Yaghi’s New York Pizzeria
4220 W. William Cannon, 891-7900;
various locations
Sunday-Thursday, 10am-9pm;
Friday-Saturday, 10am-10pm
www.yaghisnewyorkpizzeria.com
Yaghi’s is geared toward neighborhood delivery, as evidenced by the bank of phones and the mountain of to-go boxes (at the William Cannon location). The website makes it seem more restaurant than pizzeria, but think pizzeria and you’re on target. There are a dozen high stools at two high counters, so dining in comfort isn’t paramount. The pitch is for stone-baked, yet pies are cooked on a screen, which defeats the purpose of a baking stone.
The dough was the best thing about our Yaghi’s pizza: relatively thin, yeasty, flavorful, and cooked correctly (although the screen makes it too uniform, with no charred spots). The tomato sauce was nondescript, yielding few secrets and not a lot more flavor. The mozzarella cheese appears to be a decent grade and was applied at the correct ratio to not overwhelm the rest of the pie. The sausage was sub-crumble in size, too dry, with no fat. Our guess is that frozen crumbles were prebaked so that there would be less grease; the only problem with that is that grease equals flavor. Sizes are 14-, 16-, and 18-inch, with prices between $11 and $20.
For a neighborhood pizza delivery joint, Yaghi’s is just fine. It certainly looks neighborhood NYC, but the boys in the boroughs would demand more sausage cooked on the pizza (and would probably want sliced instead of crumbles), and they’d tell Yaghi to ditch the pizza screens.
This article appears in September 11 • 2009.
