Mafia Mike's Pizza - Unofficial Review

This is an unofficial review, because I didn't actually ride to the restaurant. For what it's worth, I had the windows in the Mustang wide open and I was listening to Swashbuckle.

There are two criteria finding a good pizza joint. One: Is it a large chain with a big budget? If so, it's not good. It might be OK. Probably not. Two: How long have they been in business?

A non-chain that has been been in business a long time is a very safe bet. Sometimes they still aren't very good, but usually they're totally decent. A new restaurant from a big chain with a fancy building and festive crap all over the walls is guaranteed to suck. Old chains, well, you already know how they are...

That leaves new, non-chain/local chain restaurants. A gamble. A dangerous one, actually. One might find a wonderful new pizza joint, only to have them go out of business within six months. It happens more than you want to know.

Mafia Mike's Pizza is a local chain. The one I tried was in the former location of Italian Joe's, which was wonderful, but shot themselves in the foot by having unpredictable hours. Anyway, I had high hopes for Mafia Mike's.

Their cheesy breadsticks are awesome. Their sauce is also killer.

The pizza, sad to say, was not cooked at a high enough temperature. The crust tasted fine, like bread, but it wasn't a pizza crust. And the cheese was melted but not really cooked. They're pretty new, so I'm hoping they'll get that sorted.

Cold, the next morning, the pizza was pretty darn good. So if you're looking for a pizza to stick straight in the fridge and enjoy the next day, this is a good one.

But get their cheesy breadsticks.

Here's hoping they'll stick around a while.