Ricobene's: A Bhutanese-Nepali Pizza Review

I had occasion last week to take pick up a Bhutanese-Nepali guy from Midway airport here in Chicago.  Had a couple Nepalis with me and we were hungry and had time to kill.  So, we punched the work "Pizza" in my GPS and wandered around looking for a place to eat.  We ended up at a little place called "Ricobene's" We ordered a large, pan-crust, pepperoni and some chicken wings, and waited.

Well, the chicken wings were pretty awful, but this is a pizza review. On that front, it was a different story.  Ricobene's pizza was delicious. My Nepali companions were very impressed.  Here are the scores:

Critic 1: 3 Caesars
Critic 2: 3 Caesars
Critic 3: 4 Caesars

So, Ricobene's gets a record score of 3.33 Caesars! That will be tough to beat.

(A "Caesar" refers to a regular $5 pizza from Little Caesars. The question is, how many Caesars would you trade for one of these pizzas?)

Gulliver's: A Bhutanese-Nepali Pizza Review

 Our second stop on my Chicagoland pizza tour -- in search of the perfect pizza for Bhutanese-Nepalis -- led me to "Gulliver's Pizza and Pub".  Gulliver's claims that its pan pizza is "famous".  I mean, it's even on the sign.  So, we stopped in and ordered it.

By "pan" they basically mean Chicago deep dish, which is fine.  However, their version of it seems to be famous for being kind of bad.  The pizza we received was . . . well . . . goupy, watery.  Kind of disgusting really.  I kind of hated the fact that my Bhutanese companions were experiencing deep dish for the first time at such a place.  I spent a great deal of effort trying to convince them that this by no means represents real Chicago deep dish.  Not sure if they believed me.

Well, the final analysis came down to our key question.  How many Little Caesar's pizzas would you trade for one of these Gulliver's pizzas?  Remember, Little Caesar's $5 "hot and ready" is the Bhutanese default pizza.  The answers:

Critic #1- 0.5
Critic #2- 0.5
Critic #3- 1

So, Gulliver's gives us our lowest score thus far, 0.6 Caesars!  Yikes, can't get much worse than that.  Another review coming soon.

Roundheads: A Bhutanese Pizza Review

This may seem strange.

Odd content for a missiology blog, right?  Well, keep in mind that mine is a kind of missiology "on the way" blog -- lived missiology.  With that in mind, sometimes you have to just take your mind off things.  Last weekend was kind of a nightmare and in the midst of it, a few of us just needed to unplug and eat pizza. I went with a couple individuals from our Bhutanese-Nepali community with whom I am very close and we decided to try a pizza place that was totally new to all of us.  We ended up at Roundhead's Pizza and Pub.

As we were eating, we thought that it would be good for us to visit every local pizza place around and to review them, just for fun. And, well, I suppose as long as they're buying, I'm game.  So here's the deal: I had to come up with a point/scoring system that would make sense to them. Scales of 1-10 or A-F are a bit foreign.  So, we decided to use Little Caesar's as a base line.  Around here, the $5 "hot and ready" pizzas are the standard for the Bhutanese-Nepalis.  So, after we finished eating our tasty, medium double-dough, pepperoni and jalapeño 14-incher, I asked my fellow food critics, "How many Little Caesar's pizzas would you trade for one of these?" Our scores:

Critic #1 -- 1.5 Caesars
Critic #2 -- 2 Caesars
Critic #3 -- 2 Caesars

So there you have it! Roundhead's gets a score of 1.83 Caesars in our first-ever Bhutanese Pizza Review.  Since this is our first review, I have no way of knowing how good a score that will prove to be.  But, I know we all left feeling full and having enjoyed the tasty fare.

If you've eaten at Roundhead's, let us know what you think of it.

Peace!