De Pietro's NY Pizzeria — Restaurant in Salisbury

First of all, my husband says we've gotten pizza from here, but I don't remember that. What does that tell you?

Secondly, our pizza was burnt, like nearly blackened, along the crusts of at least two slices. Could've been more, and I didn't see because it was already eaten by the time Hubs showed me his. But you'd think they would have told us, apologized, and knocked off a dollar or something ... none of that.

Finally, the food: we ordered a large cheese pie and six garlic knots. I smelled the garlic right away and could not wait to eat one of their perfectly shaped and sized knots. Upon opening the carton, that garlicky smell was replaced by that of Parmesan, of which there was a TON. Okay, fine, I love Parm, but from the first bite of garlic knot to the last, I could not taste the garlic. It's disappointing, but not surprising, as I've found few places that get it right. (You want good garlic rolls? Try The Big Cheese in Miami if they're still around. Also, I remember Primo's in Virginia Beach did their knots well.) The knot should merely be a conveyance for getting fresh, minced garlic to my mouth. And a lot of it. Am I wrong?

As for the pizza, I could take it or leave it. If I was really starving, as I was yesterday, any pizza is a good pizza. Right? But to go out of my way to find a real NY-style pizza? I wouldn't choose this shop, because this has none of the flavors of Manhattan and Brooklyn and the Bronx, and even out in Jersey and up in Monroe/Middletown, NY, that I grew up with and loved so much.

Especially the sauce. The sauce has no flavor and no depth. It's basic. 🤷‍♀️ It tastes exactly like I took out some cans of Hunt's whole tomatoes, minced them up, and that's it. No seasoning, no nothing! And it was the same sauce we received for dipping the garlic knots into. The cheese was a bit extra (i.e., more than expected or needed), but also nothing to write home about.

I just was really disappointed in this place because it was touted as the best NY-style pizza outside NY or something, and I desperately wanted to agree with them. But I just can't.

[No pics this time because we were just too starving and...

Well. It pains me to report negatively. We loved De Pietro's. My favorite pizza is New York Pizza. We pretty regularly went there for take out 1 or 1 times a month. About 6 months ago, the pizza we ordered and picked up was awful. The middle of the pizza was not done, so limp that the cheese and toppings just slid off. The outside was overcooked and mostly burnt. So we let 6 months or so go by and thought we would give it another try, since we have missed their pizza terribly and anyone can have a bad day. Sadly, it was the same thing. I have tried to figure out how this happens. My only guess is that something is wrong with their oven. It is cooked so unevenly. How can some be uncooked or undercooked and some be well done or overdone? With what it costs these days to eat out or get carry out, I atleast expect to be able to eat it. Very disappointed and sad that this is not the De Pietros we...

Second and last over cooked pizza I got from NY Pizzaria. The first was a regular pizza that felt light. When I got home the crust was dried out and tasteless like a cracker. I was hungry and tolerated it. The second was their Rustico pizza which was apparently supposed to be burnt per the employee/owner when I took it back a couple days later. He insisted a totally burnt dried out pizza was to be expected. You eat burnt pizza crust and you tell me. I only brought the pizza back to him to show him what he was putting in pizza boxes to give him the opportunity to fix it. He claims he's been doing this for a long time and it wasn't overcooked. And to think I waited in the shop for 5-7 minutes while he finished...