Strong's Brick Oven Pizzeria — Restaurant in Green Township

As an Ex-pat New Yorker, I know pizza. I moved to Cincinnati over 30 years ago and simply put, Cincinnati is NOT a pizza town as evidenced by all the local love for Larosas "Pizza".

The west side has been starved for a real pizza place since Noces/5 Burroughs closed up shop. All that is left are Larosas, the chains, a couple indies and thats about it so when a wood fired pizza shop was announced, I was very excited for the prospect of finally being able to enjoy a decent pizza.

My wife and I went on 2/8/24 around 8pm for the final hour of business and was seated very quickly by a friendly waitress. We ordred drinks and a quick appetizer of mozz sticks which were good so our hopes were up that the pizza would also be good but a few minutes later it was brought out and although it looked good, it was incredibly bland and devoid of any spice or seasonings.

The wood fired crust is definately the highlight of the pizza but when you get to the sauce it is thin with very little to no seasonings. No evidence of basil, oregano, rosemary, tyme, or anything. Borderline canned sauce, is it? It certainly cant be home made as any chef worth his salt would have seasoned it. We had a make your own pizza with all meats and just like the sauce, the pepperoni is thin sliced red meat, no evident of any black or red peppers at all. The pep had no flavor and didnt contribute anything to the pizza. The other meat was sausage which upon close inspection was some grey matter meat with bits of white fatty matter and once again, no spices so there was very little flavor to the sausage. It was rounded off by bacon but it was cut up so finely it resembled lawn mulch and, you guessed it, no flavor at all. You might just think I am being a pizza snob but my wife also agreed that she wasnt getting any flavors from the pizza either and we both had 2 slices each and asked for a carry out for the ultimate test, the next day in the air fryer.

We got home and fed our dogs a slice, they seemed to enjoy it but hey, they are dogs.

Air fryer pizza the next day usually rocks because the seasonings have more time to blend into the pizza but with little to no seasonings, it didnt taste any different than the night before.

While seated we saw what looked like absolutely incredible sub rolls that looked wonderfully baked, I thought, wow the subs must be great. So on Saturday 2/10 we called for carryout and asked if the subs used the rolls that were on the counter that we saw or if they were the generic rolls shown in their website photos, I dont think the gal on the phone understood what we asked so we went ahead and ordered 2 meatball subs with a side of fries each. A short time later I went to pick them up and took a sneak peek at the subs and sure enough, the smallish, plain rolls so reminiscent of Larosas was hiding inside the foil. I motioned over to the rolls that were on the service counter and asked what they were used in. The cashier didnt quite understand what i was asking and said they were some sort of break and not hoagie rolls, i said what do you serve with those rolls and she said its bread, not rolls and left it at that. I have to think those were the same rolls that we saw on Thursday, same place and placement on the plate. So i brought the subs home and will admit that the battered fries were quite good and crispy. The sub had 3 meatballs and while I do give props for the size of the meatball, you guessed it, there was very little evidence of seasoning in the meat, a few speckles of green flake among the meatballs. A few bites in and once again I was disappointed at the overall lack of flavor and saved the last couple of bites for the dogs who were glad to get the leftovers.

Zoom in on the attached picture and play Where's Waldo with the spices/seasonings on the pizza or in the meats. You wont find much there.

So I tried the restaurant on two occasions and came back unimpressed. If you want a good pizza its worth the 20 minute drive to Clifton to get an Adriaticos or a Toppers.

Sorry Strongs but...

My husband and I stopped at Strong's on a Friday night recently. We arrived close to 4:30 and the restaurant area was full. We were given a seat at a table in the bar which seemed nice and cozy. Our server, one of the bartenders Sarah, came over promptly and asked if we would like a drink and for our orders. I ordered the house bloody Mary and it was good but I asked for a little spicy and I really did not get much of that. For an appetizer we ordered the antipasto salad and it was huge! Definitely big enough for the two of us to share and easily could have been our entire meal. It was served with a side of Italian dressing for us to add as desired and was very tasty. We wanted to try a few different pizzas as it was our first time here so we ordered a large half Mad dog and half Maddie's Mediterranean. I liked the Mediterranean as it was a white pizza with sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes and feta. It was a little salty because of the feta cheese but I liked the flavor. My husband was not impressed, and felt that it needed garlic which would have been a great addition. The Mad dog is a spin on a buffalo chicken wing. It had a creamy buffalo style red sauce with shredded chicken ,a drizzle of hot sauce and mozzarella cheese. I especially enjoyed the dollops of fresh ricotta on top of the mad dog Pizza. The crust on both pizzas was very good and obviously done in their huge oven in the middle of the dining room. The bar area is small and we are a little disappointed that they are not open later for any kind of happy hour or socializing as we live within walking distance. Apparently there will not be any spots in the bar for a while as their parking lot has been packed ever since they opened. We might give it a second try but maybe after business settles down a bit. One other negative was that there is a definite lack of soundproofing in the bar area. We were against a back wall and there was a woman at a table facing us who was very loud and her voice was piercing and made our dinner time...

I really want to like this place but I'm having a hard time overcoming some of the issues. First off, parking. If you go by before they open, you'll see the front lot is already full which makes me think they encourage employees to park there to appear busy. Then they always make you wait even if there are tables available. The place is very awkwardly arranged around a large pizza oven. It feels like a warehouse and it is LOUD. You can't even hear your server. It just doesn't feel inviting but the food is good so you probably think you can get delivery but no. You can't even order pickup orders online or use a food delivery service. I guess you can call and hope they can hear you over the noise.

Response to the owner: Like I said at the beginning, I really want to like you and I want you to succeed. Instead of getting defensive, maybe you should listen to your customers and what they want. You have more than one restaurant so you should be able to address some of these issues by now. The previous restaurant had a party room that you are not using. Since your main cooking area is right up front, I have no idea what you are doing with the back half of the restaurant including that party room. The previous restaurant's employees parked next door so there was room for customers. They weren't nearly as loud either. Maybe you should consider customer comfort like they did. Your food is good but that is not enough to keep people coming back especially since you don't make it easy to...