Captain Tony's Pizza & Pasta Emporium — Restaurant in City of Rochester

(Update, if you could call it that: "Some people may not really know a great pizza." - Owner. Um . . . wow. I'm not saying it's impossible for you guys to perform well with the right direction & vision, but to hear them actually try to imply "I don't know good pizza" is . . . -_- Just wow, man. I would strongly suggest the Owner & staff visit or revisit NYC, Sicily, Rome, Napoli... to better familiarize themselves with what this "quality" they're touting really measures up against. After hearing that response^ I'm assuming now that a proper Napoletana would make them question their entire existence hahaha)

Father recommended I give it a try, though he does often fall for a restaurant's "mystique" or "cachée" or whatever you want to call it... & uh... yeah: Uh oh. Pizza holds a lot of weight in our family & history, & as far as 1st impressions go, this was quite a miss. This is very, very Americanized Pizza, in all the not-so-good ways, & seeing them also doing the cliché thing on their menu where they claim stuff like "Papa's Secret Sicilian Recipe" is a slap in the face to my heritage personally anyway. Nearly every ingredient & topping I sampled had a bland quality to it... that oil dude (I'd be terrified to know of what kind & quality), the cheese, & the "dough", all come together to net you a strong Pizza Hut-esque or Movie Theater Pizza-esque taste & texture... it was very depressing. -even triggered an insanely dizzying headache soon after (the oil probably bunk or even cheap/counterfeit--I do not know). ~ After trying those pizzas - that stiff & lifeless dough (I weep for Mother Yeasts everywhere) soaked with grease, & that poor cheese man... - I immediately assumed that there must be stark quality cuts going on, otherwise I cannot explain how any solid ingredients turned into the kind of pizzas we received, other than with the notion that their recipes were never altogether "there" to begin with. People do notice this stuff, & it doesn't take much for bad impressions...

I ordered a Medium Chicago-style deep dish pizza last night, with sausage. So far this has been my one and only interaction with Captain Tony's, so it's really all I can review them on. That being said I'll first start with the pro's.

On the positive side, the pizza came to me in the time frame they had said...so Tony's is neither late nor early. Also, the crust of the pizza was quite crispy and had a pretty good flavor on it. Unfortunately, this is really all I can say for positives.

Onto the negatives, was pretty much everything else. The price for that tiny pie was $21, including taxes, tip, delivery fee, and even a $6 discount. Worth it? No, not at all...but costs have been rising all over the place so I can't hammer them too hard on price. When it comes to flavor, unfortunately this pizza was the very definition of bland. The sauce tasted like they literally opened a can that said "pizza sauce" on the side and just used that...no seasoning or flavor of any kind. The sausage was also flavorless and bland. The cheese was plentiful, but likewise pretty much tasteless.

Also, while the pizza can be considered a "deep-dish", this is in no way, shape, or form "Chicago-Style". In Chicago, deep dish pizza has the sauce on TOP, covering the cheese and meat.

So all in all, I cannot recommend Captain Tony's...at least not their deep-dish pizza. I have a hard time believing their standard pizza would taste any better (as it uses the same ingredients), which is why I'm only giving this place a 2...

I lived in the neighborhood 40 years ago and used to LOOOOVE the stuffed pizza from Captain Tony's. I dont live there anymore, but happened to be driving by and was reminded how much I enjoyed the food. I convinced my husband to stop, and we ordered dinner to take home for the Bills/Chiefs playoff game.

What a pleasant surprise to see the stuffed pizza still on the menu. We ordered it with mozzarella. ricotta, and meatball. It was just as delicious as I remembered. We also ordered sweet and sour wings and a baked ziti dinner. I didn't try the wings, but my husband said they were good. The ziti was delicious, smothered with mozzarella, and the sauces tasted authentic. The portions are so large, of course we could not eat it all... now we have dinner for at least a few more days.

We will definitely be back again. Thank you, Captain Tony's, for not letting me down...