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Near UCLA, nestled in the heart of Westwood, two pizza establishments, Lamonica’s and D’Amore’s battle for the loyalty of the local Bruins searching for . Both claim to offer east coast style pizza with Lamonica’s offering dough from New York while D’Amore’s uses Boston water to make theirs. Of course, the dough is key for any pizza as well as its toppings so using those two criteria I would once and for all decide (at least for myself) which establishment deserves my continuing patronage.

In the interest of fairness, I went to eat place at around the same time ~ 9pm. Why this late? Well because I have class till then and I don’t have time to eat dinner. Anyway, I first tried Lamonica’s and had a slice of tomato and basil and a slice of sausage. For slice orders, Lamonica’s has a set of pizzas sitting out from which you make your selection. They then pop it into the oven to warm it up before serving it. This approach offered me warm slices of pizza. However, I found the dough to be a little soggy and slightly stale. Additionally, the toppings had lost some of their taste since, in essence, they were being reheated.

D’Amore’s, on the other hand, cooked their slices when I ordered them. I was also able to customize each order I ordered so I decided on a basil and meatball slice and a mushroom, olive, and chicken slice. When my pizza came out, the dough was warm and crisp, but not too dry, which is what I found at Lamonica’s. The toppings were perfectly in sync with the melted cheese and there was no distinct reheated taste.

Thus the winner of this heavyweight battle is D’Amore’s by 1st round KO. Their pizza clearly outclasses Lamonica’s in both taste and quality. D’Amore’s has two locations but only go to the one on Broxton. They have a clean site down style establishment with a very nice staff. The prices are very fair, $2.50 for a thin slice. Free parking is difficult to find so you may have to settle for one of the local lots.

Lamonica’s
1066 Gayley Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
10am - 12pm (M-Th)
10am- 1am!!(F-Su)

D’Amore’s
1077 Broxton Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
11am - 1pm (M-Th)
11am - 11pm (F-Su)

By Jeff (see more of his posts).