Great Pizza and Good Grub at Slice of the Burg

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Great Pizza and Good Grub at Slice of the Burg

We don’t often find ourselves in the farthest northern parts of St. Pete, but if you are there, Slice of the Burg is a great choice for NY style pizza and other good eats. It is owned by Mary Weis. She formerly owned the franchise of Westshore Pizza Roosevelt, which she closed on May 31, 2019 and in the same spot opened Slice of The Burg on June 1, 2019. [Note: Google incorrectly refers to them as a chain, but they are not. This is an independent locally owned eatery.]

Coincidentally, even though we rarely get to this area, we were actually eating at a neighboring eatery, Que Pasa Mexican Cantina (which I love), right around the time Slice of the Burg opened, and made a note to check it out in the future, and then it never happened until last week.

Slice of the Burg Exterior
Slice of the Burg Exterior
Slice-of-the-Burg-Interior-3
Slice of the Burg Interior

Order Counter
Order Counter

Full disclosure: Mary actually contacted us and offered to host us, which means we eat for free. Please be aware that for 99% of the reviews we publish, we do actually pay for the food. When we are comped, we always add up what we would have paid and make sure to tip appropriately. Also, being hosted does not in anyway buy a good review. You’ll see as we proceed here that we loved some things, but not all. Lastly, it’s obvious that we could not eat all of these pizzas, sandwiches and other food in one sitting. We ate portions of each, and took the rest to go, and gave the food to our homeless neighbors making sure to include napkins and utensils.

On to the food!

We had an extremely strong start with the Pepperoni Pizza and Meat Lovers Pizza which has pepperoni, sausage, bacon, ham, and meatballs.

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Pepperoni Pizza
Pepperoni Pizza
Meat Lovers Pizza
Meat Lovers Pizza

Lori and I are in slight disagreement here. We both loved these pizzas and felt that they nailed it for NY style. However, last week Lori wrote the review of Nicko’s pizza. She feels that Nicko’s really perfected the replication of NY pizza, and that Slice of the Burg came quite close. I am of the opposite opinion. I think Slice of the Burg nailed it.

NY Pizza Fold and Drip Test
NY Pizza Fold and Drip Test

It even passes the New York pizza fold and orange oil drip test.

Then something really odd happened. After having a tastebud orgasm on the first two slices, the Margherita pizza didn’t do the same for us. I don’t understand how it came out of the same kitchen. The crust seemed different, more doughy bread-like, and we prefer to have the basil put on fresh after the pizza cooks.

Margherita Pizza
Margherita Pizza

We jumped around the menu a bit, so next up are one of the starters that we loved – Philly Steak Egg Rolls. They come with “Zesty Sauce” which is a tasty somewhat spicy sauce with horseradish. You can also request ranch dressing, and we got both. These are super tasty, but a word of caution – they stay quite hot for a good 15 minutes. Be patient so you don’t burn your mouth.

Philly Steak Eggrolls
Philly Steak Eggrolls

Next we had the Meatball Parmigiana sandwich and the Loaded Philly Steak, which has onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and cheese. These were both really good. The Philly was nice and succulent. The Meatball Parmigiana had great flavor. There was one thing we didn’t love about it, which is really just a personal preference issue that may not bother others. We prefer a more rustic texture for the inside of our meatballs, whereas these had a really fine texture that we do find at many places in St. Pete, so a lot of people must enjoy it. As I said, the flavor was quite good though.

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Meatball Parmigiana Sandwich
Meatball Parmigiana Sandwich
Loaded Philly Cheese Steak
Loaded Philly Cheese Steak

For the next item I have to go back to a lesson that former Tampa Bay Times Food Critic Laura Reiley taught me. Back in March 2019, I was interviewing her on our podcast just as she was wrapping up her job here and preparing to head off to The Washington Post. I asked her how she judges a restaurant, and one of the things she told me is that you have to keep in mind what the place is trying to be, or presents itself to be.

For $10.49, the lasagna is a solid dish. Does it compare to the $25 lasagna in downtown St. Pete, or the $20 version half way up 4th St N? No, but this is not a fine dining establishment. This is no fuss, good value, easily affordable food, which many people appreciate in these times of inflation. That said, I felt the noodles were overcooked and that it was a bit watery. The flavor was good.

