Battle of the New Pizza Joints

You might be forgiven for thinking that the one thing Hoboken didn’t really need more of was pizza joints; you can probably think of about two dozen already in existence right off the top of your head. Hoboken’s a growing town, sure, and there’s a spread in terms of quality among all those restaurants, of course. But still, you might wonder if we really need more pizza.A few folks obviously think we do, since they recently opened up a bunch of new pizza places. While there’s been a rash of pizza around town in general, we thought we’d concentrate on the three most recent additions to our fair city: Buona Pizza on Park Avenue, Tenth Street Pizza and Pasta, and Zero Otto Uno on Washington. How do they stack up?

Buona Pizza

Located where the old Marina Deli used to be, this place is a back-to-basics place offering pizza, pasta, cold and hot subs, and an assortment of soups and sides. It’s not the most inspiring spot (it still looks like a deli that someone turned into a pizza place) but the food is surprisingly solid, and the prices are very good for Hoboken these days. Not a place you’re going to sit down and have lunch at, but definitely a place you can order from on a busy night—and they’re offering 10% discounts for online ordering.

Tenth Street Pizza and Pasta

This cozy spot (across the street from 10th & Willow, one of our fave bars) is nicely decorate and laid out, unpretentious (and, actually, easy to miss during the day!). Unusually, there are no menus—you just have to check what they have when you show up, though generally they offer square and round pizzas with homemade cheese and toppings, which are uniformly delicious.We’ve heard rumor of Sunday evening dinner seatings with traditional Italian dinners, though we haven’t experienced them ourselves. That’s a life goal, however, based on the pizza and the atmosphere, which is relaxed and sophisticated at the same time. It’s just a minor tweak from your standard pizza spot, but it makes a huge difference.

Zero Otto Uno

Another place marking out a unique niche, offering true pizza Napoletana and other authentic Italian dishes, as opposed to the Italian-American fare you most often encounter here. Which is not dragging Italian-American cuisine, but there’s a difference. The Neopolitan-style pizza isn’t going to deliver particularly well unless they race it out the door to you in record time, so think about sitting down for dinner—and keep in mind they have a pretty broad menu aside from pizza, so bring your appetite and maybe try a mix of things.So there you have it: There’s room for more pizza in town if you find a niche that isn’t being served and concentrate on the fundamentals. At the risk of encouraging even more pizza joints to spring up in the coming months, we have to say that at least as far as these three go, we’ll allow it.