Ben's Sugar Shack

Ben's Sugar Shack is a maple syrup shack in New Hampshire, my home state.  The make, well, syrup, and like any good shack they offer tours, yadda yadda.  I haven't visited in person myself, as I have plenty of family members who make syrup, and have thus never needed to purchase it, and I've certainly have done my share of sugar shack visits over the years at my family/friend's places, so no need for that either.  So why have I heard of Ben's?

"Ben's Sugar Shack offers a wide range of award-winning, 100% Pure, New England maple products."

Because, in addition to the base syrup, they make a range of maple treats and snacks, such as maple salt water taffy, hard candies, caramels, and brittle, maple cotton candy, maple leaf cookies, maple flavored pancake mix and maple flavored coffee, maple beef jerky, maple bbq sauce, maple cranberry sauce, the list goes on and on.  But I of course honed in on one particular set of items in their lineup: popcorn.  They make both a caramel and a kettle maple popcorn, I went for the later.

I wasn't impressed.

Maple Kettle Corn. $6.59.

"This kettle corn makes an awesome snack for maple lovers! Lightly coated and popped with maple sugar."

Bo-ring.  That's the one word I'd use to describe this popcorn.  There is nothing *wrong* with it, but there is just nothing particularly good about it either.

The pieces are standard small sized, not the larger puffier style some gourmet brands use.  It wasn't perfectly popped, there were some half-pops and some entirely unpopped kernels, and bits of hulls.  It tasted fresh, but wasn't all that crispy.  Mediocre base.

And then the coating.  As they say, "lightly coated", which is accurate.  It wasn't particularly sweet.  It wasn't particularly salty.  The maple flavor wasn't particularly pronounced, but it clearly was a slightly deeper sweetness than just pure cane sugar.  Fairly muted, boring flavor.

And it lacked the slightly caramelized or charred nature of true cast iron kettle corn.

As I said, bo-ring.  No reason to get this again.  Half-hearted **+.

David's Cookies / Annie's Euro American Bakery / Fairfield Gourmet Foods

Update Review, 2024

I've had tons of David's Cookies products over the year, always through wholesale or mail order gift baskets. I actually had no idea they also sold products in grocery stores.

Rainbow Cake.

“Five bright and colorful layers of vanilla cake alternate with creamy white chocolate mousse filling. Finished with lightly flavored vanilla icing and decorated with tiny white nonpareils, this spectacular cake is perfect for celebrating any occasion!”

I found this in my local grocery store (Safeway) when I had a $5 off bakery reward to use (for my birthday) and it seemed fitting.  I was very curious how David's cakes would be, a product line I had never tried before, even after having so many of the cookies and other items over the years.  I didn't realize they were distributed in grocery stores.  It was in the refrigerated section.  I was a bit surprised/worried by the fact that the expiration date on it was nearly 3 weeks in the future.  Fresh cake shouldn't last 3 weeks ...

It was also, um, not a healthy option, with this fairly average size slice clocking in at 800 calories, 52g of fat, 54g sugar, and an ingredient list full of strange to pronounce things and of course, all the colored dyes.  I guess this is why it lasts so long.

Anyway.  I still dug in, fairly excited.  It looked great after all!

Rainbow Cake.

It was actually very good cake.

The five layers of cake all tasted the same regardless of color.  The cake was moist, it was buttery and sugary, and dense, a real classic American style cake.  It tasted, simply put, like any good birthday cake should.  I was surprised by how much I liked even the plain cake layers. **** cake.

And then, the filling and icing.  The description called the filling between the cake layers "white chocolate mousse" and the icing on the exterior "lightly flavored vanilla icing", but I found them pretty similar; the interior filling perhaps a bit fluffier, softer, and mousse-like, the exterior a bit firmer and icing-like, but the taste seemed the same to me, one wasn't clearly white chocolate and the other vanilla.  I really liked these elements too - they were both sweet but not cloying, and surprisingly flavorful for simple flavors.  Sugary in the right way.  **** filling/icing.

