Naked City Pizza’s new El Cortez location disappoints

LasVegasJunkie, a self-proclaimed Pizza Savant, returns with a hard-hitting review of Naked City Pizza’s new El Cortez location.

So I was in town last week for a little less than 24-hours, and of course, I was staying at my usual haunt, the Downtown Grand. After taking some updated photos of the Las Vegas Club demolition and taking a lap around Fremont Street I started to get a little hungry. Since I was on a solo trip I wasn’t really in the mood for anything too fancy so I decided to venture over to El Cortez and give Naked City Pizza a shot.

Those of you who follow me on twitter know I was a huge fan of Pizza Lotto and was genuinely sad when I heard they would be closing and eventually replaced by Naked City Pizza. Thankfully I was in town the week before they closed and I was able to load up and get my fill of their delicious pizza.

I got to Naked City Pizza just after 6:00 pm and the first thing I noticed was how empty and uninviting the restaurant now looked. There were sections of the walls where the Pizza Lotto signs had been removed and nothing had taken their place, so drywall anchors were left exposed giving the restaurant a very awkward feel. An old, dirty, stained, trash can was placed just feet from the register further adding to the sketchy feel of the entire experience.

The pizza display is basically three old and stale pizza slices on paper plates located just to the right of the register. Not a lot of effort or thought was put into the way their pizza would be displayed; kind of hard to believe considering their claim to fame is appearing on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. I ordered a slice of the pepperoni pizza since it looked the most edible of the three pizza styles on display.

After grabbing a seat and waiting a few minutes my slice was ready; I split the slice in half and took a couple of bites before I noticed something underneath one of the pepperonis. Honestly, at first, I thought it was a bit of excess grease, no big deal. But after giving it a closer look I could tell it was something foreign, and lo and behold a piece of plastic film about 1” in length was on my pizza as an extra topping. I let them one employee working know what I just found and he looks me dead in the eyes and asks me “Did you want me to warm you up another one?”, I just stared him back in the eyes and asked for my money back. Who in their right mind would eat another slice of pizza from an establishment who serves pizza with plastic film on it? Especially a restaurant that has only been opened a couple of weeks and should be on top of their game and be focusing on building a customer base. The entire experience was very unfortunate, I really wanted to like Naked City Pizza and have it be a respectable replacement for Pizza Lott.

In a nutshell, I do not recommend Naked City Pizza. I thought their pizza tasted like a dish sponge with cheese but at least a dish sponge doesn’t come served with plastic as an unasked for topping. Your hard earned dollars can be better spent at other pizza joints like Pizza Rock, Evel Pizza, even Pop Up Pizza and the newly opened Esther’s Kitchen.

I can be reached at lasvegasjunkie1@gmail.com and I tweet [a lot] at twitter.com/LasVegasJunkie. I also share photos and post stuff at facebook-LasVegasJunkies.

[Photo Cred. LasVegasJukie] 

LasVegasJunkie

A lifelong Las Vegas Fan and only a short 3-hour drive away; LasVegasJunkie is a regular visitor to the Las Vegas area. When in Las Vegas, you can find him in downtown playing slots, a lot of blackjack, trying out as many new restaurants as possible and never in a club.

Follow LasVegasJunkie on twitter @LasVegasJunkie