Sam’s Wood Fired Pizza — Restaurant in Manchester

Edit July 2024:

I was excited to visit this great pizza place since they'd been closed every time I went down for ages. This time I pulled into the lot...and it was a construction site.

Turns out they moved it into a strip mall behind it's original on-street location. There's still the giant oven, and the place is clean. Well staffed, very polite.

I am not sure what happened; new owners? Different supplier? The pizza we had was...average, maybe below average compared to NY/NJ style pizza. There was nothing that made it stand out.

It's okay for the "get out and grab a slice" crowd, but it's not the place that made me say multiple times while eating it "this is one of the best crusts I've ever had". I don't like giving average reviews, but the disappointment of expecting a 9 pizza and ending up...6.5? There's nothing to make it stand out now.

...Orginal (outdated) review...

I'm the sort of person who considers pizza one of the main food groups, and need to have some at least once a week. Vermont has some good pizza places, but I'm always happy to find another.

We were doing the Mount Equinox ride and were heading back into Manchester to visit the excellent Northshire books (both must-visits). We stopped here because I'm always willing to try a wood-fired pizza, and being a nice summer day we wanted to eat outside.

The ambiance of the place strikes me as "local institution". Not formal at all, a relaxed groove with a number of tables outside. It was a bit disorganized with no set waiting line and having to go through the tables to get your order in, but it added to the local feel; the sort of place you take your kids after a sporting event.

Staff was friendly, quick and made suggestions.

Side note: While I think Rookie's rootbeer (based in Burlington) is the best root beer in existance, what they had on tap was very good; this was not your typical mass-produced rootbeer.

The pizza itself was...excellent! I can't remember the name of the specific style I bought, but I mentioned at least six times while eating (literally...and a couple more times later in the day) just how dang good the crust was. A pizza's crust is the foundation of it's quality, and this was the perfect mixture of being crisp without crunchy or dry, and chewed well in the mouth without a heavy bread feel. Texture was excellent. The rest of the ingredients were quality as well.

Price for two people was very reasonable, and they have a number of slice/pizza combinations so you don't have to order a whole pie.

I don't get down to Manchester often, but next time I take the trek down to Northshire books, it's a definite that I'll stop here for a...

Service so horrible I didn’t want to give them a single penny. Called at 8:21pm to ask if I could place a take out order. Woman who answered said yes and then promptly hung up on me. Tried to call back three times and each time it went to voicemail after ringing multiple times. Finally just drove there to order, arrived at 8:34pm (on a Saturday night when they close at 9pm), tried to give them an order and was told they were no longer taking orders but I could purchase whatever slices they had left. At this point I had no desire to give them any money so I went to Manchester House of Pizza where they happily took my order and even gave me some water while I waited. MUCH better service and very good food at Manchester House of Pizza so I will happily give them my business rather than Sam’s Wood...

I've been getting this pizza for a while now, and always loved it, brick oven crust was great, stretchy authentic Italian cheese, great sauce - thought it was the best. Before that I frequenting 2 others in town. But the last few times I had it I was so disappointed. I thought maybe it was the toppings I didn't care for, so this time I kept it very simple. It turns out it's the cheese that I don't like. I believe they must have switched cheeses. Used to be that stretchy mozzerella. Now it is some cheap cheese that has no flavor and doesn't stretch. Almost tastes like american cheese. I find a lot of pizza places use this cheese, maybe to save cost. It is horrible. They get 2 stars for the crust though. I guess I will go back to my other favorites, Manchester Pizza House...