Lombardi's Pizza - NYC

This place is known as the first pizzeria in the United States. So it should be good after all those years of pizza-making experience, right? I'm not that big of a pizza person, but I enjoy a slice every now and then. There seems to be a lot of rave reviews about this place too, and since my friend wanted to do this for dinner, I was hoping that it'd be good enough to make me rethink pizza being more than a last-minute party food.

And wow, this place was amazing!!!

... is what I'd like to say, but no. I wasn't impressed with this place. 

When we came in here, there was a couple sitting next to us. After looking at the menu for two minutes or so, the guy made small talk with us and voiced his displeasure with the place. To be honest, I thought it was a good thing since it set my expectations lower.

They don't sell individual slices here. You have to order whole pizzas. 

The pizza here is pretty expensive. They use quite a bit of sauce and cheese, so the cheese is stretchy as you take a bite out of a slice (not my thing, though I guess some people like their pizza extra cheesy and stretchy). Their smallest size is a 14", 6-slice pizza, and it comes in at $16.50 for just the cheese and sauce. Each additional topping is $3 on top of the base pizza price, so if you're used to ordering from a cheaper pizza chain with more toppings, you'll probably pay $30 for an equivalently topped medium pizza.

Medium Pizza with Meatballs. $16.50 for the base and $3 for the 6½ meatballs they used as toppings.

My friend liked this, but he's a pizza person and generally likes all pizzas. I didn't like this. For me, this was not worth the money or time.

Rating: 

I don't get the hype. I wouldn't come back here.