The ratios of everything worked well too - I originally thought it looked a bit skimpy on the filling between the cake layers, but it actually ate really nicely as composed, I think because the cake itself was actually just so good, I didn't find myself "needing" frosting to enjoy it.  I also didn't find myself wanting ice cream to pair with it, again, something I normally do to accent a dessert and elevate it a bit.  This one was just good exactly as served.  ****+ overall, given how the complete experience really was everything I was looking for in a classic birthday cake.  Kudos, David's Cookies.

They also make a version with chocolate ganache instead of the white chocolate mousse between the layers, and chocolate frosting instead of the vanilla icing.

Update Review: Annie's Euro American Bakery 

"Annie's Euro American Bakery (acquired by Fairfield Gourmet Foods in 2010) is located in Longwood, FL. This 26,000 sq. ft. facility produces top quality elegant desserts including Premier Cakes and a wide variety of individual desserts." 

Today I learned ... that Annie's Euro American Bakery is owned by Fairfield Gourmet Foods, the same parent company as David's Cookies.  I've long been a fan of David's Cookies ... not the more common mail order cookies (review), but, for the "biscones" (review) they make for  food service distribution.

It turns out, the same parent company also acquired a bakery, for their little individual desserts, also wholesale items.

I only tried a few, to mixed results.

Princess Pineapple Coconut Cake.

"Three layers of white cake filled with Annie's signature sweet cream cheese, fresh pineapple and finished with a sweet pineapple-coconut glaze and ivory white chocolate sauce." -- GourmetXpress, Distributor

"Thin layers of white cake are filled with pineapple white chocolate mousse, pineapple marmalade, our signature sweetened cream cheese and finished with a sweet pineapple coconut glaze and ivory white chocolate curl." -- David's Cookies

I didn't expect to like this.  I don't care for cakes.  I think pineapple and coconut are ... fine.  But this really was quite good, although extremely pineapple and coconut flavored, so you must be in the mood for a fruity, island experience!

The cake layers were very thin, moist, and barely noticeable with all the other layers.  For a non-cake person, I found them extremely non-offensive.

The cream cheese layers were delicious, thick, rich, sweet, and slightly tangy.  You could definitely taste the cream cheese, which helped compliment the sweet layers.

And sweet layers there were!  The pineapple-coconut glaze on top was sweet, pineapple forward, coconut forward, and immediately made me think I was drinking a fruity cocktail at a resort in the tropics.   I think you can tell where I wanted to be!  The inside pineapple layer was even more intense, fresh pineapple, juicy and flavorful.

This was fruity and quite delicious.  ****.

Individual Lil' Red Velvet.

"The perfect serving of rich red velvet cake, layered with sweet cream cheese filling, finished with a dark chocolate feather garnish."

Meh.

These were fine, but generic as can be.  The cake wasn't dry, but it wasn't actually flavorful.  The cream cheese frosting was sweetened, but thick in an unpleasant way, and too cream cheese-y, if that makes sense.  It was a bit cloying.

The chocolate on top was fine?

Overall, this was highly mediocre, nothing wrong with it, but nothing good either.  Low ***.

Update Review: 2018 - 2020 Tastings

Remember the blueberry "biscones" from David's Cookies I raved about.  Yeah, I loved them.  I've since had a chance to try other varieties, and they were even better.

These are a food service distribution item, designed for wholesale/catering, so they arrive frozen and unbaked, but you can also find them on Amazon or other specialty online grocers occasionally, fully baked and frozen.  I highly recommend.

Butterscotch Pecan. 2018.

"Made with butterscotch chips, crunchy pecans, heavy cream, butter and sugar."

