Grimaldi’s Pizzeria is a Brooklyn, NY based restaurant chain that makes coal fired oven pizzas with water as chemically close to New York city water as possible. To give it that authentic ‘New York’ taste, I guess. So far, in Las Vegas, the best pizza, to me, is Settebello near the Green Valley Ranch casino and hotel. But I was looking forward to Grimaldi’s because it was a lot closer to my house.
They had tables set up on the front outside patio but since it was 105 degrees outside we went in. Inside, the bar was to the left with a counter for eating and tables covered with the traditional red & white Italian checks lining up to the right and in back.
No happy hour prices on Sunday but the beer looked pretty good. I got a Blue Moon Seasonal Draft and John a Tenaya Creek Pale Ale ($5.00 each). My Seasonal was dry and crisp, but with a sweet finish and John’s Tenaya Creek was spicy and citrus-y with a rich malty mouth feel.
Beers in hand we ordered two salads to share, a small Mediterranean salad ($7.00) which turned out to be large enough for two and really pretty good. Lightly dressed with vinaigrette over crisp Romaine, Kalamata olives, Feta Cheese, cucumbers, red onion and tomatoes. Everything very fresh.
Mediterranean Salad
Then we ordered a Grimaldi’s House Salad (small for $5.00) which was big enough for two and came with the above mentioned Romaine, onion, tomato and roasted red pepper, mushrooms plus green olives in a vinaigrette.
Grimaldi's House Salad
This one was also very good, fresh and crisp.
I wanted a plain personal pizza ($9.00) to see how just the crust, cheese and sauce would taste. Very tasty, simple enough so the flavors shone and I appreciated the crispy crust. Even this small pizza was more than I could finish so I ended up taking most of it home.
Plain 'Personal' Pizza
John and Vic wanted meat. Namely the large with pepperoni and sausage ($16.00). Even though they ate a lot more of it than I ate of mine, they couldn’t finish it. They said it was pretty good and liked the crust.
Sausage/Pepperoni
The total bill (including iced tea for $2.50) came to $57.83. And we took home enough pizza for another meal. So the value was there.
I guess my only gripe was, although, everything was good—it wasn’t that over-the-top greatness of Settebello’s Pizza. Where I thought everything was absolutely delicious. Good, but not great. But, since it’s so close, I’ll definitely re-visit to try it again.
Meanwhile, my pizza craving is satisfied.
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