Pizza Depot opens in Hicksville with saucy, flavor-packed pies
The chili mango is a unique combination that's spicy and sweet, at Pizza Depot in Hicksville. Credit: Newsday/Andi Berlin
OK, so you're a New Yorker and you hate pineapple pizza ... but what about chili mango? You'll find it at Pizza Depot, a new takeout spot in Hicksville's buzzy Soni Centre strip mall.
On a recent Tuesday night, the parking lot was packed as business partners Taran Paneja and Nidhi Tandon dished out creative international pizza mashups like butter chicken pizza, tandoori paneer pizza, haka Chinese chili pizza and a Jain version with peppers, olives and corn. At Pizza Depot, the pies are more about the toppings than the crust, which tastes like a denser version of Pizza Hut's. But the price is right, with a six-slice small pizza that's large enough to feed two people, going for only $12.99. And it's all halal, too.
Pizza Depot has opened in the Soni Centre, a strip mall development in Hicksville. Credit: Newsday/Andi Berlin
Pizza Depot is the first New York location of a Canadian chain that was one of the earliest purveyors of Indian pizza there, according to its website, after launching in 2000 in the suburbs of Toronto. It now has more than 48 locations. (The desi pizza phenomenon was reportedly invented by a San Francisco pizza spot named Zante back in 1986, and later spread to India itself.) Pizza Depot opened its first U.S. location in Edison, New Jersey in 2025 and plans to open at least five more locations across Long Island, said U.S. franchising director Bikram Singh. The Hicksville shop is located in a building that has two halal cafes, a smashburger spot and a soon-to-be Indian Chinese restaurant, Copper Wok.
Its signature is the chili mango, which has a swirl of sweet and spicy toppings including jalapeños and fresh chunks of Indian mango underneath a creamy chili mango sauce. (Singh insists it's more of a tropical flavor than a distinctly Indian one.) If you're a meat eater, there's a version with cubed chicken that increases the savory content of the pie. I can see why some people object to pineapple pizza (which was invented in Canada, by the way) but this is a different league of fruit pie. Mangoes are less acidic than pineapples, and when paired with the creamy sauce and the spicy peppers, they pop in a pleasing way. At the risk of being labeled a pizza plebeian, I can say this is a magnificent flavor combo that should be more popular.
The only thing missing is cilantro — a typical desi pizza topping — but luckily the shop's Indian twist wings ($8.99 for six) are scattered with the zingy herb. Underneath that torrent of spicy Indian ranch sauce, the wings are perfectly crunchy, which doesn't always happen at a takeout spot. Nice work.
Pizza Depot, 350 S. Broadway Unit 4, Hicksville, 516-751-9711, pizzadepot.com. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and noon to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Ramadan hours are noon to 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and noon to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
Andi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.
