David Ellis on Paulie's: New York pizza for £5 a slice? Fuhgeddaboudit

Evening Standard

2 days ago

There is something cheerfully insouciant about Paulie's, like it too is always on the move and doesn't have time for any Limey bullshit. Toppings are somewhat scattershot, as if tossed on while simultaneously hailing a cab — discs of pepperoni huddled like hoodlums at one end of the slice, leaving the rest of it bare. It is a fault easily rectified. There seemed more care with the vodka and sausage slice, which takes the late 1970s Italian-American favourite of vodka sauce — the booze may taste of nothing but it draws out sweetness from tomatoes, or at least I like to believe it does — and mixes it with pancetta, gently herby Italian sausage and that mozzarella/pecorino combo. This is something to schlep for. That vodka-induced sweetness hit like a sugar fix. I went to the counter and ordered another. On the move? We stayed put.