Critic's Review
Review 6/26/2020
Out front they have the gorilla statue; and they also have a big gorilla poster inside; because King Kong is a real thing in New York City.
Their pizza display offers no variety; a far cry from then they first opened. I don't like fresh mozzarella on a pizza.
They have every other table closed off and green signs up demanding that you wear your masks. No standing up with a mask on. It's all completely out of control.
I ordered a meatball parm sub; 6" for $7. I was on my way home from the supermarket so I didn't order in advance; one reason I avoid the place is the inside ambiance is unbearable. Loud house music fills the air, and it's really bad music. Same deal as 10 years ago. Some people don't get it; the pct of people who can even stand being in a room with this garbage can't be more than 10%; that's a lot of customers you're driving away. I would never eat-in at this place.
12 minutes to melt some cheese. I was home 2 minutes laster.
Not exactly an overstuffed sandwich. 1 1/2 meatballs for $7.
Without taking a bite I could see there wasn't enough sauce. Taking a couple of bites exposed the truths about this sub.
Bland, bland, bland meatballs. Balls of meat with no flavor, made worse by a lack of sauce. Too much bread. A real loser meatball sub.
Conclusion
Empire is the closest pizzeria to where I live, and I haven't been here since 2011. That should tell you something right off. Between the bad music and mediocre food, it's a testament to undeveloped Florida palates that they continue to exist.
Review 4/3/2011
Empire is one of those nearby places that I never think about. I'm not sure why, but I just don't. I was pretty excited when they first put the sign up indicating that they were opening, but that's before I started this site. Back then I used to get pizza from the same 2 or 3 places. Now I don't get to do that. But I didn't feel like driving to Boca today, and I'd never gotten a whole pie from Empire, so I figured it was time.
My first impression of the pizza was that it looked pretty good; I tried to pull out a sausage slice and it just fell apart; like that first slice of cheesecake that you can never get out cleanly. The cheese just didn't want to stay on the pizza. The crust was done just right, but it seemed as if the top of the pie wasn't quite cooked enough. I wrangled the first slice out and pulled it together and I liked it. They use good sausage. This was worth saving.
I have this method I use for re-heating pizza; I usually get a pizza before I go out, have a slice out of the box and then eat the rest later when I return after a few hours. I add a bit of oregano and a whisper of granulated garlic, heat my oven to 220 degrees and heat a couple of slices at a time until the cheese looks just right (about 10 minutes). My method saved this pie, which was much better after I cooked it a bit more.
There seems to be some mechanical problem with the cheese they use here, as it doesn't seem to want to stick to the food. It tastes good, which is the most important thing.
6/18/2010
Again, the packaging messed up the cheese, which was just on the top of the sandwich. This is amateur hour; these guys don't know how to properly package their product to make it home in one piece.
The meatball sub was pretty good, except it was a bit short on cheese. Of course some of the cheese ended up on the foil, so maybe it was more before they wrapped it up. I give it a B.
Review 4/29/2010
Empire is a strange place. You know about those New Yorkers. They've never bothered to add the Fort Lauderdale location to their web site; their web site is a misguided adventure with all sorts of useless information; as if people don't go to web sites just to get your hours and to see a menu. Of course when you don't even mention one of your locations on your web site, people may think you're out of business.
The have fairly loud music playing in the store; they have big plasma TVs with the menu on it. It's a bit different. The place is a pizzeria, but it's not a bad place to eat in.
Up front there's a display that is too small to display all of the slices available; When they first opened they had it loaded with specialty slices and people kept asking if they had regular pizza; so now they seemed to have realized that showing off their regular and sicilian pizza makes more sense. On my first visit I just had a regular slice.
