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Restaurant Ratings

The ratings are based mostly on the degree to which the food excites us, and a little on environment, service, and other considerations. I rate restaurants relative to all other restaurants in the New Orleans area. Here's what the stars mean to me:

starstarstarstarstar
Among the best locally.

starstarstarstar
Excellent and ambitious.

starstarstar
Worth crossing town for.

starstar
Recommended.

*
Acceptable.

No star
Unacceptable.

Cost Ratings
Each dollar sign indicates a ten-dollar range, including a normal meal for the restaurant (dinner, if they serve other meals), not including drinks, or tips. So, for example. . .

1$--$5-15
2$--$15-25
3$--$25-35

. . . and so on, with no upper limit. While this scheme may suggest mathematical precision, know that perception of price varies from diner to diner as much as the star ratings do. So consider this an estimate.

All reviews are based entirely on meals I have personally taken at the restaurant and paid for from my own pocket. I don't take free review meals, nor am I reimbursed by anybody for my restaurant expenditures.

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Mo’s Pizza

Pizza. Pasta. Italian.
Westwego: 1112 Avenue H. 504-341-9650. Map.
Lunch and dinner continuously Monday-Saturday.
Casual.
MC V
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Mo's makes a modified New York-style pizza with a great crust, thin and crisp at the bottom, with a nice breadiness at the perimeter, and a few really dark brown spots to make everything exciting. Also here are all the cousins of pizza: calzones, sausage rolls, and the like. The basic pasta dishes. And poor boys and muffulettas. The portions are laughably large; the prices ridiculously low.

WHY IT'S GOOD
The crust is excellent here, and is only seconds out of the oven when you pick it up and bite in. The toppings are of good quality and layered on generously. My only quibble is with the sauce, which strikes me as overly sweet. (This is also true of the sauce that comes with the pasta.)

BACKSTORY
Mo's opened in the late 1980s, functioning for some years as strictly a neighborhood pizzeria. Then the word broke out among Tulane students and other displaced New Yorkers that this place at least approximated Northeast-style pizza, and the fame of the place spread from there. A fire in 2002 forced the construction of a much larger and less shabby dining room, and a kitchen better able to get the pizzas out without the interminable waits of the early years. The restaurant is a little hard to find the first time; it's off the main highway.

DINING ROOM
A large, stark building that looks more like an industrial warehouse than a restaurant on the outside contains a pleasant but utilitarian dining area, usually filled with the regulars. But for the prices nobody ever complains about a lack of atmosphere.

ESSENTIAL DISHES
Fried chicken wings.
Italian salad.
Pizzas.
Pizza turnovers.
Sausage rolls.
Meatball or sausage poor boy sandwich.
Roast beef poor boy (Friday special).
Hot sausage poor boy (Wednesday special).
Muffuletta.
Lasagna (24 ounces!)
Spaghetti with meatballs or sausage.
Veal parmesan.
Bread pudding.

FOR BEST RESULTS
The more people you show up with, the better the place is. Fill the table with not just different pizzas but those sausage rolls, calzones, and lasagna.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The sauce is the weak point as far as I'm concerned, but it suits a lot of New Orleans eaters.

FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.

SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES

This review was updated with new information on 1/24/2010.

A list of over 300 full, current reviews is here.