Full Review

With several, cold hours to kill before our main event, a rex country orange concert at Radio City music hall, we wanted to pregame a little by having some Hawaiian pizza. Unfortunately despite the grandeur of the venue, the nearby Hawaiian-serving pizza places didn’t look very appealing. Thinking that it would suffice, we settled for some Japanese curry instead . While it was decent, our craving for Hawaiian only grew more intense. A little disappointed, we started making our way back towards the venue. Enter Famous Famiglia Pizza, an unassuming slice shop that caught our collective eye as we passed by. While we ruled it out during our preliminary research, we were forced to reconsider as the universe appeared to respond to our unwavering craving by presenting us several, ready-to-go Hawaiian slices that glistened behind the display case. Not strangers to the idea of having two dinners in a row (Montreal), we got in line and waited anxiously hoping no one would order all of the Hawaiian slices before us. By some stroke of luck, they weren’t touched and before we knew it we had our Hawaiian pizza. It was only then, that we got a closer look at what we had ordered. Blinded by our desires, we perhaps saw the pizza that we wanted to see rather than the one Famous Famiglia had prepared. Snapping us out of our trance was the lunchables-esque ham that gave the slice a dreadful appearance, poor texture, and no flavor. While a flavorless topping is typically a bad thing, in this case it was a blessing. Joining the ham was an abundance of very sweet, loosely scattered canned pineapple. It wasn’t terrible, but it was clearly an afterthought. The pineapple flavor was confined to the bounds of the individual tidbits. With its flavor stuck in the sweet prisms, the pineapple didn’t have a chance to become an integrated part of the pizza. Surprisingly, the remainder of the pizza was excellent. On top of a light, crispy New York style crust was an exquisite cheese that blended perfectly with the sauce. It’s a shame that what was otherwise a fantastic cheese slice, chose to masquerade as something it was never suited to be. This pizza is analogous to a 99 honda civic that has fallen victim to a ricer and their active imagination. Famous Famiglia’s half assed attempt isn’t fooling anyone and by putting this pizza on the menu they not only disrespect pizzas around the world that rightfully bear the “Hawaiian” designation - but they disrespect themselves too.