Last time, I tried the large 4 ounce scones, and found them just a bit too big (well, for one sitting.  Part for breakfast, part with whipped cream for dessert was fine with me!).  This time, they were portioned differently, into mini scones, likely 2 ounces.  Baked fresh from frozen.  The size was absolutely perfect.  Not bite sized like a Starbucks petite scone, not too big to feel like you shouldn't finish it, but large enough to be absolutely satisfying.  Although, uh, of course I took two.

The texture was just like the blueberry ones, totally fascinating.  A bit fluffy and cakey, but also layered, like a biscuit, but also kinda firm like a scone (hence, the "biscone" name some distributors give them).  Not crumbly like an american scone, and very easy to eat.

Butterscotch Pecan: Inside.

They were loaded up with little bits of crunchy pecan, and full of totally caramelized butterscotch chips.  I loved how the butterscotch created caramely bits jutting out from the edges.

These were even better than the blueberry, and I'll gladly have more.  I'm certain I could easily take down the monster 4 ounce version of these with no problem!  ****+.

Butterscotch Pecan Scones. Full Size. June 2019.

I ordered these again the next year, remembering how awesome they were.  And I ordered them for dessert, even though I know they are sorta intended to be breakfast items.

The catering team baked them for us, and made them full size again, big monsters of scones, that none of us had *any* trouble finishing.  I failed to take a photo of the unwrapped scone, as I was too eager to dive into it.

And ... they were just as amazing as I remembered.  The texture, the scone-biscuit quality, is just so fascinating.  The pops of sweetness from butterscotch and the crunch from pecan kept you wanting for more.  Best warmed, and best with some whipped cream.

Everyone in the group raved about them, and I assure you, there were none left behind. ****+.

Cinnamon Chip. 

"This batter can make the kitchen smell amazing with warm spices and cinnamon chips throughout. "

It was hard to make myself order a flavor other than the butterscotch pean after such success, but, I finally did it and went for cinnamon chip.

The cinnamon chip were my least favorite, this time again baked off in the very large format.  Others all commented that they were simply too large, and either opted not to take one, or break it in half.  The smaller size was definitely more popular.  

Cinnamon Chip: Inside.

The texture was still the fascinating "biscone", kinda biscuit, kinda scone, and this time, studded with little cinnamon chips.  Everyone who had never had a biscone before loved them, commenting on the very unique flaky texture.

On top was cinnamon sugar crisp.

This was my least favorite variety only because it was a bit more plain, just cinnamon, rather then the caramelized goodness of the butterscotch, or the juicy blueberries.  But once I added whipped cream, and had it for dessert, it was still plenty good. ****.

Update Review, August 2017

I've reviewed David's Cookies before, when my mom received a mail order assortment of cookies and brownies, and I was quasi-impressed with the quality.

This time, I've had the opportunity to try several of the baked goods, available to foodservice vendors. And they are good. I was even more surprised.

Scones

"Butter and cream ensure a rich flavor and tender texture. 100% trans fat free. Sweet and savory varieties. Two formats available."

David's Cookies makes scones of several varieties (cinnamon chip, chocolate chip, raisin, cranberry orange, blueberry, butterscotch pecan, savory cheddar chive) in multiple frozen formats for food service distribution: thaw & serve, or individually frozen and ready-to-bake. My office occasionally offers the later for morning catering events, when they aren't able to bake fresh made items in-house.

The scones are a particular style. They are not the hard, crumbly style I tend to think of as "scones". Rather, they are soft and cakey, more like shortcake or biscuits. They are also very large, monster sized triangles, bigger than I really want as part of a balanced breakfast. They remind me a bit of Panera scones.

"The richness of a scone. The flakiness of a biscuit. The deliciousness of David's. It's all combined into one scrumptious biscone."

Amusingly, when I was trying to find out more about these, I saw one site labelled them "Biscones". I first thought it was a type-o, but I realize what they were getting at. Biscones = biscuit + scones. Cute. And more fitting.

Blueberry Scone.

"Incredible, delicious combination of blueberries, heavy cream, butter and sugar."

