Marilu

Authentic, Italian style pizza? What does that even mean? Have I been lied to all these years? The deception! The betrayal. Why go all the way to Italy, with the flying and the customs and the passports and what have you when you can go to 9th avenue to taste the old world?

Speaking of 9th avenue, if you're loyal to my blogging, I obviously took a stroll down there one day and as I stroll, I eat, as I eat, I blog. The strolling and blogging buys me time to eat more as I drift down the street that is littered with restaurants.

Marilu has a pretty fair amount of tables to go with an abundance of selections. I went for a simple slice and then one of their Italian style slices that had sausage and broccoli rabe - insert fat, italian kid joke here.

The plain slice was pretty much that. Plain. Oh and it was salty. Salty and plain. I didn't care for it much. Even with the crunchy crust and nicely flavored sauce. The saltiness was so overwhelming it just hit me the wrong way. Strangely enough, it seemed like the salt flavor was abundant in the dough but I'm still convinced it was the cheese. It was thin slice, but perhaps a little too thin. Maybe it was thin because summer is coming and it's almost time for bathing suit weather? Maybe I didn't need a burger and three slices with bathing suit weather bearing down on us...

Fortunately once slice can never fill me up and I opted for the piece with sausage and rabe. This is worth the trip to Marilu. There were so many options with these old world style pieces and each one looked like. The thinly sliced sausage was very flavorful and the bitterness of the broccoli rabe are always a perfect medley. The thin, crunchy crust is enhanced by the rabe n sausage. This was something very special.

Did I mention that the guy at the counter bore a resemblance to Quentin Tarantino? That is worth something in a Quentin Tarantino look-alike contest for sure.

Rating - 4.25/5 - Plain slice left a little to be desired. The other option, with sausage and broccoli rabe, really won me over and makes it worth a second and probably a third visit.

Their site - Does not exist as of 8/26 but if you search for marilu pizza nyc have a gander at the 1st result on google...just sayin'

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They are located at 791 9th Ave (between 52nd St & 53rd St) - conveniently close to Island Burgers and Shakes, another favorite of mine.