Hot & Crusty

Charged me the wrong amount and then got snippy when I asked for an itemized receipt.
I ordered an elephant’s ear and a small chalk which should have been $ 2.85+$ 485, but was charged $ 5.50 for the challah. When I asked for an itemized receipt I was scoffed at and then given a receipt which can listed two miscellaneous items.
N.B. This was the location down the corridor from Zaro’s at Grand Central Terminal.

The food here is pretty good. Though for some reason all their wraps and paninis kind of taste the same. Egg sandwiches and BLT’s are pretty good. some of the sandwiches are very pricey and sometimes they mess up the order. Very rude staff working at night. Deliveries are usually on time

currently closed

Bad service. Dropped pizza in front of counter, when asked for extra plate to pick it up guy behind counter says «you have two plates on tray». also any other establishment would at least ask if i would like another slice since one was dropped; they just looked at me like an idiot and didnt even bother. Last time i will ever spend $ 11.05 on 2 slices and a drink for mediocre pizza.
End of story should gave gone to Artichoke

At 5am there is no where to go for food. So I venture in to the hot and crusty on my corner. It it not hot, but it sure is crusty. The only thing I ever order there is a salad. Every single time I get the same 5 ingredients in my salad. Beets, chickpeas, peas, blue cheese, and sunflower seeds. The salad does not even contain a meat. I have ordered this same salad with the same ingredients 5 times. I have been quoted anywhere from $ 11.00-$ 19.00 for this exact same salad. Dats it.

The pizza is pretty mediocre. Crust is never consistent among varieties and ingredients for toppings don’t have a fresh flavor out of it.
What is worth coming here for would be the everything bagels. My favorite would consist of the scallion cream cheese and bacon strips. Their bacon has a great crunch to it along with a certain tenderness and softness where it needs to be. A great pair with their cheese.
All in all, not a place I would come seek out, but if your on the way somewhere and need a quick bite on the go this place is a perfect stop.

This Hot and Crusty location is a total mess.
The only really delicious, hot and crusty is the
American Strombolli. Love it!
Their pizza is just meh…
Muzzarella or Artichoke have way better pizza.
Their staff is a total mess mentioned above.
One guy is not that bad, he is helpful and trying to be nice. But the others… rude and did I mention total mess?

I could not detest this place more. Every time you order something the price changes; a sandwich that’s $ 6 one day can be $ 10 the next. Today they charged me $ 8 for 2 croissants — were they made of gold? — which was the last straw. I’m actually angry at myself for paying for them instead of walking out with nothing. Never again will I enter this poor excuse for an establishment.

The gruel they serve here is terrible. I’m watching Naked And Afraid right now on Discovery and I rather eat the sea urchins they just scooped out of some merky river than eat here.

I’d rather eat Sbarro or Ray’s for a week than spend another minute at Hot & Crusty. Was the pizza really that bad? Yes, but guess what was worse? The service. Before I roll up my review sleeves to go into further detail, I should emphasize that when one’s bread winning product is in jeopardy, service becomes everything. Here is a recap of my experiences:
1^st Time — Friends and I are plastered and told that they’re still heating up pizzas at 3am. We decide to go down the street for a couple of massive, gooey slices of Artchoke (
) and come back with the intention of using their tables. As a token of good faith, I buy another two cheese slices and 4 waters for everyone. We’re booted from the restaurant *after* I purchase everything ($ 15 total). Oh and the pizza was inedible. Thank goodness for Artichoke.
2^nd Time — It’s lunch at the office. I’m starving and I manage to yank a plain slice that seemed hot to the touch. The sauce was bland, the cheese was already falling off, and the crust was overly dry. «Where the hell did you order from?» I asked, «This pizza is pretty awful.» And my friend says, «You know that corner pizza joint on 14^th? Hot and something…» Say no more.
3^rd Time — Artichoke closes at 5am. Hot & Crusty is open 24 hours. That means at 5:30am with pizza cravings, I’m only left the latter choice. I brought in a small group of hungry folks and we ordered a mishmosh of rolls to whole pies. They had given us so much attitude for attempting to customize a three topping pizza, that I settled for a regular pepperoni and a few slices of sausage. Everything was bad. So bad that I had to ask if we could reheat a few slices, two of which were untouched. The late night guys behind the counter weren’t having it, likely fearing our slices were tainted and not eligible for a last minute blast in the oven. They told us to settle for what was already paid for. Gee, thanks.
4^th (and last) Time — I’m casually walking along 14^th & 1^st, when I get handed a take out menu by one of their counter guys on the street. I look and notice they served bagels and for cheap, one thing that I think is idiot proof in NYC. Instead, I get a hard and lumpy bagel, which actually might be worse than the pizza. I got nothing but GTFO stares before walking outside, where I got bombarded with more paper menus from the guy who says, «Give to your friends.» I show him my menu and he decides to toss a small stack into my plastic bag. I pull it back and out and say, «No, I don’t want this!» A smirk and a cold shoulder later, he refuses to take the menus back and I hear a mumble of «pinche chino» under his breath. So I took them inside where I got an earful for «wasting menus» by the manager. In reality, I was just wasting my time.
4 tries, 1 star. That sounds about right for Not & Rusty.