I liked these scones.  While I generally go for the more crumbly style of scones in the morning, I liked the tang to them, and the plentiful large blueberries inside.

It was also larger than I wanted, although I just saved some to have later in the day with whipped cream on top, and called it dessert.

So while too big, and not the style I prefer for breakfast, I think these are good, and, in particular, with some whipped cream, they make an excellent dessert, more like a shortcake. ****.

Crumb Cake

"A true crumb cake, rich and buttery, with a 50:50 ratio of crumb topping to cake. Fully baked, pre-portioned, 100% trans fat free. 48/6 oz portions per case. Simply thaw and serve."

David's makes crumb cakes in 4 flavors: original butter, raspberry, chocolate swirl, and caramel apple.  You can also purchase them fresh in regular sizes, but the ones I tried came through their foodservice distribution, a huge tray which arrived frozen, ready to serve upon thawing.

Original Butter.

"The American classic made with real butter cake base and cinnamon streusel topping dusted with powdered sugar."

"Our Original Crumb Cake is the perfect addition to a brunch or other gathering. Made with fresh butter, brown sugar and cinnamon streusel topping and gently dusted with powdered sugar, this pairs well with morning coffee or as a light dessert!"

"An American classic with a 60:40 ratio of cake to crumb topping. A dense & moist cake topped with a thick layer of scrumptious cinnamon streusel dusted with powdered sugar on top."

The website had 3 different descriptions of the product, so I give you them all.  The gist though?  Yeah, lots of butter, lots of streusel (which is either 60:40 or 50:50, depending on which part of the website you read ...)

The cake layer was moist, extremely buttery, and kinda plain otherwise.  It did not eat like a breakfast item, as it was too sweet, and too buttery, more like a rich pound cake.

OMG, the streusel.

The topping was delicious.  A very thick layer, as promised.  This first slice I had was more like 30/70, but I found later slices that were 70/30.  Soooo much topping.  Soft, sweet, cinnamony, buttery streusel.  The topping was a serious winner.

It was funny watching which slices different people went for.  Some clearly wanted more cake, less topping, and me?  I was all about the topping.

I think this coffee cake would make an excellent trifle layered with cream.

This is not a light item.  1/2 a piece has 430 calories, 29 grams of fat, and 29 grams of sugar.  Yes, half a slice.  It is made with palm oil, vegetable oil blend, corn syrup, sugar, brown sugar, invert sugar, etc, etc.  You get the point.  Not a wholesome item.  But delicious. ****+.

Individual Desserts

"Offering a wide selection of single serve cakes, cheesecakes and mousse desserts, these miniature masterpieces have flavor combinations such as raspberry with lemon, pineapple with coconut, and elegant dark chocolate mousse with edible gold pieces. Appealing to all types of foodservice segments, these pre-portioned desserts can shine in high-end establishments, catering services or small boutique stores. Every individual dessert is hand decorated and one of a kind!"

David's also sells some individual desserts to food service distributors, marketed as "Annie's Euro American Bakery", a variety of individual little cakes.

Cheesecake

Mango Guava Cheesecake.

"Refreshing contrast of both mango and guava cheesecake. Topped with a light mango puree mousse. Finished with toasted almonds."

This wasn't bad.

The base was classic graham cracker crust.  Decent texture, soft but firm, but it tasted like ... sawdust.

Next up is the mango cheesecake, fruity, good consistency.  Same with the guava cheesecake.  Good consistency, although I cared less for the flavor.

The "light mango puree mousse" layer I didn't like though.  It tasted like seriously fake mango.  And it was strange to have a fluffy layer on top like that.  Speaking of on top, why the almonds?

Overall, good texture to the cheesecake, but not flavors I really liked.

It also was not light, but, what should you expect from cheesecake? 520 calories each! ***.

