Best Pizza on Long Island?

6 weeks ago TODG and I drove down from Montreal to Long Island to visit with her folks. She and her mom had been teasing me for years that the best pizza in the universe was from NY (and, more particularly, there wasn't any good pizza in KC). Well. This time I finally challenged them, but got nothing but shilly-shallying. HAH! thought I. Proceeding to google, I typed in the title of this story, and was led instantly to a Chowhound discussion on precisely and explicitly the same topic.

Astonishingly enough, there was little rancor, and more than a modicum of agreement. One name that came up on nearly every response was King Umberto's, in Elmont NY. "OK, enough said" said I and off TODG and I roared in the Boy Racer Car.

The pizza was damn good.

Just the other day or so, we went back, taking along both the rest of the family and the camera. Herewith, my report.

The place looks about like it should:



Corner of Meacham and the Pike. The oven guy is friendly and his oven is warm:






The pies under the counter look like this up close:




That's the Old Fashion, the nearby whole pie; Grandma is the square-cut pieces at its 1 o'clock.


Grandma--cheese and tomato--looks like this up close (note burned spots on crust, lovely thick sauce, foldability):




The Boscoreale is a spinach crust, with lots of black olives--REAL black olives. The flavor is deep, intense, like a tapenade from kalamata olives, bitter overtones. Takes some getting used to, but absolutely top-end.





But my favorite is the Old Fashioned: a sweetish, thick red sauce, and some of the smoothest, richest, freshest mozzarella you've ever tasted, with that bink! of basil at exactly the right moments.






Here it is up close:





This is surely the best pizza I've had in the US.


King Umberto's is a full service restaurant, with impressive and interesting daily specials. An enormously friendly obviously neighborhood crowd, where everyone knows everyone else. Helpful and friendly staff. This will be a return again and again place for TODG and me.


Geo


King Umberto's
1343 Hempstead Turnpike ·
Elmont, NY 11003
Pizzeria: 516-483-5464

http://www.kingumberto.com/