Recently, a friend of mine and I passed a pizza place, aptly named Pizza Slice, on the way home from Shibuya one night. As we perused the interior, it had a look to it that was trying a little too hard to resemble a New York pizzeria: white tiled floors, neon lights that read "Pizza" beckoning patrons, pizza behind glass, pizza boxes piled ceiling-high, the whole nine yards. And this being Tokyo, their effort most definitely worked as it drew our American eye balls to the wooden menu standing outside the restaurant door.
The price didn't seem half bad for a slice––300 yen for a slice of cheese––so, as we were quite parched at that point in our journey (not eating lunch does that to an individual) we decided to stop in for a couple.
Now, as any American in Tokyo knows the pizza options here can be a little, well, sparse. It ranges from sorta kinda decent (Gust, Saizeria) to probably-okay-but-horrible-for-the-price (Domino's, Pizza Hut, Pizza-La). And they can be on the small side. It was a surprise, then, that Pizza Slice's, ahem, pizza slices were the sizes of slices we were accustomed to in LA from pizza places that attempted to resemble New York joints. I've never been to NY so there's no way I can make an accurate comparison, so I have to go with what I know.
Taste-wise, it was definitely as good as any place you'd find in Los Angeles that serves this kind of pizza. The cheese was nice and mozzarella-y. The pepperoni were big and pepperoni-y. The grease was as runny as you'd expect the grease on pizza to be.
 |
| Complete with greasy paper plate. |
This place was hidden under the train tracks just like a pizza place in New York would be, so I hear. It's what numerous movies and television shows have also told me. Even the toilet was an American one, complete with palm tree and American flag near the entrance to the bathroom. There was one glaring omission, though. An omission that might be unforgivable to someone more strict than I am, and that was the absence of parmesan cheese on the tables. This may be to due to the relative high price of cheese in Japan, or maybe the owner's just an a horrible asshole that doesn't deserve our business anymore because I wanted some goddamn parmesan cheese, dammit! But I kid. I don't even use that much parmesan cheese on my pizza. But if you're one who does that's one thing from home you will definitely miss, so remember to BYOC.
That blemish aside, you'd be remiss to pass this place up if you're looking for a great piece of pizza in Tokyo. It might quite be the only place you'd find something that matches the stuff from home, assuming you call Los Angeles home. Come on, New York pizza can't be all that different. Can it?
PIZZA SLICE
3-1 Sarugakuchō, Shibuya-ku, Tōkyō-to 150-0033, Japan
No comments:
Post a Comment