So, you’re probably sitting there, read all of the bad reviews, and are thinking, «Can it really be that bad? Are they really so rude?»
YES. My girlfriend and I were physically assaulted here last night. And I’m not being dramatic. I mean that I was kicked, punched, and had my clothes torn, and she was punched in the face. We were attacked by 5 or 6 employees. Seriously. This place is that bad. Bad enough that we’ve taken pictures of our injuries and are considering pressing charges.
So if you want bad food, bad people, and a place that closed down a landmark bagel shop, by all means go waste your money and dignity here. The only things keeping this place open are obviously the location and proximity to drunk people who don’t know any better. I have never had a worse experience with any business of any kind in my life.

I came in here Sunday after an afternoon of drinking. I was still hungry after the previous food order a few minutes ago so I stopped in here for some more food before I ventured on the long trek back to Brooklyn.
They had a slice already available topped with grilled chicken and broccoli. It looked hearty so I decided to take one. It was a weird price $ 4.03 plus tax which ended up to be $ 4.39 total. I was out of there with my hot slice in 5 minutes. It was suprisingly good.

(Update on 11÷8÷14): It looks like this place has closed…
Maybe I was just lucky and all of their nicer workers were there today at lunchtime (judging by the many negative reviews), but the guy I dealt with at the pizza counter and also the cashier were both very pleasant. I got a cheese calzone (which was very tasty) and asked if it was warm (no) — so I asked the guy if he could warm it up for me and he said «Sure, no problem». While I was waiting, he was very pleasant to other customers. Then I brought it to the cashier and added a bread pudding (like I needed the additional fat & carbs — but their bread pudding is really good and I couldn’t resist [I didn’t eat breakfast, so that’s my excuse]). The crowd dissipated at about 1:00 p.m. and I sat at an (open) window table for quite awhile, amused by fragments of conversations at that busy corner (and probably having my brain fried from all the bus & car exhaust).
This place has an «A» rating from the Health Department and indeed it seemed very clean.

… and I thought people that worked at the DMV were mean, this place takes the cake.
Not to mention, not the most sanitary place, pretty sure the guy behind the counter making my bagel was coughing up a storm. Got my bagel and didn’t dare eat it… a little disappointed considering this place is right next to my apartment.

