Home Style Caterers

The food is a little over priced but good when they actually get it right. I order from them often and ⁴⁄₁₀ times they seem to mess up my order some how on simple things and would leave out things. I think it may actually come down to not being attentive to their customers. Every time I do pick-​up orders, I walk straight up to the counter and stand there for a few minutes before anyone even acknowledges me or looks at me – poor customer service. Customer service is half the experience and I am starting to frequent them less and less. I’d expect this type of service from a McDonald’s… step it up – you are not the only restaurant around with good food!

Their pizza is excellent! One of our favorites is the «Spinachi» pizza with spinach, chicken, and bacon. The dinners (eat in or take out) are good and reasonably priced compared to other restaurants. Love their rolls.
They often offer savings with Groupon.

Food is alright, bugs fly around the place, service is bad, the restaurant is dirty, I dont enjoy my experience when I go but usually when I go it is because im starving and nothing else is open.

Went in to pick up our order of pizza and wings. They handed us the wings, and said the pizza would be another few minutes. 45 minutes later, the pizza was ready. Evidently, they forgot the order — and didn’t bother to say so. Of course, the wings were completely cold by the time they arrived, since they were ready.
1 star for lack of communication, and ridiculous wait time. It shouldn’t take 45 minutes to make a couple pizzas, period.

I’ve been visiting homestyle pizza since 2010; it was actually our first order-​in at our new house. We were painting walls, getting ready to move furniture in; the house wasn’t even finished being built! And the food used to be pretty good; tasy crust on their pizza, solid sandwiches, and always well cooked. But no longer.
Especially in the last two years or so, the food quality has become very poor. Pizza is often undercooked or burnt. Toppings are inconsistently cut. Wings are somehow never crispy. We ordered just the other day, and the soup was the saltiest soup I’ve ever tasted. Overall the quality of food is low; the food isn’t always bad, but you never know what to expect.
Service is another area that is a problem. Every time I’ve ordered food to go I’ve noticed several things:
1) The front of house staff is very short with customers, often not smiling, being friendly, or acting as if they have something better to do than get your food. Unless…
2) … unless you are a regular. Regular customers are treated on an immensely different scale than an occasional customer — and when you can see the difference, it’s bad for business. I’ve had situations where I’m being helped by a man who appears to be the owner, only to have him stop, make me wait for someone else to come help me, so he can get another customer’s order just because he knows their name.
Even with some of the groupons they have, I recommend avoiding Homestyle pizza and going to some of the other place in nisky and schenectady for better food. You might get good food, and you might not. But chances are, you’ll have wished you went somewhere else.

The thing about Home Style Pizza is that it’s so inconsistent. They have a fantastic menu, full of food options which sets them apart from other pizza places (especially if you’re more interested in sandwiches). We usually order the same three items (the calzone, the grilled eggplant sub, and some form of buffalo chicken — sandwich or salad), and sometimes everything is so fresh and so delicious. When Home Style is good, it’s really the best of any pizza place in Schenectady.
Yet there is an inconsistency. As many times as the food is plentiful and delicious, there’s been some problem. Usually the problem is that the sandwiches don’t contain all of the ingredients listed on the menu. The grilled eggplant sub is the usual culprit. It’s supposed to contain grilled eggplant, artichokes, real mozzarella cheese, lettuce, and tomato; however, I have paid $ 8 for a lettuce sandwich before (and that’s no exaggeration)! Sometimes the food is overly greasy, too. And there was one time when I found literally clumps of blonde hair mixed in with the lettuce on the eggplant sub. That went right in the trash.
Ultimately, when the food’s good, it’s really good. But you never know if it’s going to be good or not, and it’s a bit expensive (and they recently raised their prices!) for such inconsistency.

A bit of an attitude issue with all staff. Not a single smile, no hello, eye contact made but nothing said. Majorly slacking on the customer service side of business. Not too sure Ill be returning as the food is not all that either. Im being generous by giving 2 stars.

