Alessandro Calabrese

Competes with the worst pizza ive ever had. Dont dare to try the wings, disgusting and under cooked. Pizza could have been 3 days old. In my opinion stay away.

This is my 2^nd time eating from Calabrese Pizzeria. My first time there I had their Calabrese Special pizza, it was off the hook. I’ve just had their half moon calzone I will say it is not bad. Prices are decent. Would order from them again.

This could be the worst restaurant on Earth! I stopped by to pick up a turkey grinder to go for my wife. I wish I would have looked at it before I got home because it was the WORST SUB I’ve ever seen! I thought a mom and pop place would take pride in their food but it turns out the family prefers to screw customers to save a buck. For $ 8, I got 1 slice of turkey and 1 slice of cheese on a 12 inch sub! The bread is super thick and when you figure their lack of any generosity with other ingredients, that’s about all you get. An $ 8 Bread Roll… My wife took 1 bite of the sub and because of that they offered a 50% refund (while wanting the entire sub back… Insane! I know!!!) Please don’t support these criminals. Go anywhere else to eat unless you feel like being robbed. See the pathetic pictures of the 1 slice of cheese and 1 shaving of turkey on this pathetic piece of garbage they call a Turkey Sub!

Place is a hit it or miss… when it’s good. It’s delicious. When it’s off… it is pretty bad… with some consistency.. they would be pretty good… Until then… it’s a coin flip. Had the chicken parm.. it was your microwavable chicken strips÷!! Lacking sauce etc… the other night I had pretty good penne… it’s really a hit or miss. …

In order to get the best of both worlds, we ordered a margarita pizza and a plain cheese pizza.
The food was ordered and quickly picked up within 30 mins. The bread was great, nice texture, and well cooked.
The Cheese didn’t have much of a taste to it. The nice thing was that it wasn’t too oily.
The tomato sauce on the plain is what dropped my score to a 3. It tasted like metal and it was very salty.

First of all, I have had pizza in Italy (best pizza of my life) so I base most of my comparisons to my experiences abroad. Second, I don’t like deep dish or thick crust pizzas, and I get that this sentiment isn’t shared by everyone. Third, I don’t like too many toppings piled on altogether.
We ordered a small pizza with white sauce and prosciutto. My friend and I both enjoyed the pizza very much. It’s hard to find a place that offers prosciutto on pizza. The white sauce was there, albeit pretty sparingly. wouldn’t have minded a tad bit more. But overall for $ 9, it was a good pizza and we had leftovers.

I really wanted to give a four or five star review, but I’m afraid average is the best I can say about the place. We ordered the Chicken Parm and the Chicken Picatta. They were both good, though nothing to write home about. I will say that their food is a very good value for the money and I would definately go back to try other things on the menu the next time I am in the area.

First off I feel so guilty writing this review because I can’t give them a 4 or 5. I wanted to LOVE Calabrese because it’s family owned and the story behind the place is just amazing. Alessandro the owner works the counters and there are a few other family members who speak only Italian. Chasing the American Dream they moved to the States a little over 6 years ago. Opened a pizza place last summer (July, 2011). I don’t know if they know anything about operating a restaurant. Don’t get me wrong they are super friendly and its evident they are trying. If you’re in the area please do give them a try for lunch. They have amazing deals.
The place is 10 minutes away from work so I stopped by with intentions of getting 4 personal pizzas to try. I’m on a pizza binge at the moment. The mission is to find the best Magherita pizza within 18 min max from work. When I got there I realized 4 pizza was overkill for 2 people.
Small Magherita $ 10.25 for a small (14 X 14)
I went in with high hopes. I figured oh they were recent transplants from Italy they would make an amazing sauce. I wanted to LOVE the pizza. I can’t say it was the best pizza I ever had. I was disappointed with the crust and the sauce. I walked in expecting a fresh tasting pizza with fresh mozzarella and basil sprinkled intriguingly on the perfect thin crust. If I were to go back and give them a second chance I would ask them to double the sauce as I prefer to see more red on my pizza. My pizza lacked sauce; I’m a chunky crust sweet and tangy sauce kind of girl. The sauce here was not intense enough for me I had to use some of the sauce from my ravioli and drop the pizza in. Seriously where was my San Marzano plum tomato sauce? As I devoured half of the pizza I still wondered if in fact fresh mozzarella was used. Fresh mozzarella just doesn’t spread when it’s cooked. I could be wrong, it might have been the way the cheese was cut. I’m used to round circular rings randomly placed. Oh the pizza was cut into squares :/​
Cheese Ravioli $ 10 comes with salad or soup and bread
The Cheese Ravioli was actually very good. It came with a choice of a soup or a salad and bread. The bread wasn’t too impressive and I think he forgot the butter. I don’t usually butter my bread so it was no big deal for me. The soup was rice chicken. Since I didn’t eat chicken I just had broth and rice. A tad salty and reminds me very much like Campbell’s. The salad was all iceberg but I wasn’t expecting Romaine or field greens.
Lasagna $ 12. 50 comes with salad or soup and bread.
The construction was a little different than what I’m normally used to. The sauce was decent for dipping my pizza in. I didn’t really care for the dish. I wanted an Americanized version with TONS of cheese. It was my sister’s dish so I didn’t care because she loved it.
Overall it was a decent experience. I don’t know if I would drive up there from home to have their pizzas when I have other options close by. I don’t know too much about East Hartford so it might be time to explore. The restaurant is decorated cutely. It reminds me of someone’s Italian grandmother’s house. OVERALLY decorated with random stuff all over the place. The cheesy plastic table covers just made me simple. They were clean but the place could have been better with bare tables. This is one of those places I don’t want my experiences to deter others from visiting. I saw a few Italian speakers in and out of the place picking up their take out orders. The food was reasonably priced.
They have free Wi-​Fi I went in with my books and had dinner as if I were having dinner at home. The passcode is taped by the counter.