Rigoletto Pizza: Upper West Side Success

February 13, 2008

I’ve been meaning to stop in at Rigoletto Pizza for a few months, hoping to grab a slice while walking to work. Unfortunately, I’m always running late and it wasn’t until a frigid Monday night that I grabbed a slice. Better late than never, Rigoletto’s plain slice passed the test. The search for the best slice on the UWS continues, but I’ll be eating at Rigoletto again before then.

Read on to see how Rigoletto stood up to NYC Food Guy’s Pizza Test…

NYC Food Guy’s three requirements for a good slice of pizza…

1) Light, airy crust strong enough to support the weight of a slice, chewy enough to be eaten alone

2) Tasty sauce which isn’t too sweet, salty, or thin and doesn’t pool when you fold a slice

3) Good Cheese to Sauce Ratio. I like a balanced slice. If I didn’t I’d eat a white slice or a marinara.

How Rigoletto fared…

1) The crust was light, airy, sturdy, and slightly chewy. The flavor is nothing special, it reminded me of an ordinary Italian bread. Grade: B+

2) The sauce was a little sweeter than I like but it had some substance and it held the cheese to the slice without squirting off the edges. Grade: C

3) The sauce to cheese ratio was pretty much perfect. The slice folded well and I wasn’t squeezing out extra sauce when I got past the slice’s halfway point. Grade: A

So there you have it, the crust and the sauce to cheese ratio carry Rigoletto’s plain slice. As I stated earlier, it’s by no means the best slice on the UWS but definitely a worthy option compared to places like T&R, City Pie, and Freddie and Peppers (all reviewed here).

One other interesting option at Rigoletto is something I had only enjoyed at Traviata pizza (reviewed here), garlic and pepper-based sauces to put on the pizza.

Rigoletto offers a mild:

A medium:

And a spicy:

My only excuse for not trying all of these enticing sauces is that it was semi-late and I didn’t want to be tasting them for the rest of the night. Regardless, the delicious garlic sauce at Traviata Pizza most closely resembled the mild sauce at Rigoletto, so there’s a good starting point.