Cristaldo's Pizza — Restaurant in Chesapeake

Not impressed. We just moved to the Hickory area and were looking for a good neighborhood pizzeria to order pick-up from. Cristaldo’s is not that place. I'm usually not picky, but this is definitely one place that I won’t be going back to. We ordered the chicken fingers appetizer, adult spaghetti with meatballs, child spaghetti with meatballs and the chicken parmesan dinner. First, I was quite surprised at the portion sizes immediately upon taking the food out of the bag. The portions were quite small considering that we payed nearly $40 for the order. In fact, the only difference between the adult spaghetti and the child spaghetti was ONE additional meatball. The portion sizes were exactly the same, but there was $5 difference in price between the two meals! So basically we paid $5 for one meatball. Speaking of the meatballs, they were very bland and had a mushy consistency like they had been boiled in water. The chicken in the chicken parmesan was extremely dry and tough. It was like they had baked it all day long, then put it in the microwave too long to reheat it. The chicken fingers were also hard and dry. Then they charged us extra for a single serving of ranch dressing since the appetizer didn’t come with any sauces. The sauce on the spaghetti and chicken parmesan was OK, but nothing too memorable.

I was the only patron in the restaurant when I went to pick up the food. The employees were pleasant and started waiting on me, but then someone they knew walked in immediately behind me – apparently a frequent customer. They promptly dropped what they were doing on my order, got her food and checked her out before me and I was already standing at the counter being waited on! Needless to say, we won’t be visiting Cristaldo’s again. The price was too high, the quality too low and I was pushed to the side when a “regular” walked...

Went there about 8:15 PM on a Friday (45 minutes before closing). There were a couple of dine-in customers and a steady stream of take out customers. My wife and I had dined here before and had always been satisfied with the pizza. We had hoped to split an antipasti salad and have a vegetarian pizza. Since they did not have an antipasti salad and we were having a vegetarian pizza we opted for an appetizer, the advertised special, NY stuffed mushrooms. It took a while for the mushrooms to arrive and when they did my wife and I got a good laugh there were five pitiful little button mushrooms. While the taste was decent there wasn't enough there to whet a two year old's appetite, sad. When I paid my bill I surprised at the amount and found that although the mushrooms were a special they were regular price, $6.95, approximately $1.40 each for five mushrooms between the size of a quarter and a half-dollar, WOW. When I expressed my disappointment to the cashier who had also been our waitress and may have been an owner she said that was how they were in NY and suggested I not order them next time! I had made that decision already, certainly about the mushrooms and all other appetizers. The pizza on the other hand lived up to our expectations. We'll certainly go there again but only for pizza. The mushrooms appear to be a high profit item for the restaurant with little concern for the customer. Perhaps my wife and I are not the only...

Been to this place several times in the past and had no problems, however last Friday was my wife's birthday and at 0740 that morning I called her from work, which is 150 miles or 3 hours away and asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner. We pulled up their menu and saw that they still had clams with white white sauce on linguini. So we planned on ordering and picking it up so that when I got home we could eat right away. After driving 2 hours from Rocky Mount NC and about 45 minutes out. She called to order and they told her they were too busy to prepare that meal. As a result of their desire to alienate returning customers we found another place about the same distance from home that had what we wanted. It only took them 30 minutes to prepare this dish, another dish, appetizers and 2 pizzas for our kids. It turned out the other place charged a dollar more for the Clam dish but had at least three times as many clams, in fact there were so many clams that I could hardly see the pasta. Also the pizzas were way better than Cristaldo's. Thank you Cristaldo's for helping us find a place that is equally convenient, yet has much better quality for just about the same price. Before covid my wife and I would meet at a place on my way home and when were resume that practice these guys are now off our list forever. I guess they have more business than they can handle and do not care about loosing long...