Cycle 4 – Item 80

26 (Tue) March 2013

Chicken Pesto Pizza

2.0

at Brick Oven New York Pizzeria

-Yeoksam, Gangnam, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with HSK, CC, JJ, JK, LSW, SMS

Brick Oven New York Pizzeria is an Italian-American restaurant.  Specializes in pizza.  The restaurant has been garnering rave reviews within the expat blogosphere.

Having lived in Manhattan for a year during college, I know a little about New York pizza.  It’s arguably the most popular food item in the city, found at pizzerias on every other street corner, sold cheap by the slice, often folded in half and taken to go on a paper plate.  I can’t think of any other food item, not even a hotdog, that New Yorkers are so inclined to consume on the move.  The pies are huge, at least 18 inches in diameter (about 45 cm).  As a practical matter, they’re baked in huge steel gas-fired ovens, as opposed to the smaller brick wood-fired ovens favored by fancier restaurants to produce artisanal pizzas in the style of Napoli.  The toppings are usually kept to a minimum; when someone orders “a slice” (e.g., “I’ll have a slice and a Diet Coke, please.”), the result will be a slice of plain cheese pizza; otherwise, maybe a single topping of pepperoni or mushrooms; very rarely any combination more than two.  The crust tends to be thin, about half a centimeter – somewhere between the traditional paper-like Neapolitan and the typical bread-like American -while still being firm/chewy.  All that said, I wouldn’t necessarily characterize the pizza overall as a distinct category per se, like say, Chicago’s deep dish pizza.  New York pizza at its best – meticulously constructed with top notch ingredients – just strikes closest to the real deal outside of Italy.  In fact, I’ve had pizza in Italy, and it didn’t seem any different.

I can’t imagine why a new pizza restaurant would include “brick oven” in its name, knowing that it won’t be using a brick oven, especially when New York pizzerias don’t use brick ovens.

The menu offers a wide range of pies, mostly Italian-American formulations.

The prices are pretty steep, starting at 23,000 won for a “couple” size of a New York Classic, up to 48,000 won for a “party” size of their eponymous New Yorker.

Based on my experience this evening, the pizzas were authentic, but they weren’t that good.

We started with a basic pepperoni pie.  The crust was thin yet firm/chewy, providing a positive initial impression at first bite.  However, the TOMATO SAUCE was so overwhelming – tart, chunky and watery, suspiciously similar in taste and texture to Classico-brand pasta sauce, slathered on thick as if the pizza were in fact a pasta dish – that everything else was subsequently drowned out.  Even on the second pie – a custom order consisting of anchovies, black olives, onions – it was all about TOMATO SAUCE.

The chicken pesto pizza, sans tomato sauce, was much better; at least I could taste the dried out chicken breast and rubbery cheese, insofar as they had any flavor at all.

Though the pies were quite large, they weren’t worth the cost, not by a long shot.

Seriously, the best part of the meal was the free refills on the fountain drinks, which helped wash things down.

Expats must be getting desperate if they’re so excited by such mediocrity.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)

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