A Delicious Veggie Pizza?!
I get a lot of recommendations through email and my social media channels to try tons of pizzerias in NEPA. I wish I could teleport to each one and try them immediately as well as magically make all of the calories and carbs burn off immediately, but I’m not sure they make an app for that yet. If they do come up with this technology, please be sure to hit me up on Twitter! Anyway, I received a facebook message from a reliable source that a pizzeria I had never heard of, Nina’s Five Star Veggie Pizza in Scranton, was serving up great stuff. As I’ve learned, this is not to be confused with Nina’s Wings of the Wing Bite fame!
I happened to be in Scranton, so I figured I’d finally get over to give the pizza a try. The place was very easy to find just up Pittston Avenue near Andrew Brown’s Drug Store. On street parking was pretty ample, and on the way in I noticed an area that must serve as outside seating in the summer time. As I entered, I was pretty impressed as the place was very clean and elegantly presented. It was a simple layout, but they really made the most of the square footage. I was greeted by a very nice gentleman who also appeared to be the pizza maker and he took my order for a medium Neapolitan pizza. My model of trying cheese pizza to keep my reviews consistent and comparable didn’t lead me to actually try the veggie pizza that was suggested and appears on the restaurant’s sign, but the Neapolitan cheese pizza appeared at the top of the menu and I saw 2 other tables had ordered. I took the atmosphere in as I waited, and it seemed like the other customers in the dining room were families who frequented Nina’s just based on their comfort level and their excitement in digging into the pizza. For the record, no, I’m not that creepy, I don’t watch people eat per-se! I get an impression of how people interact with the restaurant, the food, and the staff to better understand the place and what its identity is. 
After convincing myself (again) that eating, photographing, and writing about pizza is not creepy, the gentleman was back with my pizza that looked pretty good. I broke out my trusty Samsung Galaxy S7 edge to snap a few photos
of the pizza and I enjoyed the smell of the pie. I’m not quite sure if I was smelling something from the kitchen, if my head was playing tricks on me, or if I was getting a hint of a vegetable smell from the pizza. It couldn’t be, right? Tomatoes are fruits and that certainly wasn’t what I was smelling. I took a bite to see if I could detect anything and again I swear I tasted a slight veggie taste. Could there be ground carrots or spinach or something in the sauce? I can’t say for sure, but I will say it was very faint if it was there at all, which means if there are veggies in this pizza, they do an awesome job of hiding it!
The crust was very thin, a little chewy, nice and crispy, and was evenly stretched, possibly by a rolling pin as there weren’t any bubbles to speak of. The sauce was tasty, smooth, and seasoned nicely. The cheese added a nice saltiness to the equation to balance it all out, making this a quality pizza choice and a solid recommendation. I didn’t request any nutrition information, but the menu states that Nina’s is the “Healthiest and Tastiest Food in Town” and I have to say I didn’t feel weighed down or have the carb coma side effects that I typically do from eating 3 slices of pizza. Of course, that isn’t a scientific measurement, but hey I eat a lot of pizza and I know when I feel gross after a pizza binge, and I didn’t this time! The bottom line is this is a solid pizza offering and I can safely recommend this to my readers. I would be interested in going back and trying some of the other pizzas or healthy options to see how good they are.
And if anyone knows for sure if there are vegetables in the pizza pictured here, please let me know! See the ratings below.
The Ratings
Restaurant: Nina’s Five Star Veggie Pizza
Date: January 2017
Pizza Ordered: Medium Neapolitan Pizza
Crust: 3.75/5
Sauce: 3.25/5
Cheese: 3.5/5
Overall Taste: 3.5/5
Crispy/Cooked Properly: 4.25/5
Overall Value: 3.75/5
OVERALL RATING: 3.5/5
Similar to: Dino and Francescos, Brick Oven Pizza
