As Ol' Blue Eyes once crooned, start spreading the news: A slice of The Big Apple has surfaced in Bangsar, a safe harbour for huddled, hungry masses yearning to breathe free & binge on hot, hearty pizzas.
For weeks, we've plagued Mikey's Original New York Pizza with phone calls & text messages on when it would finally open, following postponements because of missing pieces in its customised pizza oven. Mikey's marks a collaboration between native New Yorker Michael Helfman & Andrew Bellucci, a former New Jerseyan who began making pizzas in the 1990s. Helfman lured Bellucci to Kuala Lumpur with a mission to serve the sort of pies that Helfman has missed throughout his five years in Malaysia.
Mikey's pizzas will likely satisfy cravings, straddling the fine line between thin & thick for its excellent crust, crisp but simultaneously tender & easy to fold, light but luscious. First-timers can start with the classic, topped with mozzarella cheese, fresh tomato sauce, olive oil & grated Grana Padano cheese (RM8.88 by the slice).
Mikey's Favorite, topped with kitchen-made meatballs, roasted peppers, caramelised onions & garlic. Customers can order this & other pizzas here by both the slice (RM10.88 for this one) & the entire 18-inch pie (RM69.88).
On a diet? Fuhgeddaboudit! Andrew's Favorite (RM10.88) is a four-cheese pleasure that's worth the calories, crowned with cheddar, mozzarella, ricotta & goat's cheese, plus black pepper, olive oil & garlic.
Mikey's plans to launch delivery services soon, starting with Bangsar before expanding between KL Sentral & Damansara Heights, so residents can conveniently pick up the phone & order the Pizza Rustico (RM12.88 by the slice), featuring goat's cheese & roasted garlic partnered with mortar-&-pestle-made pesto.
Game for a challenge? Masochists can try the 9-1-1, call-the-fire-department pizza; it's ferociously fiery, so folks who can finish the whole pizza (RM88.88) will have their photos placed on Mikey's Hall Of Fame Wall. We surrendered after barely two bites.
Here's our favourite: The Tony Soprano, a meaty creation of meatballs, pepperoni, sliced steak, roasted peppers & roasted garlic with mozzarella. RM15.88 by the fairly filling slice; two will certainly suffice for some customers.
Not into pizza? Not a problem: Mikey's also offers breaded, boneless buffalo chicken wings, coated in a seasoned butter hot sauce & served with house-made blue cheese dressing, carrots & celery. As much of a notch above mass-market chicken nuggets as the pizzas here are compared to what the massive pizza chains sell.
Waffle fries here are assigned in name by borough _ The Bronx, Staten Island, Queens & Manhattan. We placed our bet on Brooklyn (RM12.88), smothered in cheddar cheese & paired with beef gravy.
Hero sandwiches, the menu's final component; the Shrimp Parmigiana features four prawns with marinara sauce (RM19.88).
Thirst-quenchers: Budweiser (but of course), the milky-chocolatey New York Egg Cream soda & Half-&-Half lemonade.
Walls lined with memorabilia seek to put patrons in a New York state of mind without needing to hop on the Hudson River Line, hamstrung though by a soundtrack that swings from the Chairman of the Board to Cypress Hill. Be warned: These photos make Mikey's look empty, but they were taken before the outlet officially opened for business. This place could be crowded at night.
Mikey''s Original New York Pizza
17 Jalan Telawi 2, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur
Open for dinner on April 16, with lunch operations commencing thereafter, seven days a week. Tel: 03-2202-0080
2017 Update: Mikey's is now one of 12 restaurants in Bangsar participating in the ‘Dine, Earn & Redeem with your mobile number’ initiative by AirAsia BIG, AirAsia’s loyalty programme. Earn and/or redeem your AirAsia BIG Points here! For more details, see: https://goo.gl/EVsBGH
Stay up to date: The Eat Drink KL newsletter is sent by email to subscribers every Monday; it's the Klang Valley's foremost weekly round-up of new restaurant openings (even before they're featured on this blog), F&B promotions & other tasty tidbits.
Subscribe to Eat Drink KL Weekly for free via this following link:
Note to subscribers on Gmail: The newsletter will be in the Promotions folder of your inbox.
Sausages to sambal. Muffins to marshmallows. Peanut butter to mango chutney. Cornflake ice cream to honey aloe yogurt. Lavender-laced lemonades to lychee-&-guava juices.
Eat Drink KL: Small Businesses, Huge Flavours is the first eBook to help customers navigate the diversity of independent F&B entrepreneurs who bake & boil in their own kitchens, offering some of Malaysia's finest, most fascinating food products.
This is a catalogue of insights into what inspires our contemporary culinary craftspeople, from Elsie & her sister Jennifer's experiments with tong yuen at home to Eugene & Emrys' escapades with hand-crafted sodas in Tokyo.
This resource will be continuously updated with new listings, so bookmark the following permanent link & check back regularly to find out what's fresh: www.eatdrinkkl.publ.com/businesses
Also, take a look at the latest edition of Eat Drink KL: 100 Favourites, completely redesigned with a revamped look, featuring 100 recommended restaurants for April-June 2014, including more than 30 new entries for this quarter. This eBook is available to read or download at this link: http://eatdrinkkl.publ.com/Eat-Drink-KL-100-Favourites-Apr-Jun-2014 (Link expires June 30, 2014; see blog entries after that date for new link).
