Benny Tudino’s – Plate 2

Well, this isn’t going quite the way I planned. The first restaurant I go to, the writer can’t come, and at the second, the manager who I set everything up with forgot to tell them I was coming. What are you gonna do? If there’s one thing about this project that I am learning is that I gotta be flexible. Another writer I had confirmed for the third wanted to switch because he forgot his wife’s birthday! I’ll admit, I’m not perfect either. I’d mistakenly asked two separate writers to join me on one meal. David Fishman was kind enough to understand. I think he’s in 8th grade; from his e-mails, he comes across as savvy as a PR director.

Nine Dollars for two slices and two waters. No biggie. Let’s talk about the cheese slice. It’s frickin’ huge. Reading the reviews on Yelp, it seems like the place has been noted for its largness than its tastiness. Naturally, I was expecting the place to garner the five star reviews from the drunks excited about the amount of pizza rather than the taste. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. The dough underneath the sauce and cheese (is there a word for that?) was more supple than was to my liking, and the sauce could have used a little more zing, but there was a good amount of cheese on the slice and the crispness of the pizza was exactly what I wanted to see. I read in the reviews that the white slice was worth the trip from manhattan, and by the pictures on yelp, you wouldn’t call the pepperoni a topping; it’s a full-on layer. The problem here is that there were no options other than cheese when we went in. I’m a huge white pizza fan, but I’ll give them a pass here since it’s New Year’s Day and they were running the skeleton crew (I asked for a manager, no manager).

I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a pizza snob. My favorite pizza is the Chicken Marsala slice at I Love New York Pizza in Troy, NY (home of my alma mater). I can’t really say I’ve had outstanding pizza since Santarpio’s in Boston. I’ve had about four slices of pizza since I arrived in NYC two weeks ago and this is the largest and best made slice I’ve had. The rest of the slices came from the island. If (like the king says) this is the best pizza that NJ has to offer, it ain’t doing too bad for itself.

Guest Writer: Michelle Weber . . . Here’s her post.

The IRL Arts Foundation and The Wandering Foodie thank ourselves for providing this meal. You owe me one, Shanuda!

Benny Tudino’s
622 Washington Street
Hoboken, NJ
(201) 792-4132