I had to help my brother move in Schenectady on a Saturday afternoon. He ordered a 12 cut cheese (Sicilian style) for delivery.
The pizza arrived still very hot. It was not too thick, but the dough was spongy and flavorless. The sauce was tasty. There was too much cheese.
There was a lot of oil dripping off the pizza as we ate it and it was also pooling on the uneaten slices. Oil on a pizza is usually a sign of poor quality mozz.
The pizza was ok, but it certainly was nothing special.

Every time we have ordered, whether it be pizza or subs, it takes well over an hour to get here… even weirder still they don’t toss their chicken wings in the sauce, they just give you the fried wings with a small side of sauce that isn’t even enough to cover the wings… then the wings don’t have time to absorb the flavor either… the foods not bad but not worth waiting that long. I’m sorry to say we’re over Homestyle and looking for another pizza place in the area with faster delivery… I really was rooting for them…

Nice place to go with the family on a weeknight when you do not feel like cooking. Service was great affordable. Enjoyed the gelato very much.

Staff greeted us upon entering but that is where it ended! All the desserts in the cases looked old & sweaty! Gelato covered by Saran Wrap looked like it hasn’t been touched by anyone in years!
Ordered Italian staple chicken parm, How do you mess that up? Maybe what they lack in taste they over kill with portion size for it came in square container overflowing. Tasteless & more in the palette of a grade school cafeteria! Everything must be prepackaged! Down to the lack luster salads! The rolls that came with the dinner were the best part but I know they are Sysco!!!
No liquor license means no glass of red with your pasta?
Were this was once the place to eat in Niskayuna, it will NOT be on my must return list!!!

They have Shirley Temple soda by the bottle. I mean you need pizza. You’re in a place you’re stuck in or living in or both and you need pizza. So they make pizza and it’s pretty flavorful for what it is. It wouldn’t make it in NYC but for Schenectady, well you need pizza.
I’m posting this review three years after starting it so I really can’t remember too much about it. I don’t know too much else to say.

UN-​RENEWED LIQUOR LICENSE??? my husband and i dined in last night, as we have on random occasions previously, but we are primarily pizza by delivery customers. portion sizes are more than generous, and we have always enjoyed the food, particularly their pizza. we were quite disappointed to visit more than two weeks since the start of the new year, on a saturday evening, to discover the restaurant’s liquor license hadn’t been renewed. had it not been for a groupon we intended to use, this would have been a complete deal breaker. it would have been preferable for the server to immediately inform of us of the «dry» situation as opposed to attempting to take our drink order and THEN catching us up on the situation. additionally, i do hope the licensing issue is dealt with sooner rather than later as it must certainly be impacting what the wait staff is earning in tips.

Despite the increasing negative reviews of late regarding Homestyle’s food and service, my family and I have I have always found the place to be a solid – if unspectacular – choice for family dining. Plus, the restaurant is w/​in a mile of our house, so it is very convenient!
That was before the latest fiasco regarding Groupon and the person who claimed to be the «owner». For the past year, we have been taking advantage of the $ 10 off Groupon offer and every single time Homestyle has honored (even though we do get an eat-​in pizza «special», we also order drinks, appetizers and full dinners, which justifies the coupons and the servers always honor it. Well, the last Sunday we were there, we were told that we can’t use the Groupon for our particular order because of the fact we were also doing the special (once again, we ordered all the other stuff, the same as before; I believe a contributing factor may also be that the restaurant was a little more crowded than usual).
When we questioned this and showed the other expired Groupons, the waitress called over the «owner» or «manager» (who refused to identify himself). His tone was condescending right from the get-​go and he grudgingly offered to do it for us «this time». I proceeded to remind him of the previous dinners we had discounted and also noted that the Groupon wasn’t worded properly to clarify the discount (their fault for writing it that way; the Groupon says that it could not be combined with «Home Pizza Specials», which led us to believe it was for delivery specials only). Anyway, the owner/​manager/​whoever he was could not have been any ruder and seemed not to care if we were satisfied or not — so we just left.
Needless to say, we will not be going back and Homestyle has unfortunately lost a regular family Sunday dinner. As I said before about the mediocre food reviews — that is true as well, but we were always willing to overlook it because of the covenience of the place. From now on though, we will hit tastier and friendlier places in the area like Ario’s, Scotti’s, Pizza Buono and Ottimo’s.

