I tried their deep dish pizza takeout and liked it, so been meaning to go here to try the “New York Style” pizza, and finally did last night.
First thing, they’re doing the crust right. Thick enough, crispy, chewy. None of the hyper-thin or even crackery stuff you get here. No one would look twice at this in NYC. 10/10. Major. Annoyingly the sauce isn’t up to snuff, and not like the sauce I think they used on the deep dish. It’s almost like they used tomato paste out of the can. I’m not crazy about the cheese either, I don’t know how to describe it except by saying it’s too soft and not flavorful enough. It should be slightly chewy and milky tasting. All this was detracting from the experience when my wife helpfully noted “I like this because it’s not so salty.” I put some salt on it, and that improved things a lot. That’s not something you’ll ever have to do in NYC, but what the hell. With the crust and passable toppings with a little salt, I’ll take the quotes off New York in the future. Really good reheated just now too. I’ll definitely be back.
I’ve been wanting to try their deep dish after seeing a review on Hungry Girl’s page, but haven’t yet.
We did order a NY style before, which I thought was very “average,” like something you’d get from Costco or an amusement park food stand, or any place that does not specialize in pizza. Specifically, the sauce was very, very bland. No spice at all. As Tempo mentioned, it tasted straight from a can. Not that this is bad; when I made pizza at the concession stand in college, we would mix canned tomato paste with tomato sauce and spice it with garlic, basil, oregano, etc., but I believe Big Man just used pure tomato paste and nothing else. The cheese was also clumpy and had water on top, instead of hot and stringy. The toppings were unevenly distributed; you’d have slices with a good mix and others with all onions and nothing else. A little bit more love and care could have been put into making the pizza. The good thing though, is that it was very reasonably priced; I don’t feel cheated in any way, but got exactly what I paid for. However, this leaves little room for finding any value, so I doubt I’d go back, as I already have my favorite spots for both NY and Chicago style pizzas elswhere.
Made it back, things were better this time. I think the first time our order might have been misinterpreted so that we got sauce made without onions or garlic for Buddhist vegetarians. 10/10. Got an 18" pie, maybe slightly too thick of a crust, but perfectly done–crunchy, air-filled, with an on-the-cusp-of scorched-but-not bottom, just like good brick-oven places back home. Happy this place is here. My wife paid it the ultimate compliment “zhende bijiao xiang niuyue de”–something she knows well about and a compliment that had not previously been paid in all the places I have tried here over the years.
It was actually better the second time. I like a basic sauce on my pizza really. I might try Love at First Bite some time, but probably not until Big Boyz stops hitting home runs.
So… our daughter starting taking ballet classes and turns out the place is right next door to Big Boyz pizza. Since I now see the place twice a week when I pick her up, we decided to give their pizza another shot. Yes, it has changed, and for the better. The sauce is no longer bland, but tangy and rich. The cheese and toppings were spot on and with generous portions as well (we got the Three Knights and Funghi Delight ). I don’t know what changed since it was the same guy at the counter that sold me the “meh” 18" pizza a year ago, but the change is certainly for the better. Big Boyz has gone from bottom of the barrel to top 3 for me in Taipei. I’ll defintely be going back; I just hope they don’t tinker with the recipe again.
Why do people like their deep dish? Its a thin layer of cheese poke into it and its just tomato sauce pops out , not much on the inside…I think I saw a couple pcs of sausage thats about it.
I tried their deep dish today. Liked it. Wasn’t the best pizza ever, some of it is my personal taste.
Also, you can ask for extra sauce, I think Taiwanese people are used to little sauce so you need to make sure to ask for the extra option if you’re used to that.