This is when Unilocal should have a 0 Stars option.
I have never seen such ridiculous, childish, and disrespectful behavior.
Hot & Crusty is about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. At 11am, I placed a $ 60 order. At 11:50, the food had yet to arrived. I called Hot & Crusty to ask about the status of my order, the man who picked up was very rude but assured us that the food was on its way. We were bothered, but hungry– so we waited. FOURTY minutes later, at 12:30, our food, which was supposedly on its way, was still nowhere in sight. I called back.
Me: Hi, I placed an order for delivery and it’s been well over an hour and we still haven’t received our food. I just want…
H&C: I have no orders here
Me: What does that mean?
H&C: (Getting aggravated at my questioning) I have no orders here
Me: Huh? I just want to make sure…
H&C: I’ll make it simple for you, *SWETTIE*, the food is on its way
H&C hang’s up
Once again, I was reassured the food would be coming our way, but I had been told this before, and the food had never made it. Fifteen minutes later, I called again to ensure the food was coming, that they had the right address, etc. trying to figure out what the issue was. H&C picked up, asked me to hold and put the phone down. Five minutes later, they just hung up. I called back, and they simply picked up and put the phone off the hook. They did that over and over and over again. We couldn’t get our food and we couldn’t cancel the order (we had paid with credit card).
We assumed the order would never make it, but another hour later the food arrived. Not one thing was right. Instead of 3 coke cans, they sent 3 sprite cans. The create-​your-​own salad and the sandwich were missing ingredients. The «mozzarella sticks» had NO mozzarella in them (so they were just batter) — The chicken tenders were HARD AS A ROCK. Everything was cold. Everything was a mess. And there was nothing to do about it, since H&C simply insisted on picking up my phone call and unhooking the phone in order to ignore the problem. Absolutely ridiculous.
And of course I couldn’t get in touch with the management, so MANAGEMENT– if you’re reading this, you should ensure that this isn’t the face of your business and that something like this never happens again. Ridiculous.

The only thing I’ve ever gotten here was a greek salad via Seamless. Note that they charge significantly higher for their salads online vs. their store. Strange.
Anyways, very large salad for the okay price, but I wish they would have balsamic vinaigrette… had to settle for raspberry. It also said it came with stuffed grape leaves and kalamata olives, but that was not the case. Cheap black olives and no sign of stuffed grape leaves. It would have gotten 3 stars for the decent and filling salad, but the incorrect information sucks.
Why is salad so expensive anyways?

came here before the event at Keybar last week to get something in my stomach.
I ordered a Sicilian slice. I was starving at the time, so I devoured it, and it wasn’t horrible, but it just wasn’t that good. the sauce was a little too sweet for my tastes, and most of the cheese came off with the first bite. I prefer Sicilian slices where they don’t cover it with a sheet of cheese, but to each their own…
my friend Tim ordered a pepperoni slice and a beef patty. he said the pepperoni slice was alright, but the beef patty was good.
service was quick, and there was lots of seating.
doubt I’ll be returning, at least for the pizza. they have a lot of other food though.

I normally would not think that a coffee, bagel, and pasty place would also have decent pizza. I was really happy in my buzzed and hungry state to discover this place on the way to the subway. I was looking at a trip to another event all the way over in Astoria and I really needed to put something in my belly for the ride, as I knew my evening drinking adventure was going to continue.
They actually have a really nice variety of pies here, calzones, garlic knots, the works! All looked and smelled terrific and I could not hide my enthusiam by the noticable drool running down my chin. Waiting on line I resembled one of those drooling dogs like a Bull Mastiff. Ordered a slice of pepperoni and a few garlic knots. Sprinkled hot pepper on the slice and I was all set. Yeah, after eating this I was assured that no one would want to even get close enough to kiss me this evening, and at least I would ward off all the vampires out there. Tasty slice with a decent crust, but could have used more sauce. Garlic knots were killer.
Man, I reeked afer this meal. Wonder if that is why no one would sit by me on the subway. Good to know this place is here if drinking in the area again.

Stopped by a few times for a quick bite and some conversation. The place is like grand central especially when the schools let out. I can only say the food is fast paced so there is pizza, cold cuts, salad, coffee and desserts. They do have seating so that is a plus and some of the white cheese pizza which I like was alright.
I have seen and heard conversations of couples breaking up, people selling goods of numerous sorts. So this place really lives up to the crusty and hot part. Good luck!

Factory assembly line operation service where servers and cashiers holler «next» to the maximum volume without personalization. Sales receipt states an invalid address (232 First Avenue) while their menu correctly states (400 East 14^th Street). A quick on-​the-​go was a ham/​cheese croissant at $ 3.17 which was plentiful in size for the price for a weary Sunday high noon. The croissant is cold as they do not heat it, whereas it is surely NOT «hot» albeit outside laid the claim «all bakery prepared on premises.»
Hot & Crusty does have the option of carryout while other eateries and cafes in Stuyvesant Town don’t.