So, after revisiting Home Style a couple of times, we’re upgrading to four stars. They’re still second fiddle to Pizza Buono for pizza quality on Union Street (PB has wheat crusts if you want ‘em, more good ingredients, and significantly better deli-​style sides and salads) but I praise them and occasionally patronize them because of the following:
(1) You can sit down here. You can get a beer or a glass of wine. It’s the best place to sit down for pizza on the street.
(2) They have never, ever been late with a pick-​up order, and have been prompt at table service. Pizza Buono has an awful streak these days of taking over an hour to get a pie to me from the time I’ve ordered it. Home Style is basically 25 minutes and they’re accurate, and they have an automated remember-​your-​phone-​number computerized system (like China King down at Mohawk Common) so it reduces the fuss of ordering and pickup. (PB, I have had my order lost in their old fashioned paper-​slip system.)
(3) They have much better hours, being open later by a couple of hours most days.
The pizza tends to be more saucy — a little more «Italian» in that it’s not just a cheese delivery device, the way most American pizza is. The crust is not quite a flatbread crust, but it hasn’t been allowed to rise fully, probably a corner they cut on cooking. One of our party prefers it this way, I don’t. The sauce has grown on me, it’s a little more crafted than many, but it’s still too sweet for my taste.
Salads tend to have too much disappointingly white and lime green iceberg lettuce, although the antipasto is decent in the meat and marinated veggies department, still second-​fiddle compared to PB.
The quality of food is higher at Pizza Buono and the commitment to fresh and local ingredients is higher, but for a second-​place winner in the busy Union Street Pizza corridor, I think I can now recommend Home Style a regular alternative, and because the pizzas are different, if your taste runs more to sauce than cheese and you don’t want a full crust, Home Style may be your thing.
We rarely order sandwiches at any of these places and when we have nobody’s really stood out so I can’t comment usefully on that end of things.

Great pizza. Great selection Italian pastries, gelato and other dishes. Quiet atmosphere for a couple or family.

Recently moved to Schenectady for work, I’ve been looking for a go-​to pizza place. I was recommended this place by co-​workers as I saw a groupon available and thought I would try it out.
Service: When I called in the order, the server was pleasant and answered any questions I had about the menu. Only negative I had about the service was when I entered and approached the counter the two servers were hugging, which made it a bit awkward for me to interrupt them.
Food (Take Out): I ordered a brick oven pizza and 2 pieces of the garlic bread sticks.
Pizza was good. I would return again for it. Crust was thin, but not as thin as NY style pizza, which I found nice. The sauce was flavourful enough and the toppings were decent. If you like your pizza over loaded with toppings, not for you. They had the toppings put on sparsely, which I thought was fine.
Garlic Bread Sticks: Horrible. They were cold, very dense and I couldn’t taste the garlic. I expect bread sticks to be soft, warm, and have some garlic taste to it. These were the opposite. Very dissapointed.
I will give the place another try as I enjoyed the pizza!
I’ll update this review after a second go around.

