AJ's Brooklyn Pizza Joint

Small little bar style pizza restaurant that serves both Detroit deep dish pizzas and New York style pizzas. I went with a group of 3 and we wanted to try both of the styles so we ordered the Supreme New Yorker Pie and the Roni Detroit. The Roni Detroit was honestly enough to feed the 3 of us and was pretty good, however it eventually started to just feel like I was eating bread. I’m not sure if that’s the regular experience, but the flavours were definitely there! For next time I will probably get the supreme ny pie or another ny style pizza as I just enjoyed it a lot more. I’m not sure how authentic these dishes are to the real thing, but it’s still fun to come and try out as it’s one of the most popular pizza joints in Vancouver to try deep dish pizzas.

Honestly, I was so let down. I’d been looking forward to trying to Detroit Roni pizza for ages. I had such high expectations. My first issue with it is that the cheese has zero pull and was tough and hardened. I ordered it fresh to go & was home eating within 10 minutes. I thought it got cold so I heated it up a bit and it was still hard. I couldn’t taste the cheese. The dough is like bread dough, not pizza dough. It’s super thick and chewy, it felt like eating an old baguette. It wasn’t light and fluffy. The pepperoni was a bit burnt and flavourless. The tomato sauce on top was amazing though, and the saving grace of this pizza. Overall I think it’s way too expensive for the quality + size ($34 before tax!!!!!). If there was at least more cheese I’d understand. But literally anyone can make this at home. Just toast bread with cheese on top and add tomato sauce. Nothing special about it. I hope to go back and try a more traditional pizza. I might like that more. But this one is WAY overhyped and you wouldn’t be missing out on anything if you skip it.

I’ve been to this pizza joint twice. I loved it both times! First I’ll talk about the first time I came in. I went there for lunch after getting some badly needed work shoes from Mark’s across the street. I had been hoping to get some sushi from my long standing favourite sushi place in town, Hime Sushi, but sadly they weren’t open. So I thought I’d give this place a try. This was a small pizza place, but interestingly it also had the feel of one of the cheap hipster food joints I used to be able to find in town (remember 5$ plates at the Warehouse? Delicious.) Yet simultaneously it also had local beers on tap and the television screens for a sports bar. The little barrels and sports memorabilia around though gave it more character than most sports bars though-in the tradition of an American export joint, the guys at AJ showed that they deeply cared about both pizza and the sports bar experience. Despite my years of antipathy towards sports in part as a result of the 2011 hockey riot, I stayed. I noticed that they offered pizza by the slice, so I tried a slice of artichoke heart pizza and a slice of the pepperoni. Since it was just me and I didn’t feel like drinking alcohol I had a root beer to go with it. The artichoke pizza especially was a pleasant surprise. I never thought I would like artichoke on pizza but here it was executed masterfully. The pepperonis on the pepperoni pizza were unusually small and extremely flavourful for North American pizza-I suspect that they were able to get Italian import pepperoni and then slice it. Awesome! The small batch Boylan root beer, as I always find, was quite good. My sole complaint about that first dining experience was that the thin pizza crust had a bubble that baked hard and then shattered in my hand as I was trying to eat it-the one flaw of an otherwise beautifully cooked pizza! I saw that they had St. Patrick’s day specials, so I thought I might come back to try those. And, since the Irish bars downtown were utterly packed after my shift on St. Patrick’s Day, I did! My boyfriend was with me for this. We ordered a custom two topping pizza with their spiced pineapple and prosciutto. They gave us the option of having the prosciutto put on the pizza after the baking process which we took, keeping the thin slices nice and moist. Probably it was the best Hawaiian-esque pizza I’ve ever had. I also had a traditional Guinness (it was canned, since it wasn’t at an Irish bar downtown. I can’t even be mad at that point though-this is why I usually have my one St. Patty’s Guinness in the afternoon.) but we also had an Irish Mule-a special that they were offering uniquely for that occasion. It had ginger beer, mint, lime, and an Irish whiskey (I think it was Malone’s? I forget). In any case, I actually really liked it-usually I find the taste of ginger beer in these drinks far too overwhelming, but the interplay between the unusual flavours gave it a fruity character that I quite liked. We ended up getting a couple of those. AJ’s Pizza Joint, I can thus conclude, is great for a slice or two-but even better if you can bring friends for a freshly baked pizza or two and some fine drinks.

I heard they had Detroit style pizza and was really excited to try it. Restaurant isn’t very noticeable from the street view but not hard to find. There are some free parkings on the side street. We were welcomed by very nice host who sat us and took our order. Nice chill vibe with mostly high top and bar sitting. We ordered a beer and Detroit pizza half/half. They ran out of beef or something that day so we substituted to a different protein without an issue but didn’t realize there was extra cost to do half and half. Detroit is kind of like a pizza backwards. Sauce on top and toppings on the bottom. the pizzas were a bit salty and maybe little cooler because the cold sauce is on the top? The beer stated it was 20oz but it was 0.4L = 13.5oz and was charged the same price.

PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA!!!!! ? The spicy honey sauce, the honey sauce!!!! The taste of American pizza !!! Taste so dAMN GOOD my favorite pizza joint is in Seattle and it tastes just like it I definitely need to come back I can’t choose if I liked the red or white sauce but both are great and it won’t disappoint the customer. Telling my friends about this place Thank you !

Friday night pizza night out, arrived at 1930 the place was popping with pizza lovers. Dumb me didn't make a reservation, put name on waiting list and luckily a table cleared in approx 20 mins. 3 TV screens with hockey game on Managed to score a table for 3 even though I wouldn't have minded sitting on counter. Ordered the Detroit Roni pizza (cut into 6 large pieces) and a Caesar salad. Nice variety of draft beers also on tap. When served, the pizza is put on a stand which frees up some space on the table Attention all deep dish pizza lovers, this deep dish Detroit pizza lives up to it's word of mouth reputation, cheesy, crushed tomato sauce, crispy bottom, burnt crusty cheese, truly a work of art. Not the normal thin pizza crust but a thicker chewier crust, crushed tomato sauce placed on top of the cheese was very fresh natural tasting, this sauce should be patented and used in all pizza joints! Sitting at salivating and looking forward to my next visit

Small pizza joint with amazing pizza. There is street parking nearby. I came on a Friday night and there were no issues with finding parking. My friends and I made a reservation, and was seated at a high table (there are NO coat racks so...good luck). It can also get pretty smoky, since the ventilation isn't the best, and it is a small place, so you've been warned. Staff and super friendly. Darn, I forgot the exact items we ordered but: 1. You can get the half-and-half flavours of pizza 2. The one with hot honey is AMAZING (tad bit spicy, adds a nice kick) 3. Must try the Deep Dish pizza, its absolutely loaded, and the crust is really good. 4. Slices/portions are pretty big (lots of cheese too)

I have been wanting to try AJ's for such a long time. It was super packed when I went because there was a football game on. I ended up ordering takeout instead because of the long wait time for a table. Between 4 people, we shared the Goldie pizza and the Roni Detroit deep dish pizza. We finished the Goldie, but had a couple leftover slices of the deep dish. I was so excited to try the deep dish pizza, but my favourite ended up being the Goldie pizza instead. The crust on their thin crust pizza was really crispy and delicious. Would definitely order two thin crust pizzas next time!