Original Review, May 2015

Just to mix it up a bit, I'm going to stretch my "bakery" review day theme a bit to include ... mail order baked goods.  Hey, they still count as baked goods, and these are ones accessible to you anywhere in the US.  Expanding my review horizons!

David's is a large commercial "gourmet" baked goods manufacturer.  Given the name, you can guess what the signature product is: cookies.  They also make other baked goods such as brownies, scones, crumb cakes, and ruggalach.  Plus layer cakes, cheesecakes, chocolate truffle cakes, a slew of French tarts, and, randomly, chocolate covered strawberries.

I believe online is their largest market, although they seem to also have a large fundraising business, and have been around since 1979, so obviously their distribution channels have changed over time.  Corporate gifts and gift baskets seem to be the target market.

Cookie Brownie Party Tin, 5 lbs. $59.95.

When I was visiting my family, my mother received a lovely gift of a huge 5 pound party tin full of cookies and brownies from David's Cookies.  Ever curious, I had to try them.  All of them.  Even though you know I don't really like cookies.  I'd say it was for the benefit of the blog, but really, who am I kidding?  I can't resist trying a dessert, even if the chances of me liking it are low, as seemed the case with not even fresh cookies and brownies.

The tin had a selection of 6 types each of cookies and brownies.  The cookies were fine, but the brownies were far better.  Maybe next time someone will send her the decadent sounding cheesecakes ...

Cookies 

Cookies are obviously David's specialty, specifically chocolate chip cookies, although they make about 20 varieties.  Cookies come in tins, ranging from 1 to 5 pounds, or mixed with brownies or other items in gift baskets.  You can also buy the chocolate chip in mini form, or as frozen dough to bake off yourself.

Our tin had six varieties in it, and I obvious tried them all.  Sadly, our tin contained just the basics, not any of the fun ones like Butterscotch Pecan, Coconut Pecan, Red Velvet, Mint Chip or Smores, that David's also makes.

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin.

"They are made with cinnamon, thick molasses, sweet brown sugar, and vanilla for a taste that will bring you back to the good ol days."

The oatmeal raisin was the first cookie I tried.  A fairly standard oatmeal raisin cookie.  Decent heartiness from the oats.  Good distribution of not-too-hard raisins.  Soft enough style.

A classic cookie, and Ojan liked it too.  My second favorite of our batch.  I am curious what was "old fashioned" about it though ... what do new age oatmeal raisin cookies look like?  ***+.

They also make a orange oatmeal cranberry, which sounds like a fun seasonal selection around the holidays.

Macadamia White Chunk.

"What do you get when you combine delicious white chocolate with succulent macadamia nuts into one cookie?"

Next I moved on to the macadamia white chunk.

It was another softish cookie, although a bit overcooked and crispy.  However, there was only one macadamia in the entire cookie.  The distribution of raisins in the oatmeal raisin was totally acceptable, but this was not.  There were also a few fairly boring white chocolate chunks.  I did at least appreciate the use of chunks rather than chips, as they provided more sweetness.

Overall, there was nothing interesting here, it was just inoffensive.  My 4th pick overall.  ***.

Cherry with White Chips.

"Silky smooth butter, sweet sugar, creamy milk, and powdery flour are paired with the perfect balance of tart dried cherries and sweet white chocolate for the ideal cookie flavor."

Next, cherry white chip.  It was very similar to the macadamia white chip, just with dried cherries replacing the macadamias.

It also was a bit overcooked and crispy.  The base cookie was pretty boring.  The white chocolate chips were generic.  The cherries were large, but rock solid.

My sister, Ojan, and I all did not care for this, and we ended up throwing out the extras.  Our least favorite, by far. **.

Chocolate Chunk.

"David’s has perfected the art of the chocolate chip cookie by using only the best ingredients. Our recipe calls for fresh eggs, milk, velvety butter, and loads of big Hershey’s Chocolate chunks to create the most irresistible cookies on this planet. "

Next, the one Ojan was most looking forward to: chocolate chunk.

