The Pizza of My Childhood - CLOSED

Brooklyn Pizza Works and Italian Restaurant

1235 East Imperial Highway

Placentia, CA 92870

This is a nostalgic place for me and my family. I vividly remember having my first slice of pizza at Brooklyn Pizza Works as a kid. I must have been about ten or eleven so that puts it around 1982 or 83, and I had never had anything quite like it. It was unlike the pizzas we would typically get from Pizza Hut or Shakey's after soccer games. This is what my young self had imagined New York pizza tasted like.

My parents took the unusual step of deviating from our usual pizza haunts because BPW had won Best Pizza in OC several times from the Orange County Register in the early '80s. My parents figured they had to try it since it was so close to our house. After that initial visit, it became the pizza spot we would visit when we wanted an elevated pizza, not one of the chain spots that dotted almost every shopping center in North OC.

That was way before I had gone to New York and had pizza, but back then, I imagined this pizza was pretty close. The new owner of Brooklyn Pizza Works, Irene, reached out to me on Instagram with the offer of free pepperoni chips, and since I had a visit with my family already planned, we decided to try BPW again to see if it was just as good as we remembered all those decades ago.

We arrived at BPW at 5:30 on a recent Saturday evening. This pizza place is located deep in the recesses of this shopping center on the corner of Imperial and Rose Drive. This once bustling center features a Chuck E. Cheese, a sushi restaurant, and Paul's Country Kitchen, which has a solid breakfast. Unfortunately for BPW, all of the businesses surrounding them were closed at this early evening hour, so unless you know they are there, you won't just be coming by since they are not visible from the street.

This fact was confirmed when we entered the restaurant. We were the only people in the place, and only three other groups of customers followed us during our stay. We were met by Irene, the current owner of BPW, who is very personable. She showed us to our table and took our drink orders as we perused the menu. By my calculations, she and her family are the fourth owners of this place, which has mostly stayed the same in the decor. Old wood paneling, a wall of vintage license plates, and a dated feel to the dining room dominate the space.

The menu is impressive in size at BPW. Plenty of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, pasta dishes, bigger entrees, and pizza are available here. Prices are modest, with very few menu items exceeding the $15 mark. There are plenty of specials, and their website offers lunch and dinner specials. We were in a rush since we would watch my niece in a school play, so we ordered quickly. Here's how everything came out for us at this restaurant that will soon turn 40 this year.

When Irene got in touch with me, she sent me a coupon for free Pepperoni Chips ($7.95). These are listed on the menu as a must-try. I had a love/hate relationship with these. The pepperoni is deep-fried, and they were very salty. I found myself returning to them occasionally, so I may have liked them in short intervals. They were a little better when dipped into the provided marinara.

Katie and my dad got Dinner Salads ($3.50) to start their meals at BPW. This simple salad came with olives, red onion, sliced tomato, a few slices of pepperoni, and a choice of dressing. Nothing earth-shattering about this salad, but the produce was fresh, and this satisfied their salad cravings for the moment.

I could not get across the table quickly enough to snap a picture of these Mozzarella Cheese Sticks ($7.95) before my niece Lillie could grab two from the plate, so imagine this plate with two extra cheese sticks. These were fried well and came out hot, which is what you want in a cheese stick. This was decent fried cheese here, but nothing that made us go wild.

Most pizza places serve Chicken Wings ($7.95), which was definitely the case at BPW. These appear to come six to an order, as this time, I did manage to make it in time to get my picture before one of my adorable nieces took a wing off the plate. When looking at them, they appeared to be overcooked, but my one was moist and juicy, with plenty of meat on it. The ranch dressing was good but unnecessary since these wings came out with a mild buffalo sauce, which lacked any definitive spice.

There were eight of us this evening, so we got two pizzas to share. I've always felt bad for my dad when it comes to pizza. Like most fathers, he likes a lot of stuff on his pizzas, but the rest of us growing up liked just the basics, like pepperoni, sausage, and, if we were feeling, wild onions. He had mentioned that this Medium Alfredo Pizza ($19.95) had sounded good, and before my mom could say no because of the mushrooms, we snuck this one by her. This white pizza came with alfredo sauce, my mom's nemesis mushrooms, onions, chicken, and mozzarella. This was a very mellow but enjoyable pizza. The Alfredo sauce was light, and they did not skimp on the toppings, especially the onions and mushrooms. There could have been more chicken on this, but my dad was pretty satisfied he got to have a pizza with more than two toppings. Father's Day came early for the big guy.

So, that brings us to this Large Pepperoni and Sausage Pizza ($21.45). When this sat in front of us, I was struck by how evenly the pepperoni spread across the pizza surface. The sausage was less prevalent, but some were on each slice. This tasted like it used to when I was a kid. A cross between pizza types here. The crust was thin but not crispy like a New York-style pizza. They offer a crust listed as crispy, so that's the one to get if you are a fan of a crispy crust. The toppings and cheese are the stars here, and each bite gets a mix of cheese and pepperoni. A good sauce-to-cheese ratio makes this an above-average pizza.

Brooklyn Pizza Works holds many memories for me and my family, and I'm happy to report that they still make a pretty good pizza. Is this the best pizza in OC? No, it's not. I'd rank it higher than the lower-end chains like Domino's, Pizza Hut, or Little Caesar's, but not as good as the pizzas at nearby Tony's Little Italy, Terra Mia Pizzeria, Cortina's, or Giovanni's. Brooklyn Pizza Works is firmly in the upper middle level of the pizzas in OC I have had so far, and it is definitely worth a trip if you are in the mood for pizza and are in North OC. I will always be thankful to BPW for showing my 10-year-old self that there was more to pizza than what I was used to at Pizza Hut, Domino's, and the local mini golf place.

Out of five mermaids (because the borough of Brooklyn is home to the Coney Island Mermaid Parade every June), five being best to zero being worst, Brooklyn Pizza Works gets 3 mermaids.

For more information about Brooklyn Pizza Works, head to their website here: https://www.brooklynpizzaoc.com/