Lasagna
Lasagna

We ended our feast on location (we took a couple things home to eat) with the Supreme Calzone which has pepperoni, sausage, onions, green peppers, and mushrooms. This was another perfectly executed dish. We ordered the small, and that’s what we got although we thought we got the large by mistake as it is HUGE. The calzone tasted just like what I used to get as a boy growing up in New Jersey.

Supreme Calzone
Supreme Calzone

Later that night at home, we ate the Chocolate Covered “Cannoli” which was superb. Actually, Cannolo is the singular, but nobody uses that here in the US. (Credit to Bob and Susan Horn for educating me on that.)

Chocolate Covered Cannolo
Chocolate Covered Cannolo

We also took home the Greek Salad and had that on Saturday for lunch. It was crisp, fresh, light and bright for a perfect lunch. We appreciated that the kalamata olives were pitted.

Some of you may know that this is really the Greek-American version of the salad. Sometimes this version also includes potato salad, but this one does not, and that was just fine with us. The traditional un-Americanized Greek salad is actually the Horiatiki, or Village Salad in case you’re curious. The American version is more commonly found here.

Greek Salad
Greek Salad

 

As is implied by the name, you can order pizza by the slice. Some of the other items offered include wings, stromboli, burgers, vegan pizzas, vegan appetizers and desserts, several other sandwiches and cheesesteaks, wraps and other entrées like spaghetti, eggplant parm, etc.

Their website has some great specials here.

Slice of the Burg
  • Readers Rating
  • Rated 4.3 stars
    4.3 / 5 (37 )
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  • Your Rating


  • Slice of the Burg
  • (727) 275-2874
  • Pizza, Italian, Sandwiches
    • Sun - Thu 10:00am - 10:00pm
    • Fri - Sat 10:00am - 11:00pm
  • View menu
  • 10484 Roosevelt Blvd North, St. Petersburg, FL 33716, US

Counter-serve locally owned pizza joint with specialty pizzas, calzones, Italian fare and Philly-style cheesesteaks.

DISCLAIMER: Kevin, Lori, Abby, Haley, Lindsey & Mahika do not dine anonymously (this would be impossible) and we sometimes get free food (though never expected). However, we dine with the locals and we support our own. You will always get honesty in a respectful manner. We do not include any large national or regional chains in our ratings and reviews. We focus on independent locally owned eateries exclusively.

PLEASE NOTE: Reviews reflect a certain moment in time. Some restaurants stay extremely consistent over many years, and some change for the better or worse. Some things that may change are: chefs, recipes, food suppliers, ingredients, philosophies, ownership, etc. We always hope that you have the same good, or great experience we had.
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2 Responses

  • Hi Kevin, I just subscribed to your monthlymailing list because I too am NJ native and I feel we love many of the same foods and prep styles.
    I must tell you that my husband and I visited Nicko’s in St. Pete and unfortunately did not have a similar experience as you did.
    Our cheese pie was doughy and thick and did not have enough robust sauce.
    As far as the orange oil drip, total bust! I was so disappointed when I did the fold test and there was no drip at all.
    When you visit, do you normally explain how you like your pizza? I wondered if I should have mentioned: thin NY style crust with the orange oil drip???? Just wondering.

    • Hi Wanda,

      Thanks for commenting, and hello to another NJ native. Sorry, but I’m a bit confused. You are commenting on my write-up of Slice of the Burg, but you mention Nicko’s, which Lori wrote, although I helped her with my assessments. Either way, I am sorry that your experience was disappointing. All reviews are really a snapshot of that specific moment in time, and not a guarantee of future results. I’m sure all restaurants strive for continuity, but there are many moving parts and variables that can sometimes defeat their best intentions.

      To answer your question, no we do not offer any input prior to eating as we want to experience their offerings as they had intended. Again, sorry you did not have the same experience as we did. Perhaps you’ll give it at least one more chance. Sometimes this happens to us too, and we always give three chances.

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