Starlite: Landmark Doesn't Live Up to its Reputation

I was looking forward to eating at Starlite ever since I started reviewing pizza places to find the best one. It is located at the corner of Route 10 and Pleasant Valley Way. This family-owned and operated establishment has been open since 1961.

As I looked at their website, I realized it was awarded one of New Jersey's Best Pizza by The Star-Ledger Munchmobile. It also serves an award-winning Tiramisu.

The first disappointment came upon me as I walked into the fairly large structure. The dining room was divided into two parts — the left was for adults only and the right side was for families with kids — at least that was my impression as we were lead to the right side of the restaurant. The space was dark and gloomy looking. An old grapevine wallpaper border followed us into the room.

As we sat down, we were welcomed with a few kids screaming on top of their lungs and their mom yelling at them for not eating their food. For the next half an hour, we heard the mom asking the kids to eat.

We decided to sip our wine and beer and look through the menu. It had the usual suspects, including fried calamari ($8.95), Caesar salad ($7.50), veal parmigiana ($15.75), seafood fra diavolo ($22.95) and lots of pasta dishes. There was a page dedicated to pizza — since that was the reason for my visit; I decided to focus there.

There were a few categories, including Starlite's award winning pizza ($11 to $13), Starlite's specialty pizza ($14 to $17.50), Starlite's specialty pizza combinations ($15.95 to $18.95) and Piccolo Pizza for one ($6).

We decided on a fresh mushroom pizza (in the award-winning category) for my daughter and the shrimp and arugula pizza ($18.95) for the adults. I was looking forward to the thin crust pizza especially the shrimp and arugula one. I was envisioning a yummy pizza with perfectly cooked shrimp topped with a mound of fresh, seasoned arugula.

Full disclosure: My husband was completely against ordering the shrimp pizza. He didn't think it was a very good combination. I disagreed and waited to prove him wrong.

The mushroom pizza came along first and the mushrooms looked yummy. The pizza, on the other hand, was not very good. The crust was thin, but lacked the crunch one expects. It tasted almost like the supermarket pizza dough that comes out of a tube. The crust was almost soggy. The sauce was not tangy enough — it almost didn't have any taste.

The shrimp pizza came next and I was shocked to see dry, shrunken, almost burnt arugula on top of the pie. I have made pizza with arugula in the past and have always placed it on top once the pizza comes out of the oven. The peppery greens taste amazing with the melted cheese and the crunchy crust. This was completely different. The baby shrimp was over done. Same story with the crust and the sauce on this pizza, as well. I was not happy at all. I couldn't believe the shrimp pizza was almost $20 and this is what we got. My husband was right.

We didn't take the leftovers home and didn't want to stay for the award-winning tiramisu.

Rating: OC (one-and-a-half oranges)