Those who keep kosher have a minuscule pool of restaurants that cater to their dietary needs. One of two kosher pizzerias in the DMV1, Ben Yehuda Pizza in Silver Spring’s Kemp Mill neighborhood fills an important need for the people2 in the area who keep kosher.
For goyim readers, a brief tutorial on what’s required of a kosher pizzeria. Although there are some additional strictures, such as ensuring kosher ingredients and a kosher kitchen, first and foremost, rabbinic law forbids combining any meat and dairy. Therefore, pepperoni pizza is nowhere to be found in Ben Yehuda’s neighborhood. No biggie for DishingPizza, which doesn’t like meat on pizza anyway.3
Loving pizza and keeping kosher aren’t necessarily incompatible. If one makes great pizza at home, there’s less need to seek it in restaurants. Still, there are relatively few kosher pizzerias in the country. Even if Ben Yehuda Pizza was out-of-this-world great, which it isn’t, pizza-loving without pizzeria diversity is a hard knock life, indeed.
Ben Yehuda Pizza has an unassuming strip-mall storefront and a cheerful but spartan interior. Judging by the vast stacks of pre-assembled pizza boxes, carryout business is brisk.
DishingPizza would not make a special trip to Kemp Mill for Ben Yehuda Pizza, but it would gladly grab a couple of slices if it were in the area. The crust of this New York-style pizza is slightly too soft. The mozzarella cheese is tasty, albeit too oily and salty. The tomato sauce is fresh and rich, neither bland nor overpowering. Altogether, Ben Yehuda Pizza is more than decent but less than stellar. No disrespect to Ben Yehuda, but if DishingPizza kept kosher, it would hightail it to New York and haunt Manhattan’s and Brooklyn’s many kosher pizzerias.
1 The other is Siena’s Restaurant in Rockville.
2 DishingPizza used some Googling and back-of-the-envelope calculations to arrive at this number, figuring there are approximately 300,000 Jewish people in the DMV, making it one of the largest Jewish communities in the country. Of those, approximately 25% (75,000) practice Conservative or Orthodox Judaism, and a portion of them keep kosher.
3 Lest anyone get any ideas about its kosher proclivities, DishingPizza also loves cheeseburgers, a decidedly un-kosher invention.
Ben Yehuda Pizza
1370B Lamberton Dr., Silver Spring, MD, 20902
Type: New York-style
Pizza quality: 🍕🍕🍕
Overall experience: ⭐⭐⭐
Slice: $4.15
Slice price per square inch: $0.13
Slice greed factor: 🤑🤑
Pie: $25
Pie price per square inch: $0.10