Restaurant Review – Best Pizza, Best BBQ, OK Lobster

I’ve had quite a few pizzas here since my wife and I moved to Florida three years ago. Up until this past Saturday the top two pizzas I’ve had was at Mellow Mushroom (not reviewed) and and ODA Pizzeria Bistro (reviewed). The Mellow Mushroom pizza I liked was, ironically, the mushroom pizza and now that I think of it, that was one of my favorite pizzas at ODA! Maybe I just like mushrooms! Or the truffle oil? That always helps! 🙂 But I consider these types of pizzas specialty pizzas that can vary widely from place to place. But what about the standard kind of pizzas with sausage, pepperoni, onions and green pepper, etc, etc., you know, no fancy ingredients? Well, friends Harry and Maria took us to a pizza joint (and I do mean joint in the nicest possible way) located out on MacGregor called 3 City Pizzeria. I know its way out there and a good drive, but what isn’t?

Why is it called 3 City? I’m guessing its because they do New York, Chicago and Detroit style pizzas. If you like Chicago, you can get deep dish or thin crust. We got the thin crust and boy was that good! I’ve probably eaten more Chicago thin crust pizzas than deep dish, but its close. We didn’t really want all that bread, so thin crust it was. And let me tell you, it was really thin AND crispy. The crunch on that was fantastic. Even the cold leftovers the next day still had some crunch in the outside crust! We got one of their specialty pizzas off the menu and asked for the pepperoni to be only on one half and the sausage to be on the other half. This sometimes causes a lot of confusion for the staff, but not here. Special orders don’t upset them! I really like the Italian sausage. It was actually chunks of Italian sausage instead of those frozen kibbles and bits pieces of sausage other places use. Very tasty pizza! Harry and Maria’s New York style Pizza Margerita looked good too and they enjoyed it. If you got time and like to drive around Ft Myers, you have to check out this pizza place! Click on the link above to go to their website.

Next up is Hogbody’s Bar and Grill on Bayshore Rd about a mile or so east of 31. So this one is close and the food is fantastic AND reasonably priced! I can’t believe it took us 3 years to get here, but thanks to Jerry and Susan its now on our list of go to restaurants! I had the Super Duper Combo which includes a half slab of ribs, 6 wings and 6 shrimp with two sides. I had a side of Mac and Cheese, which I recommend and a side of potato salad which I didn’t care for that much, so maybe get a different side. Jerry said the potato salad varies. One day its lots of mayo, like that day, and other times its fine.. He said the collard greens were delicious. The ribs were fall off the bone tender, which I like. The shrimp were breaded and fried and cooked perfectly. And the wings were lip smacking good. I got them with the Honey BBQ sauce, but you can get them with any one of 47 different sauces! With all kinds of levels of heat and sweet! Crazy!

We had the Lobsta Mobsta food truck at the Amenity Center this past Thursday. It was ok. After spending $60 on 2 dishes I think it should have been a little better. Next time I’ll get the fish and chips for $16. So why didn’t I like the hot lobster roll or the lobster mac and cheese? The lobster they use is a frozen product I used to buy when my wife and I had restaurants. The claw meat looks very impressive, but when you try to take a bite it kind of has a spongy texture and you can’t bite through it. So then you get a big chunk in your mouth and you have to chew and chew. I used to cut it into smaller pieces with making a lobster roll salad. I used the big claw pieces in lobster pasta dishes. I think cooking it in the sauce helped tenderize it some more. The lobster mac and cheese looked impressive, again with the big claws on top., but I had the same problems eating it. The Cheese sauce had a little too much roux in it and was a little too pasty instead of creamy. This was the most I ever spent at a food truck, so it was kind of disappointing. Next time, I’ll stick to the fish and chips or a shrimp dish. BTW, I stopped using that lobster product after the price went sky high. I started to buy small lobster tails and cook them for my lobster dishes. The meat texture is more of what the public is used to and it kept the prices reasonable!