Giant pizza. I feel like those are the first two words anyone should read about Lazaro's. If you want a 26" pizza, this is your place. When we first came up with the idea for this blog, we were excited about coming here just to get the pizza box that doesn't fit through your front door. We already planned to get as many people as possible to join us so that we could finish the beast, although it turns out you don't need as many people as you might think.
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| There's that giant pizza box |
We decided that a) we didn't want to take up their small dining space with a giant pizza and a group of people and more importantly b) I selfishly wanted to watch the Women's Finals for the US Open because my girl Vika was playing, so we brought the pizza back to my place. From what I saw of the inside, it had some Italian-themed pictures on the wall and a big TV screen playing football - standard pizza shop attire so I don't have much else to comment on that front. I was somehow assigned with carrying the box back to my apartment, which required an awkward extension of the arms but otherwise was not much of a hassle - check out Sandya's post for a visual so you can compare how large the box is compared to a human being. The last time I ordered giant pizza from Lazaro's, I distinctly remember the box not being able to fit through the door. This time, it barely made it through but it did not require being turned slightly sideways to fit so either I have a horrible memory or the pizza/pizza box has gotten smaller. It's probably the former. Anyways, as you can see above, we placed our pizza on the table and awaited the arrival of the pizza-eating club. In the mean time, we watched Serena's skirt get extremely rustled by the wind (seriously, why would you wear that kind of skirt when it's THAT windy?) and Vika finally not completely sucking at her serving in the first set. I'm glad that this match was on, because we were all pretty hungry (having prepared ourselves for mega pizza by not eating much earlier in the day) but still awaiting some of the pizza-eating club. It provided me with a much needed distraction, because all I wanted to do was pounce on our food.
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| behemoth |
Alas, we are not good people and we started anyways, although to be fair we waited an appropriate amount of time before digging in. We went for the half cheese, half white spinach and ricotta pizza, which allowed us to sample both the standard and the classier fare Lazaro's had to offer. I say classy because ricotta cheese seems slightly fancier than your average cheese, and if you've got green leafed vegetables then you really know what's going on. Although maybe you should have your green leafed vegetable be kale or arugula, cause spinach is pretty low brow these days.
I started with a full slice of the spinach and ricotta. I was pretty hungry at this point, so my threshold for tastiness was a little lower, but I would say the pizza was good, even on a regular hunger scale. The ricotta cheese was nice and creamy and the spinach was steamed but not soggy. On a whole the pizza was greasier than I would have liked, but the crust wasn't super flavorful, and that's where greasy pizza comes in handy. Dip the crust into another slice of pizza, and voila - sop up the grease and make the crust taste better! If I had the choice, I would have also had some chunks of tomato on there to balance out the flavor, but all in all it was a good choice. Since it turns out 8 giant slices is not quite enough for 5 people, I had half of a cheese slice to finish up. I thought it was a solid 6 on the 1-10 standard cheese pizza scale, where 1 is stale cafeteria pizza and 10 is an orgasm in your mouth. Not the best quick slice in the city (I might go with Lorenzo's, which we will end up at eventually on our saunter - but you know what, I've only ever had that after a night of drinking so I don't know if it actually tastes great), but definitely above average. And I agree with most people who tasted it that night - the sauce is on the sweeter side, and isn't balanced well by the saltiness of the cheese, so it takes away from the flavor.
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| we finished it! |
Lazaro's Pizzeria
1743 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 545-2775
You don't have a horrible memory, the first time we ordered a giant pizza for delivery, the pizza guy had to turn it sideways to fit through the door.
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