If you were to drive by the Princeton Shopping Center four years ago, you would have noticed an Amoco gas station right by a main entrance. Return to what used to be the gas station, and you will see that there have been a few changes to the exterior. If you get even closer, you will be lured in by what smells like the best bread being toasted over a campfire; that is the famous Nomad Pizza oven.
As soon as I could smell the pizza cooking, I knew I had to give it a try. As I entered the former building of a gas station, I admired the spacious main dining room with enough seats for 50 guests. I noticed the family-style tables in the middle of the dining room. Long, glossy wooden slabs with matching benches.
My party ordered three different appetizers to share. The root vegetable salad, which was a special for the night, provided a balance of earthiness and sweet. The beets had the texture of a perfectly baked potato with a hint of a fruity sugariness. They finished the dish with a goat cheese crumble that helped break up earthy flavor and provided a funk to every bit.
The burrata salad was my favorite of the three. It had an amazing outer layer that was firm yet soft like the consistency of the perfect olive. When you break the outside a creamy, milky cheese oozes out.
I liked the meatball appetizer the least. The meatballs themselves are tender like a perfectly moist burger and they are full of flavor. The croutons and salad that come with the meatballs hurt the dish. The croutons that look like bare slices of pizza dough came out like toasted stale bread, and the salad felt like an afterthought.
The pizza at Nomad is the true reason for dining at Nomad. An employee told me the dough takes four days to make, and all that time that goes into it makes it that much better. The pizzas are cooked in one of two wood-fire ovens, which I believe to be the only way to cook real pizza. You get the crispiness of the charred, almost burnt bottom of the pizza with the crust that is chewy with crunchy bits throughout. I would describe the size of each pizza as an oversized personal pizza.
We ordered three different styles of pizza, four pizzas in total. We had one Spicy Sausage, one Classico and two Tartufo. The Spicy Sausage and Classico are more traditional style with tomato sauce and cheese and toppings. The Tartufo is more unique with no tomato sauce. The Tartufo was everyone’s favorite by far. There is so much richness brought by the al tartufo cheese, truffle oil and yolk from the farm egg. The mushroom and garlic toppings complement the aroma and pungent flavor of the cheese nicely. Biting into the Tartufo is like biting a soft luscious pillow with an explosion of flavor that leaves you begging for more.Lastyly, the service is very homey. The casual vibe of the host and the server makes you feel like you are dining at the house of a family friend. As we sat a little longer than normal while waiting for the last member of our party to arrive, she didn’t pressure us to order nor did she completely ignore us. You can order periodically or all at once which as underrated luxury when going out to eat with family and friends. The food came out fast, but with care for detail that doesn’t go unnoticed.
If you cannot make it to Princeton for this pizza, fear not for Nomad has locations in Philadelphia as well as Hopewell, Nj. And if you still have trouble making it there, Nomad Pizza will come to you in the shape of a truck with a wood oven built in.
