect taste & texture. The cheese hugs the dough as the sauce is placed atop in upside down fashion as the mozz works in tandem with the star of the pie, the otherworldly tomato sauce. Words won’t do it justice but this is the most delicious, richly robust, amazingly addicting, scintillatingly scrumptious, astoundingly sweet, flavor-packed, exceptionally excellent, sublimely superb sauce I’ve ever had on a pizza pie. This incredible tomato sauce is the reason this is Hall of Fame, absolutely must-try, travel-worthy pilgrimage pizza that will knock your socks off! A true symphony for the senses, this pie electrifies the taste buds. This is not just one of the best tomato pies, not just one of the best pizzas in NJ; this one of the best pizza pies in the entire country with only a crispier & crunchier texture keeping it out of my #1 spot. A diamond in the rough, a hidden gem & super sleeper spot, this is one of those IYKYK joints with truly magnificent pizza that will blow you away & is sure to become a legendary pizza destination once Portnoy gives his blessing. The overall score on the App may seem artificially inflated with 17 perfect 10 ratings; but I can’t blame anyone for giving this place a legit score in the 9s. I promise you, it’s that good!