Calabrese Pizzeria

Edible.
That is the only thing I can compliment about this experience. I ordered the Meat Sauce, and it was just (poorly) chopped meatballs in sauce. The sauce, wish it had flavor. The bruschetta with mozzarella was literally just chopped tomato and onion, with no seasoning or oil with melted pizza cheese on top. The fried calamari was tiny pieces of frozen calamari served with a bland sauce.
My experience wasn’t any better. Upon arrival there was a drunk customer wobbling back and forth while applying condiments on his pizza. And a jumpy, unbathed, and (possibly) high person was asking for money and the person working, older man possibly the owner, was yelling and cursing at him. His rant continued healthily after the other person’s departure.
I don’t post reviews on Unilocal that aren’t positive, but after all the reviews on here, I needed to add my two cents to help prevent anyone who was hoping for a quality Italian dinner.

TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. First time ordering from here and I ordered through Unilocal/​Eat 24. We ordered 2 entrees and got an update to say it would be delivered in 45 – 60 mins. After an hour I called to say we never received it.
The manager and employee blamed their tablet for not updating properly so it wasn’t going to be ready for another 45 minutes. When I asked how they could remedy the situation they continued to blame the app and issues with Eat24. While I understand it was not their fault they were allegedly not receiving updates… the customer service was absolutely terrible. I am a new resident to Bloomfield, and I will absolutely never order from here again. When I asked what they could do about the situation — they told me nothing.
There are much better restaurants in town that offer quick delivery times and better customer service.

I’ve been eating here since I was a little kid.
20 years later, I bring my daughter for a pizza treat every once in a while. Sal’s pizza is definitively the best pizza I’ve ever had.
Keep in mind I said Sal’s (owner) pizza, because I do agree with some of the previous reviews that say the pizza is inconsistent… it really depend on who’s making your pie. If you order before 4pm you’ll have the most delicious pizza ever, after 4:30 I haven’t had the same experience :(
I still order at night from Time to time but it’s best to go in for lunch or «after school».

I’ve been going to this place for several years now… The food is always great! Traditional family run pizzeria at its best!

best garlic bread I’ve had in a while. Baked ziti was also delicious.

Ok … let me start this by saying their pizza gets 5 stars if it is actually hot! It is delicious and I should have just ordered 2 pies. This evening I ordered a large cheese pie and a chicken parm entrée with ziti.
I live down the block from the establishment however it still took about an hour and change to get here … not the end of the world.
The pizza was semi warm… which normally would be a deal breaker for me but concidering my 3 year old is eating it, this was actually welcomed since I didn’t have to cool it down. We are enjoying our (mostly cold) pizza and I decide to open the chicken parm. This is the saddest excuse of chicken parm I have ever in my life seen. The chicken was tough and fatty. It was thick and just off … The sauce was a bit sweet (but some folks like that so no points taken off there) and the cheese was LACKING. My expectations of chicken parm is a breaded and fried chicken cutlet smothered in sauce and cheese … I could not even eat this. So I went to open my ziti… and it was spaghetti. I actually don’t really like spaghetti (nothing against it just not my thing) so basically this whole meal is going to my dog.
Tldr: great pizza if you don’t expect it HOT when you get it. stay away from whatever it is they are trying to pass off as chicken parm, and when they give you the option between something that really means they are gonna give you whatever it is they want to. so don’t have your heart set on something.
On the plus side… The delivery driver was VERY friendly and nice.

I’ve known Sal (owner) since I was 11 years old I’m 27 now, & this is still my Fav Pizzria to Grab a quick Local Bite, Sal is by far one of the Nicest Guy I Know, always makes me & my family feel so welcome, always has a Funny Story to tell u too. Food is Great.

I wish I could give this review 0 stars. Seriously.
It saddens me to have to write this but I don’t want anyone else to be misguided by the apparent high star rating of Calabrese Pizzeria on Unilocal.
This was the WORST EXPERIENCE online and the WORST FOOD my wife and I have EVER had — and I don’t say that lightly.
Here’s what happened. We decided to place an order online tonight at 6.45pm. After getting the email confirmation what with being a new customer, I wanted to see how far Calabrese were from our house. I was a little concerned to find out that our order had been accepted, yet Google Maps claimed they were actually closed!
We gave them a quick call to confirm at 7pm to make sure everything was good to go and were told yes, they were open but Eat 24 Hours sometimes ‘messes up’ so they should retake the order again on the phone, just in case.
No problem we thought — it’s always good to be cautious. It shows they care — we thought. Yeah right.
The guy said that it would be about 30 – 40 minutes because they were ‘busy’. Again, that’s fine, we thought. Not unusual in the slightest.
But then when it got to 8.15pm (90 mins after ordering) we couldn’t help getting a bit annoyed. To take such a long time delivering food might be forgivable if the food was amazing but to say it was terrible, might actually be a compliment because what was delivered surely wasn’t ‘food’ at all. It was garbage.
Back to the delivery time though, we gave them a quick call to find out what was going on and were told ‘any minute’.
It took another 50 minutes (yes, we’re now up to 2 HOURS AND 20 MINUTES) before our order arrived!
You can imagine how we both felt at that point! Can you also imagine how lovely it was to get a cold, oily, wet pizza box? — And, that was just the beggining of things to come. It also goes without saying that everything was stone cold.
Here’s what we ordered and what we actually got:
* Stromboli with pepperoni, mushrooms and extra cheese. (No mushrooms were to be found but overall, this item wasn’t completely tragic)
* Chicken Marsala with Spaghetti (let’s sidestep the Marsala for a minute. I’ll just say for now that congealed ziti was delivered instead of spaghetti as requested)
* Chicken Parmigiana with ziti (aside from getting another terrible serving of congealed ziti, we have to say congrats Calabrese, you sent us the parm at least — although it was still far from good)
* 12 Zeppoles — they were a no show completely
We spent a total of $ 34 and it was a terrible waste of money. I wouldn’t even want this food for free. Instead of telling you how horrible it looked because the words fail me, I’m uploading a picture of the grey flabby Marsala we got, complete with oil slick on top (and again, no mushrooms).
Even if the food is terrible a company should at least give you the items that you actually paid for! Therefore, as we didn’t get everything, I can only come the conclusion that Calabrese blatantly STOLE money from me.
I called to complain as soon as we got our order, only to be rushed off the phone and told we’d get a free meal next time (!) No thanks Calabrese. We’ll be taking it up with Eat 24 Hours instead. Here’s hoping they don’t want to continue to represent such a terrible service.
Further words fail me right now so I’ll come to an end.
I can only hope this review helps people thinking of doing business here. At best, you might get a stale, dry bread roll with your meal and at worst, food poisoning from the dreaded grey chicken Marsala.
Such a shame…

