Tj’s Wood Burning Oven Pizza & Restaurant

Had a coupon for this place via Unilocal I believe. Good deal, but pizza is so-​so. Not as many choices/​toppings as I’m used to. I like World Pie and Giardini better. After work, the place is dead, maybe two other people in there. They do have a TV for sports, which is a plus.

Great dining! Fresh Bruschetta and seafood. Friendly waitstaff. We enjoyed our meal. This is one of the best places we’ve dined locally.

Really really good Italian food. Great sangria!

This place is a great find! To start the place is cozy and small, though a bit hard to find. I walked right past it before noticing I missed it. The décor is nice, nothing too special. Basically a room, small candles, a bar and tv, with a wood burning oven in the back.
For an appetizer we had the mussels cooked in a spicy tomato broth. The mussels were tasty and had a nice Mediterranean taste. What made them awesome though was the bread covering which fresh and delightful. The Margherita Pizza was standard. It was delicious but just wasn’t anything too special. The Crudo Schiacciate was unbelievable! It had a spicy kick, with crunchy goodness and was very flavorful! I was shocked at how amazing the flatbread was. The portion for the flatbread was extremely generous. Looking back ordering all three for two people was a mistake as really the mussels and flatbread would have sufficed.
The service was friendly and helpful. Overall I’ll be coming back to TJ’s soon!

I abosolutely LOVE this place. The pizza is amazing and Mimmo is such a great host. He really knows how to make all his guests feel special. I went there with some family members who came to visit from out of town and they also enjoyed their dining experience very much.
Giuseppe

This place was great, but no BYOB anymore.

Pleasant service, OK food. Nothing exceptional, the seats are a little awkward for a party of four, and it is strange to have an intimate dining room setting with New York 1 playing on a flatscreen TV above the bar.
The Calamari Arabicciata was very tasty — the sauce has a great spice. For $ 6, the four burschetta are servicable, although the bread is not toasted at all. The pizzas looked better than they tasted, a little too doughy and not enough flavor.
This is the kind of place I would go to with my grandparents or kids (if i had kids). Not the kind of place you take a friend who is in town for the weekend — the din felt too quite for much conversation.

Hands down, the calimari app was amazing. I must also give kudos to the personal pizzas.
Since we were the only customers to eat in an a Sunday evening, it felt like a calm, intimate date night out.
I ordered the vegetable personal pizza. It was, by far, the best veggie pizza I’ve had in a long time. I’ll def come back.

A nice small, cozy restaurant that has very good brick oven pizza great apps and delicious salmon! The service is fast and friendly and the price is right. We tried this place last week and will definitely be coming back real soon!!!

I was visiting NYC for the weekend and I went here l with friends for dinner. We walked and had good service. We ordered crab cakes for an appetizer and they were delish! Then I had Chicken Piccata. It was so yummy that when I got home, I actually bought the ingredients to make my own at home because I wanted more! My friends got the calzone and a chicken marsala dish which I sampled too and they were just as tasty. Not sure about others complaints about the bread, ours was good and the owner brought us lots of it each time we asked and he was very friendly. I also thought the portions were good. I didn’t feel as though it was skimpy and had to take half of it home because I was so full.
I will certainly return the next time I go to Brookyn!

im surprised by how well this place is reviewed for how mediocre the food is. maybe a lot of it has to do with the service/​décor instead of the actual food itself?
ordered a pizza for take out — the Xeneise Pizza — and it was just okay. not super flavorful and pretty small.
would rather get a pizza from layla jones!

Decided to go here after reading great reviews here on Unilocal.
We ordered the lobster ravioli after the waitress raved about how orgasmic it was. We were expecting to be blown away, but when the food came, it was mediocre at best… and I couldn’t even taste/​see the lobster… definitely something we could have picked up at the supermarket.
There is also cramped seating
+
small portions
+
nothing memorable on the menu
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. I won’t be back

A solid wood-​fire pizza place that’s cozy, relatively inexpensive, and has good service. This is where I take visiting friends if they want to see my neighborhood pizza place.
I’m a tiny girl who can’t eat a lot in one sitting, so their pizza sizes are just about perfect for me split one with another person, but I could see how someone might be left wanting for a bigger pie.
The middle of their pizzas can sometimes get a little bit soggy, but that’s nothing a little folding and proper topping rearrangement can’t solve. I’ve never had to resort to a fork and knife.
Their dessert pizza with nutella and strawberries is a fun dessert to share with friends.

