Saturday, February 9, 2013

Sammy's Woodfired Pizza

What's the difference between a London Broil and a flat iron steak?  Let's get one thing straight right off the bat - flat iron is a cut of beef while London Broil is a method of cooking.  Both come from the same animal.  But what would cause a restaurant to replace the London Broil on their menu with a flat iron?  Not to mention jacking up the price a couple bucks.

So I went to Sammy's Woodfired Pizza the other day.  I hadn't been there in a couple years but all of my prior visits to the La Jolla location had always been positive.  There were only two things on the menu I would order: pepperoni pizza or Grilled London Broil.  I remember at a family dinner I had asked my cousin how the Broil is and he says "it melts in your mouth".  When I tried it for the first time he was right.  So unbelievably delicious.

That's why I was shocked the other day to find that the Broil was conspicuously absent from the menu and substituted in its place was a flat iron steak.  Still came with the potatoes and veggies, but it's a different dish. I asked the waitress what's up with that?  She said they just changed the name.  Flat iron is pretty much the same as London Broil, they just don't cut it up.  But something's not right here.  I had a flat iron steak not too long ago at the 94th Aero Squadron and it really wasn't very good.  Maybe it was the seasoning, maybe it was the fact that it was a little well done, but when she told me that the flat had replaced the Broil I was like whaaaaaat.

Why they would go through the trouble of changing one of their most delicious dishes is beyond me but Sammy's I think tends to operate that way.  I mean, what's the point?  When I was with some friends at the Mission Valley location a couple years ago, the thing I remember most was the food being mediocre and our waiter being an incompetent weirdo, i.e. just arbitrarily stands at our table and quietly stares at us, expecting us to read his mind as to why he's here.  But that was Mission Valley.  The La Jolla one is better.

Anyway, I got the pepperoni pizza because I wasn't about to risk another sub-par flat iron:

Maybe they should have just one big piece of pepperoni that covers the whole top?!

The pizza was delicious and very filling.  But why did they have to replace the London Broil?  I just don't get it.