Checking out the $1 Slice at Maffei’s Pizza Truck

1 Dollar Pizza Truck

Earlier this summer, I came across a $1 Slice Truck outside Maffei’s on 22nd street. I love me some $1 pizza, so I was psyched to find out that they were planning on parking in midtown with some frequency. (And especially excited after reading about Maffei’s Grandma’s slice in Jason’s Flatiron Lunch review.) It took awhile for my schedule to sync up with the pizza truck (ML twitter tracker stalking, anyone?) but I finally had a chance to check out the goods.

Here’s my pizza philosophy… if I’m not going to have a really great pie, then I want my slice to be fresh and cheap. Most of the midtown slice joints that I’ve tried are pricier than I want to pay for the quality of their goods. In my book, a fresh, cheap slice beats a pricey middling slice any day, but it’s got to be fresh. And with a good $1 slice joint, if you go at the right time you can generally get a hot and fresh one without too much waiting.

Timing was not on my side in this case. I couldn’t get away for lunch until later in the afternoon so it was about 2:30 by the time I finally made it to the truck’s 40th street parking location. There was only one person in line ahead of me so I got my order pretty quickly. One grandma slice to go, please!

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Their grandma slice was decently sized and topped with plum tomatoes (shredded, not cooked in a sauce), mozzarella, and a fair sprinkling of basil and oregano.

$1 Maffei's Pizza

The crust was thin, but not super thin and it was a nice ratio of cheese and tomato, but if you’re not a fan of thin crust slices or pizza without a cooked sauce, this isn’t for you. I only wish my slice had been hot and fresh. And as luncher “sugartoof” reported, they didn’t reheat the slice to get the cheese back in the melty zone. There was a pie in progress in the oven that I saw the guy check up on and I should have seen if I could wait for it. I wonder if they’d reheat slices if you requested it? Still their slices are cheaper than any other pizza truck in midtown and for $1 I’d be willing to give their slice another shot, I’m just going to try to hit it at peak lunch time so there’s more of a chance that I’ll get a fresh slice.
Two Pizza Trucks

Whoa, it’s like a pizza truck showdown…

While I was at the truck I noticed that they are now cups baked ziti for $2. I didn’t have any extra cash on me–I actually paid for my slice with quarters from the bottom of my purse, so I’ll have to give their pasta special a try as well on my next trip, according to twitter it looks like they also occasionally do a rigatoni and vodka sauce special as well. Sounds like I’ll be making a return trip for some further investigation.

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8 Comments

  • I find myself thinking that $1 is too much for a cold, non-melty slice of pizza that looks like it has some OK crust but absolutely nothing else going for it.

  • Looks as appealing as an old dockworker’s calloused heel

  • i went a couple weeks ago and got 3 slices fresh out of the oven. i was quite happy with it.

  • I ran across them in mid-July their first week out and enjoyed it. Can’t find a better $1 slice, and it was better than some $2.50 slices. http://tinyurl.com/2dvumww

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    I was pleased with the sloice I got from the truck on Friday. I don’t remember plum tomatoes, but it had a lot of cheese. I also tried the rigatoni and was very pleasantly surprised. It also had a lot of cheese and was pretty filling. Afterwards, I splurged on a $2 cone of gourmet ice cream from Lily O’Brien’s on 40th between 5th & 6th. They only had vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, but the oreo crumb topping was free. All in all, the best $5 lunch I have had in a long time!

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    Thanks for the name check!
    The slices are definitely thinner now. Definitely less tomato.

    Getting it served hot obviously helps, but it’s not drastically different.
    It’s actually more of a Focaccia.

    I’m glad they gave up on their pig in pizza dough blanket special.
    The display sitting on the paper plate looked gruesome.

  • I grabbed a couple of slices today since it was so close to my office. Pretty decent lunch for 2 bucks and def. one of the better dollar slices in the area.

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