Amazing food! Perfect pizza and Stromboli for my first time in New Jersey. Sal was so kind to us.

I can’t believe a place like Bloomfield NJ has so few good pizza parlours. But it’s the truth. I used to live just a few blocks from this place so I’d walk down the street to grab some pizza. Because all pizza in NJ is good I never thought much about it. That’s so not true. I live farther away now and tried three other Bloomfield pizza joints. This is the only one that is any good at all.

Wow, the guy that works there went out of his way to pick up an extra something for my 87 y/​o Mom. What a sweet thing to do. You have a costumer for life. Pizza and wings were really good, too!

Today was my 1^st time at Calabrese Pizzeria & Must say It was Delicious. Everyone there was on a 1^st name base with Sal. Felt as if I was walking to a friends house for dinner. Very humbling experience. Great to see there’s still Hometown pizzeria, where Everybody knows your name=)

My favorite pizza in New Jersey. 9 out of 10 times the pizza is NYC quality. I lived in the city for five years and Calabrese is the only place I have been to in NJ that has even compared.

Came here because Lyndhurst Pizza wasn’t taking online orders or picking up the phone. Man at the counter was helpful, but the pizza was pretty mediocre. Just not a very flavorful pizza. A reviewer below said their pizza can be inconsistent, so I’ll be sure to give it one more shot at some point, especially since the staff seemed nice.

Great pizza!!! One of the best in NJ!!!

I’ve been getting food here for close to 25 years. Delivery, catering parties, stopping in for a slice. You name it, Sal can handle it. I always pick up sandwiches here for my contractors and they never fail to impress. Calabrese is a lot more than a pizza shop./deli. It’s really good food, made by a really great guy.

We have been ordering from there since I was a kid. The pizza has always been great. Lately from time to time they have been losing touch on their other menu items. Once I called and ordered a salad but they ran out of every type of dressing. My boyfriend once ordered buffalo wings. They informed him that they ran out of sauce but can give him ketchup… Wait what? Lol. But when we need a slice, we still call

The pizza from Calabrese is very inconsistent. Sometimes thin crusted, sometimes thick, sometimes hot & fresh, sometimes hard, burnt, and stale tasting. It is unfortunate because when done right, this place has the best pizza in the area… but depending on the day– you never know what you’re going to get. We order frequently, and the past few pies have been hard and burnt. Step up your game, Calabrese! Would normally highly recommend this place, but the past two orders have left a poor taste in our mouths. But here’s to hoping!!!

Although the last time I ordered from Calabrese, the pizza was slim on sauce and cheese, I am still going to give it 4 stars because they have a good track record with me. Usually, the pizza is fresh with a perfect crust that is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The sauce is not overpowering, but definitely flavorful. Unlike the other pizzerias in the area, it is also reasonably priced with a short wait time. And lastly, the staff are all incredibly friendly. After trying different places in Bloomfield and Montclair only to feel disappointed, I finally found Calabrese and it is now the only pizza I eat in this town.

I can’t believe no one has done a review on this place before! :o
I completely forgot to add my review to Unilocal; but I did one on that other handy site (USpoon) ages ago ;)
Anywho, here’s pretty much my review from that:
Thanks to UrbanSpoon’s handy dandy iPhone app, it found dinner for me @ Calabrese Pizzeria! I’ve been meaning to try this place for a while now, so it must have been fate. We were in the mood for a calzone so I got the ham and he got the pepperoni… all I can say is that my mouth is watering just thinking about it. It had the perfect amount of cheese to meat ratio, the bread was chewy yet crusty (nearly perfect IMO) and the sauce… the SAUCE wow, AMAZING!!! Freshly made, not too thick, good flavors, the whole thing was just wonderful!
Since that review, we’ve pretty much become regulars here; order from there at least once a week if not more. We’ve also explored they’re menu too… and it just keeps getting better. The baked ziti is out of this world; huge serving of perfectly cooked ziti pasta, smothered in that mouth watering pasta/​marinara sauce and covered in a heaping helping of delicious perfectly melted mozzarella cheese. (ok, mouth watering yet again).
The owner Sal, is so awesome. He’s very people friendly and an all around good guy… he actually gets to know his customers and they become like family to him. Its always a pleasure walking in to pick up our order and see his smiling face. Sal… you’re ACE in my book!
Seriously, if you’re in the area… this place is a dime. Give it a try and tell Sal; Lena sent ya!