Tommy's Pizza and Pasta

"Honest opinion from someone who grew up in Jersey and moved to NY for most of my adult life. This may ruffle feathers but it will be honest. We were very excited to try Tommy Crinigan’s pizzeria. This will be from the time we pulled up to the time we finished eating so a full review We knew there would be a wait given the hype and the fact Rincon has no decent food establishments. We arrived at 5:30 pm and we placed our order at 5:48pm. Let the wait begin. While waiting we noticed they were sporadically taking calls which is fine, except you made it clear you weren’t going to do that due to the walk in volume. Then, insult to injury, those lucky enough to get through to place a phone order were then prioritized and bumped to the front of the line. Not a good practice. We anticipated 35 minutes give or take because again, we are from NY (downstate not upstate). We’ve experienced our share of busy, new, good, bad, etc. pizzerias. 35 minutes came and went. 45 minutes. An hour. Still nothing. Finally 7:07pm, 1 hour and 19 minutes after we ordered, we got our dinner. We ordered a Brooklyn pie, a medium cheese pie, 1 order of garlic knots that they ran out of day one as they are not freshly made apparently so we didnt get those, stuffed zeppoles, 1 slice of cheesecake, 1 order of tiramisu. The total came to $65.25 which, given the current cost of everything and inflation and such, isn’t terrible so no complaints on price. The 79 minute wait for a relatively simple order, is not even in the realm of acceptable for a pizzeria. Big problem there. There is lots of confusion and disorganization in the process. If you pay cash, they write your name on the ticket. If you pay card, there is a number on the ticket. The problem is when your order is ready, they are only calling numbers. We paid cash and had no number on the ticket. Our order could have been ready for a while and had we not asked we would have never known. Simplify the process, give every ticket the same identifier whether it be name or number but pick one. There is also lack of communication in the different areas of the kitchen. The ticket goes to the pizza maker. Thats it. It stays there. If you ordered anything other than pizza, the kitchen has no idea. This leads to further delays in completing orders. Now to the food. The regular, ratio of sauce to cheese to crust is on par with any good shop. The sauce is great, slightly sweet, not over acidic. The cheese is good. The dough is where it all goes downhill. I’m not a dough aficionado but something is wrong in the process here it is very tough and hard to chew. It lacks the crispness and crunchiness of a good slice. It takes what could be a good slice and ruins it. Both the Brooklyn and the regular pie had the same issue. The stuffed zeppoles. I wanted to love these so much as I love zeppoles and cannolis. Again, the dough kills it. They are very tough, possibly overcooked here. The filling is good, not great, maybe if the dough was better it would be better all around. The cheesecake was more for my wife as I’m not a huge cheesecake fan but she is. It is a good cheesecake but has an odd aftertaste we couldn’t place. Not the best not the worst. The tiramisu, now this was delicious start to finish. The coffee wasn’t an overpowering flavor. The mascarpone wasn’t overly sweet. The cocoa powder wasn’t overpowering. Just right on the ratios. Great job here. Overall, as it sits, we would not return for a while as there are too many issues to be worked out. Maybe after some time and he can iron out some of these fairly large issues, we can try again. It is sad because we were excited to have a NY pizzeria here. Tommy, I truly wish you success and hope you get all the kinks ironed out. There is serious potential for you to do very well"

"Pizza was great! The Drunken grandma was my favorite, and the wife and kids loved everything as well."

"The food is phenomenal! Truly the taste and feel of a New York pizza/pasta/sandwich place. Definitely recommend trying. You will love it!"

"Being the first night, I wasn’t expecting the best, but all expectations were exceeded for sure. Fantastic pizza, coming from a Chicago native! Crust has that beautiful chew and crisp all at the same time, sauce is great, sausage is like nothing else in the area. Will definitely be a repeat customer!"

"Newest pizza and pasta joint in town. First day open, it’s definitely a mad house. Let’s talk pizza. I had a single slice and it was fantastic. No flop, no grease dripping off, crust was flaky and soft. Tasted great. I will be ordering a few pies in the near future. I went today for the sandwiches. Chicken parm and a Steak and cheese. Although I prefer a toasted bread roll, the bread was soft without getting soggy. Great choice. The chicken parm was full of flavor and everything it needs to be. The steak was grilled up right, tasted of Ajou and that means it’s tender and most of all moist. Nothing worse than a dry steak and cheese. Their register system wasn’t up to par but I’m sure it’ll get worked out in good time. Run, don’t walk to support this gem right out the gate."