Tommy’s Pizza Corner Kinsgston has been in business for 40+ years and is well established Luzerne County. Their restaurant is a cool throwback place to dine in or take out food. They feature a full menu featuring pizza, wings, sandwiches, salads, pasta and more. Their prices are very reasonable and affordable.
They also have great daily lunch specials and are open for lunch daily, which is actually fairly rare when it comes to pizza in the Wilkes-Barre area. When searching for other places on my list of pizzerias to review, I found that many in the area didn’t open until 3:00 or 4:00 so keep that in mind if you’re looking for pan fried Sicilian pizza for lunch! They also have a wonderful round pizza with the sauce swirled on top. I’ve reviewed both in detail below, so scroll down to check them out!
What is your favorite pizza at “the corner?” Let me know in the comments below!
The Pizza Reviews
Restaurant: Tommy’s Pizza Corner
Location: 619 Market St, Kingston, PA 18704
Pan Fried Sicilian Pizza Review
- Date: October 2020
- Pizza Ordered: Pan Fried Sicilian with Onions
The pizza came out steaming hot and strikingly cooked to absolutely marvelous perfection. The cheese had some leoparding with some lovely brown spots and was applied and melted neatly across the entire surface of the pizza and even up to the edge where it caramelized nicely similar to a Detroit style pizza. If you’re not familiar with the caramelized/burnt cheese on the edge, it’s perhaps the most flavorful and delicious bite of the pizza! We’re talking Flavortown, USA and it also discourages those who commit the “pizza sin” of throwing away the crust from doing so!
Through the cheese a few spots of vibrant red sauce were visibly poking through. A key to this pizza besides how perfectly it was cooked was the crust/sauce/cheese ratio which was spot on. There was plenty of sauce to provide flavor, moisture, and texture, but not so much sauce that the cheese slides right off like some versions of this pizza I’ve encountered.
Onions or No Onions on PFS?
As always, I ordered my cuts with onion, and as you would expect from such an established place, they used the correct type of sweet onion on their pizza which gave a wonderfully pungent yet mild flavor to the pizza. The onions also seemed to have softened nicely to a point where you probably wouldn’t even know they were there from a texture perspective which made me think that they may have been sweated before applying. Why are the onion details so important?
Well for one, there are many anti-onioners out there who lose their mind at the thought of an onion so I feel it’s responsible journalism to alert them of their existence! But onions are so critical to this style of pizza (IMO) because the sauces are comprised of very basic and simple ingredients and the onion provides so much flavor to the sweet and acidic sauce base. Also, it’s important because some places use a white (or other) onion which produces a much more pronounced and sometimes offensive onion flavor, rather than the sweeter onions that give that classic smooth and savory flavor like Tommy’s and the other heavyweights.
Is Pan Fried Sicilian Pizza Greasy?
Perhaps the most important detail some people want to know about pan fried Sicilian pizza is how greasy it is (since it is cooked in oil)! On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being no grease at all to 10 being it’s running down your arm when you pick up a cut, this was about a 3, with very little grease and the wax paper under the pizza being largely dry. This pizza was comfortably one of the lease greasy that I’ve encountered in this genre.
Finally, the crust was slightly thinner than some of the pan fried Sicilians I’ve tried which allowed for the flavors of the sauce and cheese to really shine. Tommy’s also offered one of the most consistently crispy and crunch pan frieds I’ve had. What I mean by that is almost all pan frieds are crunchy around the perimeter crust, but some are softer in the middle. There was no flop at all on this pizza and it was wonderfully crunchy with a tighter crumb with moderate variation.
| Rating Category | Rating Score |
|---|---|
| Crust | 8.6 |
| Sauce | 8.2 |
| Cheese | 8.8 |
| Taste | 9.1 |
| Crispy/Cooked Properly | 9.1 |
| Value | 7.3 |
| Overall Rating | 8.6 |
Pizza is Similar to: Teberio’s, Norm’s Pizza, Back Road Ale House
Round Pizza Review
- Date: February 2013
- Pizza Ordered: Pan Fried Sicilian with Onions
When I got there, I observed my pizza being plucked from the oven. From a distance, the pizza bellowed steam and looked wonderful. I quickly retreated to the Pizza Mobile to get a closer look! I eagerly opened it up only to find another gush of steam bellowing from inside. The aroma of tomatoes and spices instantly filled my car. The first thing that I noticed once the steam cleared was that this was a very saucy pizza, which is how I like it. I also notice that the sauce is both underneath and on top of the cheese, which is a bit unique, but not necessarily in Luzerne County.
The whole pizza was cooked to perfection, and the crust was golden brown and had a little bit of charring around the edges. The “cracker crust” as it’s referred to was dry, but it’s so thin that you don’t even notice. I did notice that there was too much flour applied to the dough while the pizza was being prepared, which dried it out further, and provided a bit of a burned flour flavor. The sauce was more bitter than it was sweet, but both flavors were prevalent. It was well seasoned, and well balanced with a smooth consistency.
Cheesy Assumptions
I’m guessing that the cheese was something similar to cheddar, but it was difficult for me to decipher because of the sauce surrounding it on all sides. I did find it a bit on the salty and sharp side, but in a positive way that provided richness and depth of flavor. Overall, the balance of flavors worked well together and I can see why so many local people rave about Tommy’s Pizza. I’d be interested to see what people from outside of Luzerne County think of Tommy’s, but regardless of where you are from, I recommend you get to Kingston and give this pie a try!
| Rating Category | Rating Score |
|---|---|
| Crust | 8.1 |
| Sauce | 7.5 |
| Cheese | 7.5 |
| Taste | 7.6 |
| Crispy/Cooked Properly | 8.2 |
| Value | 7.6 |
| Overall Rating | 7.7 |
The Pizza is Similar to: Dough Company, Tony’s Pizzeria, Shelley’s Pizza, Grotto Pizza
