Nardelli's Grinder Shoppe — Restaurant in Waterbury

Located right off of highway 84, this was our place of choice to stop while driving down to NY for a quick and affordable lunch. I had first heard of this place while watching TV and had quizzed a few of my CT friends about it. Most had never really been so I decided to check out the place myself.

Nardelli's has been around since 1922, that's more than 90 years folks and if you've been around that long you sure as hell must be doing something right. And after having a meal there with my fiancée, I sure as hell agree.

Their sandwiches, known as grinders come in two sizes, half-size and large. The half size can also be converted into a wrap but I just went for a half-size one since they looked massive (they were). After checking out the menu I went for a Baked Ham & Chicken ($5.59 for half-size) and it was absolutely delicious. It came with some lettuce, tomatoes, a bit of mayo (marinara is available), some olives and a bit of hot sauce. The chicken and the ham were still warm and the star of the show was the bread which was must wider than what you'd get if you were to have a sub or hero somewhere and served as a fantastic vehicle for the stuff inside.

One great thing about this spot is that they slice and make everything to order so that it's all fresh and they have a lot of things available, not just sandwiches. They have all kinds of salads available including classics like the potato salad, the caprese salad but also others like the cavatelli and broccoli salad and many others. Eleven in total. And did I mention all kinds of desserts as well?

I also counted nearly forty sandwich options for both their hot and cold grinders which is also a lot and that's excluding their green salads, their hot dishes like lasagna and stuffed eggplant parm and their desserts. That's a lot of options.

The place was clean and the service was quick and very efficient. Also don't forget to tip them so you can hear the bell ring as the staff thanks you in Italian but shouting 'Grazzie'. Neat. I'm surprised to see so many average reviews. I found this place to be way, way, way better than a subway or local pizza shop. I'm definitely thinking of making this stop a tradition for whenever I drive down to NY from now on.

Oh and one more thing, they are closed Sundays. Just keep...

I went in for 2 canolas . I wanted to know if they would fill them fresh for me. I was willing to wait. They talked me into purchasing 2 that were already filled. They said the shells would still be crunchy. 4 hours later I had one, it was mushy, so was the other one. I called and spoke to a woman named Elyse. She said she was the manager. She told me next time they would put the cream on the side and give me the shells. I asked if I was going to have to pay for it. She said yes.Her and another employee just lied because they didn’t want to do it for me. I asked for her manager and she wouldn’t tell me. She told me to call Naugatuck. I did, I spoke to Stacy, a manager over there. This woman couldn’t be nicer. How a manager should be. Let me go to her location and get 2 desserts at no charge. I spoke to Mr Anthony Nardelli about it and he was very helpful in trying to resolve it for me by reaching out to that store owner who he did communicate with about the situation. I called him once and we didn’t talk. Owner of that location is Stewart. Don’t know last name. The man never bothered to contact me. Other owners need to be...

I enjoyed our meal, but I did not like the customer service at this location. We usually go to the Watertown Avenue Nardelli's, we don't have a problem with this place but when we tried to order the same things from The Plank Road storefront we could not get the same thing and they said that we don't do that anymore we don't make salads or anything besides sandwiches. I will forgive the attitude from but the person in the front of the store who should have been doing customer service but he had a very bad attitude about what they actually served at that storefront, I'm assuming it was because that they were understaffed and I'm not blaming the gentleman that was up front for his attitude about what they sold at that storefront because I used to get salads there before the pandemic. That was one of the things I wanted was the tortellini salad and he said that they don't make that there anymore its just sandwiches. I was disappointed because I was at the end of town that day and I wanted to get the same things that I usually get at the Watertown...