Rochester NY Pizza Blog Rochester restaurants LocalEats featured blog

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Westside Pizzeria, Driving Park

Here's a new place I just happened to notice the other day while driving. Westside Pizzeria is on Driving Park Avenue, in a site that was formerly a Mr. Shoes location. I've also seen references to this as a second location for Big Daddy's, but I don't recall ever seeing a Big Daddy's here, so maybe that fell through. I might also mention that there used to be a West Side Pizzeria in Spencerport (now the home of Leccese's), but as far as I know there's no connection).
As at a few other pizzerias in the city, inside Westside you'll find a thick plexiglass window at the counter, with a hole just big enough for food and money to pass through. There are a few chairs and small tables near the window if you'd care to eat on the premises.
I asked for a pepperoni slice, and for $1.50 got a pretty good sized, reasonably good-looking slice. The underside was browned and not too crisp, and had a slightly greasy feel in spots, though not too bad. I'm guessing that the oil came mostly from the cheese and pepperoni on top than from the dough itself. The concentric rings of small dots on the bottom indicated that it had been baked on a tray. The medium-thick crust was OK, though a little tough to chew. The narrow edge was dark and crunchy.
The cheese and sauce were moderately applied, in pretty good balance with each other and with the crust. The sauce was tasty, with a tomatoey sweetness and a touch of Italian herbs. The mozzarella was browned here and there, and tended to separate from the crust. The wide, thin slices of pepperoni were pretty basic and unremarkable.
In spite of its flaws, this wasn't a bad slice of pizza. When I noticed Westside, I was actually on my way back from another, so-called pizzeria on Dewey Avenue (which will be a topic for another post), which turned out to be one of these places where they just take premade crusts and add toppings. This, though, was "real" pizza, as evidenced by the guy hand-stretching the dough while I was getting my slice.
And again, it wasn't bad. Yes, the crust could've been better, but I've had worse, and the overall flavor was good, and the components well balanced. So while there's room for improvement, all in all this was a reasonably enjoyable slice of pizza, and I'm giving it a B-.

Westside Pizza, 107 Driving Park Ave. 458-WING (9464)
(Hours not known at this time)

No comments:

Post a Comment