Shae and I love getting people’s recommendations of things to do on our road trip. We try to do as many as possible, but time and budget constraints mean we can’t do them all.
We had several people recommend eating at Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana while in Connecticut though. They’d been ranked as the best pizza in the US, so we knew we had to try it out.
There are several Frank Pepe locations – mostly in Connecticut – but we figured we should eat at the original location in New Haven.
We went there for a late lunch and so arrived at about 2pm. It was fairly busy and, with what seemed like only a couple of servers working, it took a while to be served.
Frank Pepe’s serves Foxon Park soda which is a local beverage company, so we decided to try out their diet cola kola. The restaurant has apparently been serving this same brand of soda since they opened in 1925.
Our server Jeanne was very kind and got us a 1 liter bottle to share as that was cheaper than Shae and I just getting separate sodas. Shae also got a glass of the Chianti.
It was then time to decide what pizzas we wanted – here’s the menu:
Shae’s a straight-up cheese and tomato pizza kinda person, so she ordered a 12″ original tomato pie with mozzarella. I like my pizzas with meat, so I got a 16″ with pepperoni and sausage and asked them to go light on the cheese.
It took about 25 minutes for Shae’s pizza to arrive:
Mine came out a few minutes later:
Considering they’re supposed to have the best pizza in the US, Shae and I were both a little disappointed. Her crust was overly burned around the edges and while it tasted OK, it wasn’t as amazing as it had been built up to be. She took half of it to go and ate it the next day – she normally loves leftover pizza, but liked it even less the following day.
My pizza was fairly good, but there was far more cheese than I’d have liked considering I asked them to go light on it. I took half to go as well and had it the next day; mine tasted fine the next day compared to how Shae’s fared, but still not as good as normal leftover pizza.
Final Thoughts
Sorry to everyone that recommended Frank Pepe’s to us, but we didn’t find it be as amazing as we’d expected. It’s certainly not in either of our top 10 pizzas we’ve ever had, let alone the best in the nation. Then again, supposedly it’s their white clam pizza that’s the best, so maybe we missed out by not trying that one.
At $35 for our two pizzas, it wasn’t particularly cheap either considering Shae’s was a small cheese and tomato pizza with no toppings.
Don’t get me wrong – it wasn’t bad pizza (well, I didn’t think so, although I think Shae disagrees on that), I just think I’d choose a different pizzeria next time.
Our Rating
Food = 3.5 / 5
Price = 3.6 / 5
Atmosphere = 4.0 / 5
Decor = 4.1 / 5
Service = 3.8 / 5 (Jeanne was very nice, but service in the restaurant was fairly slow)
Total = 3.8 / 5
Address
Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, 157 Wooster St, New Haven, CT 06511
I don’t think you the first thing about A-pizza! Secondly, it is supposed to be burnt edges. Thirdly, I won’t be following your Gen-x entitled spoiled perspective and longer. You probably ranked Domino’s in your top ten!
You do realize you’re getting bent out of shape over a complete stranger’s opinion about some pizza they ate a couple of years ago, don’t you?