3.5 stars
I’d give them 5+ stars for service. The waiter was incredibly nice and attentive, and the outdoor patio is really cute. But the food left a bit to be desired. I had their grilled calamari, chicken paillard, and cavatelli with sausage and peas in a vodka cream sauce.
I’ll say I made the mistake of not getting one of their pizzas/​pastas because I’m thinking that’s where the money’s at.

Great little neighborhood Italian restaurant! Seasonal food, very well-​prepared, attentive service, beer/​wine/​bar, cozy atmosphere, unassuming décor, fair prices and sweet garden in the back. What more could you want?
TJ’s serves warm flatbread before the meal, which is really delicious. I found the ingredients of all our dishes to be very high quality, and suggesting a close attention to quality and preparation here. The portions are at least fair if not large. My delicious salmon was large enough for me to bring home nearly half and get a second meal out of. My husband’s pasta dish with what seemed like fresh vodka sauce was nice-​sized and scrumptious. The tiramisu was incredibly light and fluffy.
The service is Italian-​style which means they don’t rush to you as soon as you sit or as soon as you put down the fork. However, they do return quickly after you’ve first tasted your food to see if you need anything else. The exterior façade and the name do not really suggest «Italian» but it still has an unassuming appeal.
TJ’s easily holds its own with the other few high quality food establishments in the area, and is well above-​average on portion size. This is a place to return to again and again.

So we decided to go there only because of the high number of 4 – 5 star reviews here on Unilocal.And thus far, this is probably the only restaurant the Unilocal reviews have simply failed us. And this is my first 1-​star review…
My notes from our very short meal there:
* It looks like a Mexican restaurant on the outside. We had actually walked past it before because of the outside.
* Interior was decorated in how one would expect an old-​fashion Italian restaurant to be decorated; dripping wax candles, etc.
* Except for the large screen TV on the wall over the bar playing basketball = identity crisis. Are they trying for the high-​end restaurant or a sports bar?
* Smelled like dirty dish water that’s been sitting all day. Combined with rotting Christmas tree smell (holiday season). *clue 1 that we should’ve left.
We walked in and there were only 2 tables sitting, not eating their food right in front of them *clue 2 that we should’ve left.
Immediately seated by the overly eager owner on a Friday night. *clue 3
Waitress gave us attitude and was openly bitching with the owner over bills and tips. Then debated with the table next to us about their coupon they were wanting to use. Table next to us also left uneaten food on their table, and did not request a to-​go box.
By the time our salad came, we were the only table.
* Bread that was served pre-​meal was store bought. The waitress handed us our bread plates, and one was obviously dirty. I set it aside and I was never given a clean one after the owner took away the dirty one.
* The olive oil and balsamic vinegar had no flavor.
* Caesar salad was decent. We were not offered freshly ground pepper, but instead shown that there was a pepper shaker on our table. Classy.
* Calamari was pre-​cut, pre-​breaded food service. Sauce tasted like it was out of a jar. This could’ve been an Applebee’s special, not a restaurant that has 4 – 5 star reviews on Unilocal.
At some point while we were aghast on how repeatedly bad everything was, the owner told the pizza chef that he could go home, hours before close. The waitress caught him right as he was walking out, jacket on. There was a little heated exchange, and the waitress had to actually look back in her book to see what kind of pizza we ordered 20 minutes before. Again, we were the only table in the restaurant. And these heated exchanges between owner, chef and waitress became more entertaining than the close point basketball game that was on the large screen completely unavoidable TV.
Our spirits changed when the (pissed-​off) pizza chef whipped up what looked to be a lovely pizza. It actually looked good! Then tragedy struck. Pizza was raw dough. I spit out the second bite and asked for the check.
The $ 1 slice that we got later that night in Manhattan was better.

