Love at first sight? Welp, I definitely had my eyes out for DiPaulo’s Pizzeria. It had all the right curves and appeal. Like some relationships though, as you get further into things, you uncover some flaws, you accept it’s not for you, and you move on. Even though I was sad to see it happen, sometimes an amicable parting is the best solution for everyone. And yes, I’m strictly talking about pizza here.

Occasion

Nothing better than a Friday night in. Time to relax, time to wedding plan with my fiance, time to start a new show (and finish that weekend), and time to eat and drink whatever your heart desires.

We searched for a new pizza place in the Tonawanda area for that evening, weighing out a few options. We landed on DiPaulo’s Pizzeria because it seemed like a nice neighborhood pizza stop and the pictures of their pizzas looked unbelievably good!

Selection

Since the majority of reviews for DiPaulo’s had described their pizza as classic, Buffalo-style pizza, I figured I’d go with cheese and pepperoni. Buffalo-style pizza isn’t real without the cup and char ronis.

And of course my fiance had to be extra and get pizza rolls with our large pizza, because that makes sense?! I don’t know why I’ve never been the biggest fan of pizza rolls, I guess I just prefer the real deal.

Even on a Friday night, the wait for pick-up was only 20 minutes or so for our order. Not too shabby.

Experience

A week before Thanksgiving and everyone was starting to put up their holiday lights and decorations, so going for a little drive wasn’t a bad thing. DiPaulo’s is located in a cozy neighborhood in Brighton, within Tonawanda.

The inside wasn’t spacious by any means, but your typical neighborhood pizza shop with the tall counter-top to cash out, warm pizza oven air, and pizza boxes stacked around.

The Power of The Crust

I’ve never liked a pizza that had everything going for it except the crust. The crust of a pizza is king. It sets the base, literally, for the whole pizzas experience. It make or breaks a pizza’s reputation.

And this time around, this crust just unfortunately didn’t cut it. I’ve never experienced anything like this, but the ingredients themselves tasted good and like your typical Buffalo-style pizza, however there was a dry, grainy texture on the underside of the crust. And when it mixed in with the rest of the pizza it became a distraction and took away from the taste.

Who knows if this was the case with every pizza, but this one from DiPaulo’s just really didn’t have that wow factor for me. It is kind of a bummer because the cheese, sauce, topping ratios were all tasting good up until you starting chewing the dry crust.

Pro tip though, and it actually helped us salvage our leftovers ever so slightly, we decided to put the leftovers in a zip lock bag and in the fridge overnight. I think because the grease settled and there was moisture from the bag/fridge, it softened the crust a little bit. So actually, the leftovers were better than the fresh pizza. But don’t get me wrong, it was still an unsatisfying, dry, grainy texture in your mouth.

It’s like with anything: once you experience the bad, you appreciate the good. I’m looking forward to more of the good crusts in the future! Some of favorite crusts now? Vera Pizzeria (so salty yum), Mustachio’s (perfect width), and D’Avolio’s (olive oil magic).

So there you have it. As I always say though, I recommend you try DiPaulo’s Pizzeria yourself to have your own experience and we can compare notes!

Pizza & love,

Mandy