Little Moe's Pizza and Grill, 2191 Spruce Street, Ewing, NJ
M-Th (11AM-11PM), F-Sa (11AM-12AM), Su (12PM-10PM)
(609) 883-6637   Website    Google Maps

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When a friend told us that we had to go to Ewing and order the “Falafel Pie” at Little Moe’s Pizza and Grill, we were skeptical. Perhaps we were imagining it wrong–thinking this would be a regular pizza (red sauce and cheese) dotted with falafel as though it were sausage. Or perhaps the falafel would be sliced as though it was pepperoni. It seemed like an ill-designed combination, but he had assured us that this was a true gustatory delight, and  so off we went.

Little Moe’s Pizza and Grill is in a tiny strip mall just a few blocks north of Halo Farm and the Trenton Farmers’ Market (just a few blocks from the Trenton border). It’s mostly a delivery joint, so they haven’t invested much in their storefront–in fact, we missed it and had to double back to find it. They have four or five small tables and a few scattered chairs, but most of the people who order from them do delivery–and so the staff is ill-equipped to serve at the tables. We didn’t know that, so we settled down and perused the menu.

Little Moe’s seems to specialize in Frankenstein foods–culinary creations invented by jamming two disparate cuisines together. Think about a bacon cheeseburger pie, a bacon french fry pie, a taco pie (ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and cheddar), a cheese steak pie, a bacon chicken ranch pie, or a BLT pie.  Or perhaps imagine the “Little Moe’s Gourmet Pasta Pizza” section of the menu, which includes offerings like a rigatoni pizza, a spaghetti pizza, a veal parmigiana pizza, or a chicken alfredo pizza. If your stomach is turning, you’re not alone. Little Moe’s also offers a limited Italian menu, a selection of subs, wraps, and burgers, and a promising “Mediterranean Delights” section which we are eager to explore.

We’ve found some of their food to be barely acceptable. The french fries are frozen and of medium quality. If you order them with cheese, it may be only partially melted. The cajun-spice buffalo wings are overly spiced, almost to the point of being inedible. The “old fashioned tomato pie” is a travesty–a feeble crust, supporting an ocean of salted tomato puree which quickly becomes pallid. This is a far cry from the great tomato pies that we come to expect from living in Trenton.

But when our two middle eastern pies arrived, we were transported. Imagine a particularly flavorful savory-garlic pizza dough, lightly cooked so that it’s still pliable. Shortly after coming out of the oven, it’s topped with the ingredients of a great falafel (falafel, lettuce, onion, tahini sauce) or gyro sandwich (gyro, lettuce, onion, tomato, tzatziki sauce) then sliced like a pizza. In other words, replace the pita with pizza crust, and you have the falafel or gyro pie.

And oh my, is it good.  It turns out that the savory crust adds quite a bit to the “falafel” flavor profile, kicking the whole thing up a notch. And the ratio of dough to fixings turns out to be great. These are high quality ingredients as well, and the pizza form factor allows you to pick up a slice without the mess that so often comes with eating a typical falafal or gyro sandwich–due to the fact that the pita is open at both ends and the sauce is runny. Both the falafel pie and the gyro pie were quickly devoured by my guests.

At the end of the meal, we received a complimentary set of four fried oreos, which are superb.

If you’re looking for a decent to-go or delivery restaurant, there are hundreds of better options. But if you want to try a new way to enjoy falafel or gyro, we can’t recommend Little Moe’s highly enough! They don’t deliver to Trenton, but it’s a 10 minute drive from City Hall, and it’s worth the trip.

(Thanks to our Hidden Trenton friend Griffin for the recommendation.)