AJ's NY Pizzeria

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If you are looking for a taste of New York a good place to start would be AJ’s NY Pizzeria. It’s closer than flying to New York tonight, and cheaper.

The first clue to its New York roots is the yellow cab out front. Inside, the theme continues and it’s like you are on the streets of the Big Apple because all their signs look like street signs from New York City. One wall has the front of a vintage car mounted on it, TVs are on all the walls, and the open kitchen with a bar in front are only a few of the cool things about AJ’s. I haven’t even begun to talk about the food.

The menu features pizza, pasta, wings and more. It was hard to decide what I wanted but since my husband was with me I was able to try two things at once. He ordered a pizza, basically like a supreme only called The Big Apple, with sausage, pepperoni, ground beef, meat balls, Canadian bacon, ham, mushroom, onions, black olives, green peppers, mozzarella and parmesan. The choice was hard but I ordered the baked ziti pie and added fresh basil, tomatoes, sausage, beef, mushrooms, onions and spinach.

They bring the pizza and set it on a little wire stand, which I have seen before, just nowhere in Topeka. It’s nice to have a nice pizza place to go to now. The pizza was delicious. The crust was thin but it still held up to the various toppings and was still crispy. The pizzas are served with a choice of dipping sauce, and I chose marinara and my husband chose garlic butter – they were both good. There isn’t a lot of sauce on the pizza itself so the marinara was a good choice for me. I enjoyed this because I could control how much sauce I did want. Sometime I have to scrape it off at other pizza places, because there is too much.

The ziti was pretty impressive as well. Even the hubby liked it and he isn’t a big fan of pasta dishes. The pasta was done to the point where it still had texture and wasn’t mushy, like some of the baked pasta dishes I have ordered before. The mozzarella cheese must have been fresh because it was stringy and elastic and reminded me of the cheese on pizzas I have ordered in Chicago. The cheese was the best part, and why I will be going back again in the future. This dish also can be made in your choice of sauces, Alfredo, marinara or pesto and I chose marinara.

I was so stuffed when I was done and I still had left overs.

This place seems like a good place to bring the family for dinner then come back at night with your friends for a few drinks. The food is good and I am excited to try more menu items there. Check it out and let me know what you think by commenting below. Happy tasting!