"A while back I decided to have a new restaurant series for my dining room group, Pleasure Palate to get around pizza. If I consider how many pizza connections are in Los Angeles, I knew this would be a series of dining that would probably bring me into infinity, but you need to do what you sometimes have to do, so "The Great Pizza Hunt" was up. First Tony's Little Italy pizza was in Placentia. The reason I decided to start with Tony is that her specialty is Chicago style pizza. My only experience with Chicago Pizza was actually in Chicago at Giordano’s where her pizza is called filled pizza. I found out later that the main difference between a filled pizza and a deep dish pizza is that the filled pizza has a dough layer that goes over the pizza and does not have the deep plate version. If Chicagoers read this review, please correct me if I'm wrong. Although I am more of a thin crust pizza type of Gal, I have my eve in Chicago Pizza and hoped to find something similar in LA; so, Tony's Little Italy Pizza. Going to Tony's, I could definitely say that the owners dedicated their Chicago sports teams with a wall dedicated to the Chicago Bears and the other wall, all over the Chicago Cubs. Since I had been late for an accident on the highway, my group was already there and took the initiative to order two deep dishes, although filled cakes were also on the menu. Lunch consisted of Tony’s Special with sausages, mushrooms, peppers, onions and a pizza that was half with pepper salad and half olives/givers and onions. When both pizzas arrived, our eyes spread with wonder. Wow, these pizzas were not delicate little darlings. They looked awful. I first tried a slice of half pepperoni/sausage pizza and as a smaller slice of paprika/olive/ onion pizza. Then I had a piece of Tony's special. Do you know what words came into mind after each disc? Disappointment soon followed by More Disappointment. Granted, it's been a few years since I had this pizza in Giordano, but I remember it's a thing of beauty. The ingredients were beautifully layered and they were not drown in the sea of tomato sauce and cheese. In fact, I could even say where all the ingredients were put. Both pizzas I tried at Tony were literally a “hot measurement”. Just as mentioned above, it was a spice of tomato sauce and cheese, all mixed together. At one point I could not even say that the sausage/pepperoni pizza even had pepperoni until I looked more closely at a cross section of one of the slices and pepperoni looked exactly above the crust and under the cheese. It felt like there was no restraint. I also felt that she really limited the amount of blows. If you have any of the punches on one of your pizza slices, you were pretty happy. Sometimes it felt like I was eating crust, tomato sauce and cheese. If you add all this, a crust that burned a little bit at the edges, which would make it harder to chew and ingredients that should have been more tasteful, neither the pizzas at Tony’s were the Chicago pizza of my dreams. Come on, how can pepperoni and sausage have no taste?? As far as the sauce is concerned, it was okay, although a little sweeter than I would like and at least the cheese was ooey and gooey, so this is a positive thing to consider. Overall, as I mentioned earlier, I was quite disappointed and definitely has no plans to return to Tonys."