It had another slightly sweet standard cookie base.  It was a nice soft style, not overcooked like the white chip varieties.  Although I doubted them for using Hershey, since I don't exactly endorse the the quality of Hershey chocolate, the milk chocolate really wasn't bad.  And chocolate chunks are obviously better than little chips.

Like the oatmeal raisin, this was a pretty standard chocolate chunk cookie, no more, no less.  My 3rd pick. ***.

Double Chocolate Chunk.

"They have gigantic chunks of Hershey's chocolate mixed into smooth and sweet chocolate cookie dough. It's a soft chocolatey cookie stuffed with delicious chunks of milk chocolate."

Like with the chocolate chunk, I appreciated the large chocolate chunks, and again I didn't actually mind the Hershey chocolate.  But the base cookie wasn't very chocolatey, so flavor-wise, it didn't offer much over the standard chocolate chip.  This was Ojan's favorite flavor, since he does love chocolate the most, but my second to last pick.  Low ***.

[ No Photo ]

Peanut Butter with Peanut Butter Chips

"Our original cookie dough made with fresh butter, sugar, flour, eggs, and milk is swirled with peanut butter and Peanut Butter Chips for one of our most divine cookies ever."

This was, hands down, the winner of the bunch, and I didn't get a photo of it.

The base was the winning component, full of peanut butter flavor.  It was accented with further peanut butter in the chips throughout.  The style was more like the macadamia and cherry cookies however, crispier than I would prefer.

My favorite, but still, not something I needed more of. ***+.

Brownies

David's also makes 6 varieties of brownies: Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Swirl, Cheesecake, Pecan, Rocky Road, and Macaroon, plus a Blondie.   Brownies are available alone, or mixed with cookies or crumbcakes in tins or boxes.

The chocolate varieties all use a chocolate chip base, "made with pure melted chocolate and loaded with sweet chocolate chips", Hershey again.   Each brownie is a large 4 ounce "slice".

Unlike the cookies that were loose in the tin, the brownie slices were individually packaged.  Our tin contained all 6 varieties of brownie, but no blondies.  The peanut butter swirl and cheesecake were my first picks based on descriptions, but both looked rather dried out, so I skipped them. 

Pecan.

"A luscious blend of our fudgy chocolate chip brownie with gently toasted buttery pecans."

The pecan brownie was indeed fudgy, fairly rich, and not dried out or stale, which surprised me a bit.  I did enjoy the addition of the chips for an extra chocolate burst, and the nuts for crunch.  For a packaged brownie, it was not bad. ***+.

Rocky Road.

"Indulgent black walnuts, rich peanut butter chips and a chocolate swirl on top make this brownie the one to cure any craving."

Next, the fun sounding Rocky Road.

There was a lot of goodness in this one.  Again, a very rich, fudgy chocolate chip base.  I liked the addition of the peanut butter chips and the nuts.  A good mix of textures and flavors.

Again, for a not fresh brownie, it was fairly tasty.  ***+.

Macaroon.

"Our newest brownie starts with our classic brownie and covers it deep in toasted coconut with a drizzle of chocolate."

This was a very dry brownie.

The base brownie was mild chocolate, fairly dried out.  It had a shredded coconut layer on top of that which was very dry.  Artistically drizzled with chocolate which looked nice, but didn't really add much flavorwise.

Definitely the losing brownie, way too dried out, and with no real flavor. *+.

Amici's East Coast Pizzeria

Update Review, 2024

Another event with Amici's, and yeah, um, I don't like this pizza.

BBQ Chicken.

"Chicken, red onion, bacon, cilantro, romano, mozzarella, tomato sauce, bbq sauce."