Okay fellow Italian lovers (I’m talking about the food ok?!) here is the scoop…
I love me some Italian. It’s in the blood. So finding a nice mom and pop Italian restaurant is always on the radar.
For the past couple of years my wife and I have only been purchasing their pizza dough. They make great pizza dough and it sure does beat what you get at the super market. We make these awesome BBQ pizza’s on the grill (I’ll have to share the recipe some time– it truly is divine!) But up until recently all were were spending our dough on was the dough. (See what I did there?)
This past year we decided to venture out and try their other menu items. For no apparent reason did we neglect purchasing anything other than pizza dough in the past– it just happened to work out that way. 2011 was the year of the BBQ Grilled Pizza. Anyway, one night my wife was there getting dough and she noticed a featured article in the local newspaper resting right on the counter where she was checking out.
The author mentioned a great deal where you got a certain style pizza and a salad for about $ 10. My wife made a mental note of that and the very next night she wanted to try what she had read about. So she called and placed her order. Now the person taking her order said, «Oh we don’t offer that deal and style pizza anymore.» My wife explained that she had just read the article on their counter the day before. The staff member replied, «Sorry ma’am I don’t know what you are talking about.» Long story short, my wife ended up ordering spaghetti and meat balls.
That was the initial taste of our future experiences ordering meals at Home Style. This wasn’t the only time this sort of thing happened. We had several coupons for their special deals and each time we went to redeem them they said they couldn’t accept it. Dealing with the staff there is like going to get a root canal. At least with a root canal you know the pain will eventually end.
We have ordered several different entrees there and they aren’t anything to write home about –especially for the price. Home Style is definitely on the higher end of the cost spectrum compared with other local Italian restaurants. If you are looking for a great Italian meal locally, go elsewhere. There are plenty of them nearby with bigger portions, better ingredients, same or lower price, and friendly staff.
What keeps us going back for more do you ask? Their dough. They have fantastic dough, their pizza is really good (a little high priced but still good) and they have fantastic wings… I’m talking Gigantic WINGS.
Bottom line– If you don’t mind being treated like Jody Foster was by «Buffalo Bill» in Silence of the Lambs (It puts the lotion on its skin… AKA…it puts the money on the counter) –by all means go there and get their great pizza and ass kicking GIANT buffalo wings. Just leave behind their mediocre entrees, terrible subs, and rude staff.
(side note– I was trying to decide between 2 and 3 stars but in the end I had to give them 2 stars on account of the way they treat their customers. I’m not the only one that has experienced this either.)
(side side note– Somehow I’m the Duke with a scathing review… But did I mention how awesome their dough, pizza and wings are?!)

My experience at Home Style was awful. Really, this should be a one star review. But in my heart of hearts I suspect that Home Style is better than the story I am about to unfold.
The wife, the child and I were hungry. We were in the area, and we did not have a lot of time. My father-​in-​law was driving up from Pennsylvania, and he was going to be hungry. He likes left over pizza. So Home Style seemed an obvious choice.
When we were seated, the place was pretty empty. Our plan had been to order a whole pizza, until we overheard a waitress at another table mentioning pizza by the slice.
Our waiter had been much friendlier before we told him we were only ordering slices. Three cheese Sicillian slices, one pepperoni slice. Four slices, for three people. The order came out on two plates.
Luckily, I didn’t mind sharing a plate with the kiddo. I did however mind that the slices weren’t hot. I minded that much more than the long brown hair that was UNDER the slice of pizza, on the plate. For cold pizza, it took a long time for us to get our food. It took a long time for our waiter to bring us our bill.
Properly evaluating pizza that is not hot is really impossible. Although tasty pizza will always be tasty. This… not so tasty… but again, I cannot say for certain the pizza here is terrible.
When I went up to the take out counter to get a few unremarkable slices for my father-​in-​law, it took a long time for someone to acknowledge my presence. There was a lot of idle busyness going on. And I didn’t think of it at the time, but as I was leaving, nobody even bothered to ask if I wanted the slices heated.
I imagine I will come back here and give it another try. But I’m not going to be in any hurry.

I like this place! I’ve been here for takeout and have had dinner in the full service dining room to the left. The takeout area has a steam table (ready to go hot foods), pizza by the slice, cold salads, and a nice selection of baked goods and desserts. The dining room has high back booth seating and a full cocktail bar offering draft beer, wine, and cocktails.
The menu selection is pretty extensive. The NY style pizza is decent and they offer 2 slices of cheese pizza & a drink for $ 4.49 (toppings additional). I love Pasta Night which is offered on Mondays and Wednesdays (4PM-​8PM) for $ 6.99. You get a choice of spaghetti or ziti; marinara sauce, meat sauce, or Alfredo sauce; garden salad and hot rolls.
On my last visit, I tried the Spaghetti with Meat Sauce which were the thick noodles, almost like linguine in a homemade tomatoey chunky meat sauce, MMMM good!!! The service was decent, but a bit delayed because my server had to go back and forth between the dining room and takeout counter area.
Don’t forget dessert and be sure try to the cannolis and carrot cake!