Jerusalem Pizza, Southfield, MI
Roving reviewer Ari is back with his take on a suburban Detroit curiosity.
I normally think reviewing pizza places is a waste — but Jerusalem Pizza of Southfield, MI is worth a mention.
After eating at Jerusalem Pizza a number of times, I’ve had the opportunity to try BBQ Chicken Pizza, Falafel Pizza, Mexican Pizza, Alaskan Pizza, Hawaiian Pizza, and a variety of others. If you check out the menu, you’ll notice that there are a number of other strange pizza offerings, including chulent and kishke, both of which I’ve heard are very good. In fact, first hand, I can say that most of the items served at Jerusalem Pizza are very good.
But is it “pizza?”
I’ve had bad pizza (Pizza Cave of Teaneck, NJ), mediocre pizza with good crust (Cafe Eilat of Brookline) and altogether excellent pizza (Jerusalem Pizza of Elizabeth, NJ). I’ve had overpriced pizza (Nut House of Silver Spring) and cheap pizza (Blue Cheese Pizza at Jabbett’s — free!). None of those places served a pizza that even vaguely resembles the item served by Jerusalem Pizza.
Jerusalem Pizza provides only three tables, so you will almost certainly be eating take out. The “pizzas” come in a familiar cardboard box, and look vaguely like traditional pizza. The crust is thick, crunchy, and a bit oily. The plain cheese pizza is mediocre.
But the specialty pizzas make Jerusalem Pizza stand out. In one notable example, BBQ sauce is layered with tofu chicken and cheese, while another layers corn, beans, and nachos. Tehina, falafel and olive oil? These pizzas offer a surprising variety to my jaded eyes. The thick crust is used as a vehicle to heap on toppings (frequently up to a half-inch mound).
The pizzas are too small, the crust is too thick, and everything costs too much. But I keep going back to Jerusalem Pizza because there are plenty of other pizza places if I just want a cheese pizza.
See, I used to be tied down to there until Cafe One opened up – the new best Kosher Pizzeria in town, right next to One Stop Kosher – and opened by the same owners. That is good pizza. And that is a good pizzeria – and they’re starting to do specialties I hear.
I’m partial to the Potato Rosemarie pizza and the New England Cheddar. For regular pizza, Cafe One is ok I guess. Certainly not as memorable as Jerusalem.
The other thing is consistency and timeliness. Whether you like the pizza or not, it is just plain scary how consistent it is, whereas many other pizza places are hit-or-miss. Also, they will never be late if you order a pizza for a certain time. Sometimes they will tell you to be there at exactly 5:07 or something like that.
i think Jerusalem pizza is much better then cafe one and that cafe ones tastes like garbage i even know people that live in other cities and love Jerusalem much better then any other pizza in the world and i think its much better then any new york pizza and i love it
crap-a one is not even in the same stratosphere as JP
U guys are Rashas
i will only eat Jerusalem Pizza of southfield mi. i won’t touch any other pizza. once my relitives came and they took us out for pizza i didn’t touch anything because we went to cafe one.