La Pizza Mia!

It was lunch time and I was sitting at my desk thinking about dinner – go figure! I dialed Luke’s number to get his thoughts. As the phone rang and I waited for him to answer, I had a revelation - Pizza! So, when he finally answered the phone I said to him, “baby, can we get pizza for dinner tonight?” Without pause he agreed and I was faced with the challenge of finding an amazing pizza joint near our new place.

In the almost two months we have lived at the townhouse, we have not once gone out for pizza or had pizza delivered or anything – what’s that about?!? After some rummaging around the internet, I made my decision and chose a restaurant called La Pizza Mia for dinner. It wasn’t the closest pizza joint, nor did it have the highest ratings in the reviews I read but it appealed to me and after printing out a coupon from their website I decided that was the place we were going for dinner.

La Pizza Mia is located at 118 West Bay Drive in Largo. It’s in an unassuming plaza on the north side of West Bay just west of Missouri Avenue. The plaza has a green overhang and La Pizza Mia is the first suite closest to the road. Luke and I walked in from the back door where there is a small outside patio with five or six tables set up for outside seating. The inside was just as humble with three small booths going up one side, two larger booths up the other side, and a table or two in the middle. It’s a quaint little space, with Italian paraphernalia adorning the walls, wood paneling accents, and the feel of Italia.

There seemed to be only one waitress and then three or four other people in the kitchen. All of the inside tables were full, there was a man waiting on a take-out order, and a party of 10 was packing in to a table set up in the center of the restaurant. The waitress came back to take our drink order, offering us a glass of wine or sangria; I chose a glass of wine, Luke ordered a beer. She returned quickly with our drinks. The sangria was delicious, fruity with velvety undertones from the bourbon. It came in a small serving, and I probably could have drank ten of them, but I happily sipped at my teeny glass of adult fruit punch.

A short time later, the waitress returned to take our order. She let us know about the special, a large 1-Topping Pizza for $8.99, and told us about the early bird dinner menu, entrees for only $7 from 3:00pm – 6:00pm. Luke and I were set on pizza though and since we wanted more than one topping we used the coupon I had printed from their website, http://lapizzamiapizzeria.com/, 1 large 5-Topping Pizza for $12.99. We made our topping choses and ordered a large pizza with mushrooms, black olives, spinach, ham, and meatball.

Luke and I chatted and stared at all the things on the walls, nodding to each other in approval. The waitress was running around taking care of other tables and passing by mouthing sorry, as if we were waiting too long – which we weren’t. The pizza took maybe 15-20 minutes before it came out to the table, hot and bubbling, and covered in toppings. The chef served us himself, placing one giant slice each on the customary pizzeria brown plates. We dug in immediately happily burning our mouths on the cheese and toppings.

The pizza was phenomenal! First off it was huge as a good large pizza should be, second the crust was thin and crusty on the outside and deliciously chewy on the inside. It was apparent that all the ingredients were fresh, the mushrooms, the spinach, and the olives all fresh – nothing I hate more than a mushroom out of a can. The ham was placed on the pizza in large pieces, none of that diced up ham bits you see on so many pizzas. The meatballs, my favorite part, were fresh and made from scratch.  The sauce was equally delicious and you could see the specs of herbs all over the pizza. This was a scrumptious pie and Luke and I both agreed that this would be our new pizza joint.

After we had our fill of our yummy pizza pie, we asked for a box and ordered a tiramisu for dessert. Luke had never tried tiramisu and so we decided to give it a shot. I wondered if the tiramisu would come out of the freezer like it does in so many other restaurants and to my dismay it did. It was still half frozen, giving the mascarpone cream an almost frost-bitten ice cream feel. It was still tasty but nothing I would order again.

 



Nevertheless, it was pizza that we came for and the pizza was incredible. The other dishes I saw coming out of the tiny kitchen looked equally delicious.  La Pizza Mia, isn't fancy, they aren't going to get you in and out in under thirty minutes, but they are going to give you incredible Italian cusine.  My recommendation, if you live in the area or even if you don’t, do yourself a favor and try La Pizza Mia the next time you need an Italian fix; maybe I'll see ya there! Xoxo!



Luke enjoying a yummy slice!