I don't like chicken, but I do often tolerate bbq chicken pizza, as I love bbq sauce and red onions.  I usually just kinda eat around the chicken.  Unfortunately, the Amici's version left me extremely disappointed.  And confused at first.  Why ... why did I taste standard red sauce on my bbq pizza?  The answer?  Because that is how they make it.  They just add a little bbq on top of the red sauce.  The result, at least to me, was totally muddled flavors, not allowing the bbq I was looking forward to to shine, and just totally didn't work.  I don't think I've ever seen another a bbq chicken pizza use tomato sauce too, and, well, there is a reason for that.

Other than the muddled sauce situation, the rest of the slice was meh too - same not good crust and cheese of their other pies, and very gristly chicken that was mixed in with greasy bacon and hard to avoid.  Nothing I enjoyed about this at all. *.

Update Review, October 2023

A bunch of years ago, I wrote about Amici's East Coast Pizzeria, and, at the time, all I reviewed was the lackluster meatballs (see below).  I haven't sought out Amici's since, and never was that excited by their pizza, but recently attended an event catered by Amici's, so, pizza it was.

Our hosts ordered an assortment of pizzas (all large), and I tried a couple.  Note that this was just a few weeks after I returned from living in NY for a month, and, let's just say, it wasn't even in the same ballpark.  

Trentino. $42.75.

"Parmesan, crumbled feta, baby spinach, red onions, pancetta, herbs, meyer lemon olive oil, mozzarella (no tomato sauce)."

I did not know what kind of pizza this was when I grabbed a slice of the Trentino, I was simply drawn in by the red onions and crispy bits of what looked like delicious pork product.

The crispy bits of delicious pork product turned out to be just that - super crispy, very flavorful, quite salty, bits of pancetta.  I did quite like the pancetta.  There was a nice amount of it on one side, but the other half really was sparse.  Not exactly consistent in the topping application.

The red onion and baby spinach were good, they went well with the pancetta.  I'm not really one for feta though, so that brought this down a few notches for me, and, although I do think the lack of red sauce made sense, and let the toppings shine, it did eat a bit dry.

The crust was mediocre, not particularly good, not an interesting flavor, nor great chew, nor anything redeeming, but at least it wasn't soggy.  Lower end mediocre.  The cheese was average.

Overall, a pretty generic and mediocre piece of pizza, but, the pancetta and onions really were tasty.  **** for those, **+ otherwise, *** overall.

Trentino. $42.75.

"Parmesan, crumbled feta, baby spinach, red onions, pancetta, herbs, meyer lemon olive oil, mozzarella (no tomato sauce)."

A few weeks later, I was at another event with Amici's pizza, and was drawn back in by the memory of the tasty pancetta.  It was again good, but not quite as memorable, and I was more distracted by the strong feta and such lackluster crust this time.  **.

Hawaiian. $35.75.

"Honey-cured ham, pineapple, mozzarella, tomato sauce."

I know hawaiian pizza can be polarizing for some people.  I am not those people.  I don't generally go for pineapple in other places (meh to pineapple in sweet and sour dishes, meh to pineapple on ice cream, meh to pineapple in fruit salad, etc), but, I do like the sweetness with ham on pizza.  That said, I did not like this pizza.

The crust was the same as the previous slice, pretty meh.  The sauce was uninteresting.  Cheese mediocre.  Ham was like Canadian bacon, really porky, and tough.  I didn't care for it at all.  Pineapple was fine, just canned crushed pineapple.

Overall, just not good, and I didn't enjoy this at all.  *.

Combo. $42.75.

"Pepperoni, meatball, bacon, sautéed mushrooms, black olives, mozzarella, tomato sauce."

I didn't actually try the combo, this is just here for illustrative purposes.  The distribution of ingredients was really not ideal, soooo many black olives everywhere!

Original Review, April 2022

I don't really eat that much pizza these days.   This makes me a complete mystery to my parents, who have pizza night every single week, without fail, and love having the leftovers to eat for several days.  More than half the days of a week my dad eats pizza.  But me?  Eh.  

