I'm pretty sure you are going to enjoy this post! When it comes to "food critiquing" my papa's got you all beat! ;)
So, here is my take: I have read about Frank Pepe's in a couple of blogs, I have seen it mentioned on TV, I have even had people recommend this place to me and FRANKly.... I don't see why? It SUCKED.
After driving a long 3 hours from Maine, we ended up in Connecticut and said let's try Frank Pepe's! So we parked in their lot and there as already a line forming outside, mind you it was a Wednesday evening at around 5:15. Just as we got on line more and more people started showing up. We thought to ourselves "wow this is the Juliana's or Grimaldi's of CT" It is known as the best pizza in CT and we were eager to find out if it was. The line moved pretty quickly and before we knew it we were sitting at booth number 11. A while passes by... still no waitress and I finally start looking around and catch this older woman's eye. She comes to our table and asks in a raspy voice "what can I get ya!" we told her a pitcher of Sam Adams beer, an iced tea and two margherita pizzas with pepperoni (because if it's real pizza napoletana, 1 pie isn't enough) at least 5 times before she actually heard what we were saying... She kept walking around and asking "wait you got an iced tea right??" Yes, yes we did, and we also got that pitcher. FINALLY the drinks were brought from another waitress and one of our pint glasses were dirty so we told our waitress about it and to please bring another glass and some napkins.. "I thought you only wanted 3 beer glasses??" .... -_- she was annoying me, just LISTEN to us. Anyway that glass never came and neither did the napkins so my mom got up and grabbed some napkins herself and wiped the glass.
We waited quite a while for our pizza and as we waited we saw all the tables PACKED and enjoying their pizza, kids laughing, families saying grace before eating, and everyone just looked content; this made us more excited to try the pizza. When the pizzas finally arrived, they were presented on large rectangular pans instead of the traditional round pizza pans... were they trying to be cool or something? all the other tables also had these pans.. we didn't understand why they would serve them in this manner, the pizza got a squished and it was definitely not easier this way. Not only was the pizza squished, but it was cut very poorly into 12-16 slices so there were some very small, thin pieces and then there were huge rectangular pieces. Finally we all took a bite and we all gave the same face.. disappointment and disgust. The pizza SUCKED. The dough was very thick (unlike traditional pizza napoletana) it was very undercooked, the sauce tasted like ugly nothing, the mozzarella also like nothing and was very oily, the pepperoni was also cut into different sizes at one point my mom pulled out a pepperoni the size of a whole unsliced soppressata and it was just as thick as it was long. It was a nothing pizza pie with a side of gross. The whole overall taste was bad. We were all hungry and disappointed and as much as we wanted to eat, we just couldn't. So we left most of it. 1 pie WOULD have been enough and there probably still be left over slices. Our deaf waitress was shocked that we did not want a box to take the pizza home in and came back to ask again just to make sure. After waiting another century for our check to arrive and being asked if we paid yet (no you never brought the check, I should have said yes I paid twice) we finally left the spot. The pizzaioli were all young kids and we saw a few other tables leaving their pizzas. We walked out feeling annoyed but happy that we had this juicy story for this blog.
You guys all know how much I love pizza, I am pretty much a pizza expert so I can tell you with complete honesty that the pizza sucked, the service sucked, it all sucked. I am happy Nicky didn't taste the horrible-ness that is Frank Pepe's and no I will definitely never go back, not with anyone. Not worthy of a date night here! There was an Italian restaurant right across the street that was nowhere near as full as Frank Pepe's and I'm sure their pizza would have been 4289028502% better, and people will never know because they will continue to go to this mainstream, talked-about-all-over, we-gotta-go-here-before-we-die, rose-to-the-top-because-of-the-name-not-the-food spot.
I guess it is true what they say about NY pizza being the best pizza, but if there is ever a next time I'm in New Haven, I'll go across the street or make my own pizza, thanks.
Papa's Take: I borrowed this information from “How stuff works” so that I can explain better how taste or flavor is determined by people. Scientists know less about taste than they know about sight and hearing -- senses that are far more complex. Why is taste so mysterious?
Testing sensation is also a subjective science -- taste perhaps more subjective that most. Some people have inherited genetic traits that make certain foods taste disgusting. Others, called supertasters, have abnormally high concentrations of taste receptors. To their heightened palates, bland food tastes perfectly flavorful. And, as we all know, food tastes differently to different people -- we don't all like the same flavors.
Apparently all these supertasters hold daily meetings at Frank Pepe in New Haven,
I like pizza, no…. I LOVE pizza….. my kids love pizza and they are somewhat of connoisseurs being that their grandfather owned a pizzeria making very good pizza and so did I for a short while. They grew up on pizza, I mostly love pizza napoletana, especially when it’s made the right way and….Frank Pepe was NOT even close. It was TERRIBLE. I have had some pretty lousy pizza but this one moved to the top of the list as soon as I took the first bite.
We ordered a large margherita with pepperoni. It took a little time, it’s understandable, the place was packed. I could not wait to taste the pizza that everyone seems to fantasize when they are alone in their beds at night. The one that made one writer actually say that you have to try this one before you die…. Really? Either he is a supertaster, he has no clue what he is writing about or he just wrote about it without actually setting foot in that place. Don’t worry about spending time in purgatory because you didn’t go there before you died, trust me, you can happily move along to heaven because you didn’t miss a thing.
As soon as we got the pizza, you could tell by the way it looked, it was not going to taste good at all. Yes, looks are not deceiving in this case…it tasted the way it looked.
Dough was not cooked, it was very doughy, sauce tasted like it came from the cheapest can they can buy at the time, mozzarella was tasteless and bland that the overpowering amount of pecorino could not hide. We never leave slices on the tray, if we could not finish it, we would take it home to eat at a later date (usually the same night). Not this one, we forced ourselves to try to like it but at the end we could not…we left slices on the tray and the waitress was shocked that we didn’t want a box to take the leftovers.
This is another tourist trap like countless of others that don’t care anymore how pizza tastes and how much it costs because people will just keep going there following the various food writers that have no clue what good food is supposed to taste like.
Do yourself a favor and don’t even bother going there…save time and money and go to your local pizza place where the owner is using the freshest ingredients he can afford and tries to sell a high quality product. Unfortunately these small places will never have lines outside their doors because a food writer will never write about his place.
Finally, I should give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was most likely a bad night, that they had a different pizzaiolo, blah, blah but, at the end of the day, the main ingredients that make a pie exceptional should still be the same – the dough, sauce and mozzarella….and as I said before, they were nonexistent.
Thank you kids for allowing me to guest write on your blog. I hope after this, I am welcomed again… ;)
Great review, I have heard mixed reviews about this place. Nice photos!
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