Tommy’s Coal Fired Pizza
Rt. 35 and West Park Avenue
Oakhurst NJ 07755
732.695.6010
While we were in Florida we really didn’t eat much pizza, once in almost 8 weeks to be exact, because, frankly, good pizza is hard to come by in Florida. So needless to say we all had a hankering for some good pizza. This time around there was just three of us, The Captain, Joe and myself went to Tommy’s on Friday night.
When Tommy’s Oakhurst opened up down the street from us, of course your first thought is, “oh great, another pizza place”. Well not really, it’s actually much more than just a pizza place. The décor is very cool, with old pictures of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. etc. you get the picture. Dark wood and an open kitchen with the coal fired ovens on display. The bar area is very comfortable, and it’s a nice place to go even just to have a drink and watch the sport du jour, something which actually was lacking in Oakhurst for a long time.
We haven’t been to Tommy’s in a quite a while and it seems that they have added a few selections to their menu. The décor was the same and for a Friday night in the summer it was not too crowded, but it was early. By the time we were finished there were a lot more people coming in. We were seated promptly in a booth that had vantage points of TV’s airing pre- season football, much to Joe’s delight, Pizza and football, what’s better than that? The waitress came over quickly and took our drink order, The Captain ordered a beer (unusual?), he wanted Corona light, however, they don’t carry it, so he settled on Heineken light. Joe ordered a coke and I ordered the Red Sangria. I am not a big red wine drinker (or really any wine),however, I am a sucker for a good Sangria. This one was good, full bodied and plenty of fresh fruit in it with a hint of brandy flavor.
We have really only had the pizza here before, so this time I wanted to sample a couple of other things. We ordered the coal oven roasted wings (a small order), a large pie, original style, half sausage and I ordered a black and bleu Caesar salad with blackened Chicken.
The wings came out pretty quickly.
They come on a sizzling cast iron plate (not sure if this is what they are cooked on), and they are “smothered “ in roasted onions with a roasted green banana pepper and some garlic bread, you also have an option of having buffalo sauce and blue cheese, we picked blue cheese but passed on the buffalo sauce. The wings were very good, perfectly cooked with a nice “crust”, they were seasoned well and the roasting process makes them crispy and juicy. The Captain especially liked these and he’s not even a wing fan, he never orders the usual fried wings when we go out. The onions were tasty but usually we both stay away from too much of the onion and pepper thing to save on our Tums bill!
Black and Blue Caesar Salad with Blackened Chicken.
The black and blue salad came out soon after the wings, even though I really intended it to be for an entrée for me. It was fine, I just put it aside until the pizza came out. The salad is basically exactly what it’s name says it is, it is a Romaine Caesar Salad that has blue cheese and blackened Chicken on it and some crispy croutons are on it as well. The salad was good, the lettuce was fresh and crispy so I knew the Caesar dressing hadn’t been sitting on it for too long. The chicken was a tad spicy for me, but I am a lightweight when it comes to spice, so for most people it would probably be fine. The blue cheese was sharp and there was not so much of it as to overpower the taste of the salad, but still enough to relieve the spiciness of the chicken.
When we ordered the pizza, the waitress had asked us if we wanted the crust golden or dark. Well, The Captain likes his dark and Joe and I like it Golden, so we asked for the “darker side of golden”, and they did a pretty good job. The sausage side of the crust was darker which was good because Joe doesn’t eat the sausage pizza. The pizza here is good, the crust is thin but not so thin that there isn’t a little bit of chewiness and bite to it. The red sauce is sweet and smooth, it’s not chunky, and the crust isn’t smothered in the sauce. The mozzarella cheese is fresh and it melted nicely on the pie, it’s not too salty which I like, but Joe wanted a little extra grated cheese for some more flavor. The Italian sausage was cut into little cubes instead of big pieces and was flavorful and sweet.
All in all, the dinner was very good, the pizza was better than I remember and the wings were definitely the star in this meal. I would recommend this restaurant if you are looking for a nice pizza dinner, but want a little better than the corner pizza joint.
Have you been to Tommy’s? If so how did you like it?
Happy Eating!
Chrissy
Happy Eating!
Chrissy