Wow instant favorite.
Came here because of a $ 25
certificate and ended up having one of the cheapest and most delicious meals we’ve had in months. Would definitely come back with or without a coupon.
I love Italian food. But I don’t get to eat at Italian restaurants much because my husband doesn’t like pizza or heavy pasta dishes. TJ’s had it all. Delicious pizza for me and healthy chicken breast dish for him.
The service was phenomenal too. My husband ordered soup without realizing it had pork in it (which he doesn’t eat). We didn’t want to send it back as it was our own fault for not asking but the waiter asked if there was something wrong with it and after hearing the reason insisted on taking it off the bill. After getting a salad, two entrees, two drinks, and a dessert the bill came out to $ 25. Crazy! Even if we didn’t have the $ 25 certificate it would be a cheap meal by this neighborhood’s standards.
Thank you TJ for a lovely dining experience.

I would feel like an a-​hole if I didnt share my wonderful experience about this place. The restaurant itself is really nice, theres a cozy backyard with seats which is where we sat. The bathrooms were immaculate, and this of course, is closely correlated with a clean kitchen. The owner takes great pride in his restaurant and you can really feel how much care he has in what he does, i feel this more so than in ANY OTHER RESTAURANT I’VE EVER BEEN TO. A plate wasnt up to his standard (maybe there was a smudge but i didnt see anything), he took it back before even setting it on the table and went to get a perfect one. Wonderful.
The food itself was as good as the service, we got the bruschette parma ($ 5, four to an order) which was delicious with the olive oil and vinegar provided. Bread was grilled and everything was fresh. The calamari ($ 9) was among the best Ive had, and Ive had a LOT. Fresh calamari, perfect amount of crunch, and nice marinara: check, check and check. The pizza lived up to be the restaurants signature, fresh ingredients here as well and the wood oven really gives the crust a nice flavor. These ranged from $ 10 – 15 i believe for a personal sized pie.
With
certificate available for this place, you really have NOTHING to lose by checking it out; and even without, the price point and portion sizes are fair enough for anybody to leave with a smile on their face and money left in their wallet.

Let me give you some advice. If your lady friend wants some calamari, give her some calamari. Unless YOUR lady friend isn’t the type to rip off parts of your body, fry them in hot oil and dip them in marinara and/​or tartar sauce when she doesn’t get what she wants. In which case, I don’t even know why we’re having this conversation.
Anyhoo.
We were wandering down Smith, and a quick Unilocal search for calamari led us to TJ’s. I’m not sure how I’ve missed it previously, but it’s a nice spot with a nice backyard. The sign on the door said BYO, so we grabbed some beer at the Met* down the street, and came back.
Early on a Tuesday evening, the restaurant was just about empty. Our server (who might be an owner?) wasn’t very talkative, but he was very accommodating. He quickly provided glasses and opened our beers, brought some nice bread brushed with garlic/​oil, and took our order.
We shared:
The calamari. I thought it was solid, and I’m a big fan of multiple dipping sauces. I couldn’t decide if I preferred the tartar or the marinara, and luckily, I didn’t have to.
The TJ’s salad. It was OK. A bit heavy on the endive for my taste, and I would have preferred if the bacon wasn’t of the dried, strange variety. I suppose I just got excited about the pineapple in it; I love pineapple. But the only other table had the Caesar, and we had salad envy.
The Italian Stallion Pizza. I liked the crust, but there was just… so much of it. The ingredients don’t cover too much of the already smallish pie, so at $ 15 it feels a little light.
Overall, we had some good calamari, which is exactly what we were looking for. Thanks TJ.
Cash only.
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*La Fin Du Monde for me, and a Swedish cider or something for her. In case you care.

Great restaurant, impeccable service and good food. Their pizza is crispy, moist and fresh made with different combinations that you can pick based on what you like (especially if you’re a sausage + onion fan like me). Their spaghetti was delicious and so was their brushettes. Their fries are yummy as well. The waitress is also very nice and accomodating.
The only thing I wonder is – was the free tiramisu only for the first couple of months it opened? I was soo looking forward to that based on the reviews, and I noticed that the other table got dessert (although not sure if it was free or not) though we didn’t (too full anyways). Looked delicious, though. If only!