Villa Maria Pizzeria — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

We stopped ordering pizza many years ago due to numerous disappointing experiences. As a result the wife learned how to make great pizza and we have been enjoying our own with great success. Tonight, for whatever reasons, the dough was to be started too late so we decided to order from someplace we never have before. We found a coupon for a "family meal" in todays local paper and took a chance. We were not anticipating anything close to what the wife has been making, so we settled down to what we thought would be another meal to pick apart and confirm that there is nowhere to get a quick, satisfactory meal without taking the time and effort of cooking it ourselves.

Here is where the twist comes in... We started with the garlic knots and they were FANTASTIC! We controlled our excitement because we did agree that it is hard to do a bad garlic knot so long as you don't burn the garlic. Now we took a bite of the meatball heroes. The kids agreed that it was much better than the school's meatball heroes, but then again... they're comparing it to the school cafeteria. Us older folks who have much more experience with meatball heroes did have to agree that the meatball hero was good. The meatballs themselves were smallish, but for the price we paid we were quite happy due to the quality. Then we got to the pizza. Hmmm. How shall I say... Really, really good pizza. The crust was pretty darned perfect, thin yet soft. Normally thin crust is more akin to cardboard. This was nice and chewy. The cheese was a good quality, but the sauce... Oh, the sauce. It's a lovely sauce. Not acidic and not overly sweetened with sugar to mask the underlying acidity. Really quite a respectable sauce. It is really close to the sauce that I get from the tomatoes in my garden.

Now, I will not say that the wife will hang up her pizza peel and put away the pizza cutter, we will always prefer to cook for ourselves, but I will go so far as to say that when we do have difficulty with time management (usually due to some overzealous gardening) we will definitely be ordering from Villa Maria Pizzeria in Bethpage again.

My only critique, if you can really call it a critique, would be that they increase the price of the family meal by a dollar or two so that they can afford to put more meatballs in the hero. Don't get me wrong, for the price it is perfect, but I will have to order some extra meatballs next time (if I don't forget) so that we can bulk up the heroes ourselves. Good thing I did see on the menu that you can order three meatballs as a side, which we will avail ourselves of next time.

Truly a nice at home...

In past food has been excellent and was a go-to local spot for my family. We used to get the big catering orders for parties and gatherings, so I wasn't just an every so often slice and pinwheel customer. I would actively promote villa to friends all the time. Last night I ordered and first, they did not have any Sicilian slices. I understand business may be slow and money conservation a necessity these days, but that would be a staple you have at least one pie to cover customer base. Then, I ordered two pepperoni pinwheels and I got two items which I can only describe as pepperoni and cheese stuffed mini crescent rolls. It was actually pathetically comical. It was a good thing I ordered extra slices which ultimately were needed to sufficiently feed my five person family, due to lack of expected pinwheels. Family agreed that the pizza is nowhere near as good as it used to be and overall food quality has suffered greatly. Thought it may be a one-off bad night but I've checked other recent reviews and see similar experiences, which lend to overall declining nature of this once excellent pizzeria. I no longer have trust in their food capabilities and sadly will be going elsewhere...

I have to agree with Bruce. I am actually eating a pie now after giving it a second chance. I’ve lived here for 4 years and truly thought this was the best pizza in town...hands down. However, this is the second time now that we actually are throwing out the pizza. Cheese was not melted and it’s like a completely different pizza. I also just realized they took the “free pie” stamps off the pizza box. What a shame, as I now have to search for a new place.

It is only a matter of time before the same reviews start pouring in, as there is absolutely no way that a regular customer would not recognize the change in taste and consistency.

Again, it’s a shame because it took me many years of trial and error to find “my go to pizza place”. I even mentioned the problem after the last time, hoping it would be rectified this time around.

Please guys! Figure out...