Back when I first moved to San Francisco, pizza was definitely heavy in my rotation, and that meant basically one of two places: Little Star (which I've reviewed several times before) or Patxi's (generally when in the South Bay because it was close to where I lived).  Always for deep dish.  Little Star cornmeal crust deep dish really is a special thing.  But I mostly moved on from frequenting the Mission (where I'd go to Little Star, despite the epic waits), and mostly just don't crave pizza (of course, I went through a thin crust Delfina phase, and had to check out the hype that was Tony's too at some point).

But even if I don't care about pizza, Amici's has been on my radar, a chain with locations all throughout the bay area, one of which I used to walk by regularly.  I remember having it a few times, always for delivery at an event and thinking, "meh".  Standard, "East Coast" style pizza.  Bo-ring.

During the pandemic Amici's pivoted, shuttering several of their locations and instead moving to takeout/delivery only, from ghost or cloud kitchens.  It is from one of those kitchens, located at 60 Moris street, that I finally tried Amici's again.

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
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• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

Beef Meatballs. $5.75.

Meh.

All I can say about these.

The sauce really had no depth.  Just, tomato sauce.  Actually, I think, pizza sauce?  It was no different from any grocery store jarred sauce.

The meatballs were like what I remember the mini meatballs in Spaghettios or Chef Boyardee being like, just, bigger. That is, they were mushy, not spongy exactly, but, soft in an odd way.  Eh.

The meatballs were served with no cheese or anything to jazz this up (ok, partial point for some herb garnish?).

I absolutely would not get again and was rather shocked at how low quality this dish seemed to be.  Only good with some penne and cheese, if you were, you know, craving canned-tasting meatballs.

**.

Caesar Salad (with Anchovies). $7.95.

"Crisp romaine, housemade croutons, freshly grated parmesan. Served with Caesar dressing. Complimentary anchovy fillets added upon request."

I moved on to the caesar salad, at least a legit offering with anchovies optional.  The salad came nicely packaged up, with the croutons and dressing on the side, so not to get soggy.  Points for that.

Salad Base: SO MUCH CHEESE.

There was, um, a lot of cheese on top.  Literally, a cup of cheese on here.  That said, it was indeed fresh grated, it wasn't dried out, and it was a decent quality, had some nuttiness to it.  Above average for a generic pizza place, and clearly they didn't skimp.  The meatballs really could have used some of this generosity.

Below the cheese was ... the ANCHOVIES!  Yes, you can ask for anchovies, complimentary, which I most definitely did.  Like the cheese, there were actually tons of anchovies.  Salty, briny, exactly what you'd expect from anchovies.  I adored these, and was so glad to see them on here.

And finally the lettuce, standard caesar base of torn romaine.  Seemed fresh, crisp, decent portion, good size chunks.

The base of this salad was remarkably solid, I was rather shocked to be honest, solidly above average.

***+.  

House Made Croutons.

I appreciated that the croutons were on the side, even though I didn't ask for this.  Yay to not soggy croutons.

The croutons, just like the salad base, kinda surprised me in their quality.  The portion was generous, the cubes were extremely well seasoned (tons of Italian herbs!), they were very crunchy but not too crisp (clearly lots of olive oil used!), and they tasted, well, like a pizzeria.

These were very good croutons. Again, ***+.

Caesar Dressing.

And finally, the dressing.

This is something I'm always polar on with Caesar.  There are two styles of Caesar dressing usually, the thinner, vinaigrette style, and the nice thick mayo style.  And of course some are loaded with parmesan.  Some use real anchovy.

My personal preference is the thick mayo style, minimal parmesan in the dressing, and bring on the anchovy.

This was somewhere in the middle.  It was a vinaigrette style, but a thicker one.  It was loaded with grated parmesan.  I'm not sure about anchovy.  The flavor was decent, not too tangy, and very cheese forward.  Certainly not my favorite Caesar dressing, but, good.  And seemed quite possibly house made?

***.