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Yeah, Vito's is not bad, Joe's is alright, but he is back in NY and leaving the pizza making out here to locals!! Nice move! If you want the best I've tried so far, there is a place on La Brea that just opened a few weeks ago. Verrazanos Pizza, the owners are from Staten Island, and they are the ones cooking! The crust is soft yet crunchy and the sauce is amazing! Easily better that Vito's for sure. Don't believe me, try some for yourself!

As a NYer living in Santa Monica I was very excited to have Joe's move in. The pizza was excellent in the beginning when he first opened but now the staff is getting lazy. Fresh mozzarella pie is going down in quality. it seems like they take the cheese out of the water bucket and throw it on the pie without draining. My last few orders of the fresh pie have had diluted sauce due to that. Also, the staff is less than pleasant. I was once given a pick up time frame of "30-55 minutes".... so do I leave my house to pick up your pizza in 25 mins or maybe in 45 mins?.... I think that's a ridiculous time frame for a pie - especially since they have no parking.... if the owner were there I know he wouldn't let that happen.

hey fellow pizza freaks, i have been reading quite a bit about vito's,positive and negative and it is on my list for the next week or so..got to verify what theyre doin with the dough cheeseand suace..thanks for the word..

Ooohhhh that sounds like a challenge...ok LA Pizza Maven....can you get over to Vito's on La Cienega and give us your opinion on theirs? Is it truly everything Joe's is not??? I'd go myself...but I'm like...uh..3000 miles away...thanks!

@L.A. Pizza Maven: I hear ya.

Well, except for Mozza which is a different breed of pizza, I still think Joe's is the best i've had in LA...Adam, it may have cracked slightly when i folded the slice but y'all need to understand there's no where in LA to get a decent slice so im grateful for any decent pizza i can get. I havent had a slice/pie in NY in 3 years so being able to pop over to Joe's in Santa Monica is a treat for me...Anyone want to fed-ex a pie or two from Patsy's or Pizza Napoletana , youre more than welcome.

I ran through a ton of NYC pizza over the 4th of July and just had Joe's in SM last weekend. The fresh mozzarella pie is pretty good and I've had about a dozen of them so I know what they're capable of there... but it couldn't hold a candle to anything I had in the city. Sadly. LA pizza is dead for me.

how does that NOT look like New York style?

The magic, of course, is in getting a crisp crust that lacks significant tip sag while still maintaining the pliancy JustNancy talks about. Any monkey can make a crisp crust with no tip sag, since that just involves baking the hell out of it. How was the pliancy, Chuck? Could you fold it "libretto-style" without the crust cracking down the fold line?

Hi Ed. I just found this post while trolling the web for Houston's Key Lime Pie recipe/ingredients. I waited tables in the Rockville, MD Houston's from 1993-1995. Having seen Houston's and more than a dozen independently-owned restaurants from the waiter's side of the table, I agree with everyone's positive comments about Houston's. It's one of my go-to spots when I want to treat myself (and I live in Manhattan).

Although more personal non-chain restaurants are great, only Houston's made me memorize each ingredient in every dish before letting me serve a customer. We had line-up every night where we were quizzed on the number of ounces in the coho salmon and the marinade for the Houston's Hawaiin ribeye. I learned how to give 110% to a job and what to expect as a guest in a restaurant.

Monday night I had great lobster Cantonese at Chan's Dragon Inn on Broad Ave in Ridgefield NJ. It's about a ten-fifteen minute drive once you get over GW bridge. They make all the old fashioned Cantonese and polynesian dishes including ribs, pu pu's, subgum wonton, dark fried rice and great mai tais and zombies. It's a real throwback and we love it. Ask for david the owner and tell him Scott sent you.

Next time you go, you must order the smoked salmon appetizer served with toast points and a delicious dressing. Melt in your mouth and crazy good! I promise, you'll love it! They discontinued it and brought it back because of demand.

They used to serve a fantastic steak platter and the most outrageous mashed potatoes w/celeriac. Unfortunately they discontinued it but like the smoked salmon appetizer, I'm still hoping they'll bring it back.