Colony Grill - Stamford — Restaurant in Stamford

If Colony Grill isn't the epitome of a local neighborhood joint, then I don't know what is. First off, although some are excusing it, it needs to be unequivocally said that the service sucks here. I waited at the door for a minute or 2 while the waitstaff and the manager stood around gawking. Finally I got seated, and I quickly ordered a beer and my pizza. Then the place completely filled up. It took a good half hour to get a pizza here, and several tables got pies before me even though they sat down afterwards. Look, I'm from Brooklyn. We will treat out-of-towners accordingly if they're rude or if a regular comes in and needs something quick. But this place was just blatant about the whole "locals only" thing. How do I know for sure? The beady-eyed little rodent of a manager was scowling at me the whole damn time like I was from outer space. And not everyone who came in was a regular based on the conversation I heard. These people just plain old-fashioned don't give a you-know-what. Pathetic service aside, the rating here is for the pizza alone, which was solid but not quite up to the hype. The best part is the crust, which seems to be fried in the pan and is especially delicious around the edges. The sauce is a little thin and the cheese is of the oily, cheap variety, but it works here. I also got the pie with sausage and hot oil. The sausage was carried mostly by the fennel and other herbs in it, but worked nicely. The hot oil was good at first, but it's redundant after awhile. At first I thought it was unique and added a nuance to the pie, but in the end it just made it greasier than it already was. The stinger pepper in the middle was a good touch and was really spicy. I would've enjoyed it more if I hadn't had to flag down 3 different waitresses over the course of 15 minutes to get a glass of water. This is the kind of places where its all about balance, and the individual components work together well so that the total package is better than the individual...

Talk about thin, crispy crust. This joint has perfected it.

Colony Grill is situated in what looks like a very run-down area of Stamford. The surroundings are very "industrial", pock marked with wide swaths of parking lot areas - at least that's my impression. Inside, it's your usual pub atmosphere, with diner booths, long Irish style bar, dark woods and low lighting.

I sat down at the bar, got me a Stella and ordered a pie with hot oil. Colony's pizza looks a little odd because it doesn't have the border of crust that I'm so accustomed to seeing in a traditional pie. The contents literally bubbles on top, almost flirting with the danger of being completely burnt and ruined.

I've written other pizza reviews where I have described the pies to have a sturdy crust effectively holding all the toppings in place, but this one really gets it right. The crust is sheet thin, truly sturdy and crunchy, yet still light at the same time. As you get to the edge, that noticeable crunchiness is such a satisfying texture.

There are no problems with this pizza except my preference has always been for more pliant crust. Also, the cheese and sauce on top of Colony's slice, while satisfying in texture and taste, is not outstanding. Because it's so overcooked, when the cheese cools a bit, it gets very tough. Without the sauce underneath providing a layer of moisture, the cheese could have easily turned into a frico.

But really, I'm splitting hairs here. The pizza here is very good; I'm just trying to justify why I like my NYC pizza a little more. Otherwise, Colony does it right. It's just a slightly different execution, and therefore comes down to a matter of preference.

Other considerations: Service was good...

I wanted to try due to the high ratings. Perhaps we went on an off night because unfortunately both the service and food was lousy. We ordered 2 glasses of wine, the server brought only 1. He kept forgetting to bring the second glass despite flagging him down 2 more times to remind him. The pizzas came and it looked good, but unfortunately the pizza sauce had no flavor and it was very sweet. One pizza was cooked well, the other was not cooked enough. The server failed to check in with us once the pizza was delivered. Being very hungry we ate a couple slices, but then pushed it aside. When he finally checked in, 20 minutes later, I informed the server it was not good. His response was, "I'm sorry, do you want the check?". A good server would have asked, "what's wrong?", or "do you want something different?", or "would you like to speak to a manager?". He dropped the check, and nothing at all removed from the check. In 40 years of dining out frequently, this was the third time in my life that I left zero tip. Had this been handled properly by the server or management, I would likely give them another chance. But given this experience, that...