Moonlight Pizza
I looked at the First Friday website for May and saw that Moonlight Pizza was advertising half-price appetizers, so we went to check it out. Once we were there it turned out they were no longer offering that special. Not really the restaurant’s fault the website was out of date, but slightly annoying.
Moonlight has a really great patio but it was wet with rain so we sat inside. Cute interior but with no carpet and few curtains to help muffle sound, it can get pretty loud.
We ordered the artichoke dip to start with. It was fine, more chunky than creamy. I appreciate big chunks of artichoke hearts but other than that it was unremarkable.
We tried the Harvest Moon pizza, topped with corn, zucchini, eggplant, squash, tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms, and bell peppers. The crust was very thin and crackery, which is not my favorite style of crust. The cornicione (end crust) looked and tasted like a soft pretzel. Not bad, but Mellow Mushroom is still the place to beat in terms of end crusts I actually eat! Unfortunately the pizza suffered from the same ailment that afflicts many veggie-heavy pizzas – it was watery. Because most of the veggies weren’t roasted, they retained a lot of liquid and it made the pizza soggy. On top of that, the veggies were sorely under-seasoned. This may have been the first time I’ve ever put salt and pepper on a pizza. Beyond the problems with the toppings, the larger issue was that the ingredients didn’t come together as a cohesive whole. You had a crust, barely-there tomato sauce, some cheese, and some toppings but not a satisfying pizza.
Moonlight Pizza
615 W. Morgan St.
Raleigh, NC 27603
(919) 755-9133