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Cronkite Pizza - Over Budget but NOT out of this world

Last night my gf treated me to Cronkite pizza delivery as I frantically finished up an MBA application. We ordered the Buffalo Mozzarella and Tomatto salad (highlight of the meal), the Gorgonzola (gorgonzola, mozzarella and carmelized onions) and the Monzese (fennel sausage, mozzarella, and paremsan), 4 diet cokes and a gellato dessert - total bill $83!

The buffalo mozarella was possibly the best I've ever had, it had an incredible flavor and was very fresh; it really set the expectations for the pizza. Unfortunetley, the pizza did not deliver in the way I had hoped. The crust was vastly sub par to Lombardis or Grimaldis and the flavors just weren't there. The gorgonzola pizza was good with every thrid bite. If you got a bite with the carmelized onions the flavors melded well, but if the onion was not on that bite the cheese was very uninspired. The monzese was a grave dissapointment, I was hoping for great sausage on an unbelievable pie, but the sauce, cheese and sausage just didn't deliver - just a huge dissapointment. I did not have the gellato dessert (3 scoops of chocolate hazelnut) but my gf who has had tried moer gellato in this fine city than anyone I know said it was awful.

In summary, I will never order from Cronkite again, I might stop in and see if the flavors are better in the restaurant but I hihgly doubt it. For alot less money I can go or order in from Lil Frankies and get fresher ingredients and better flavor (their sausage pizza is amazing and by comparison phenominal); or if I was just going to go for a plain margarita I'd prefer the delivery from Lombardis whose crust and flavors are far superior.

I cannot express in words how dissapointed we both were.

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  1. Did you get this to go? That's no way to judge a fine pizza. I thought Cronkite was amazing.

    4 Replies
    1. re: Peter Cuce

      I live a block away from the place - I don't think the flavors change whithin a 1 minute walk. I agree that pizza is normally better when eaten in the restaurant but it was awful, especially for the price.

      1. re: wingman

        But there's no way to know how long it was sitting around somewhere before it got delivered, unless you picked it up yourself. Try it in the restaurant. I really thought it was great stuff.

        1. re: Peter Cuce

          Delivered within 15 minutes of calling the restaurant; came fresh and hot, no reheating necessary, and on a warm night the gellato showed no signs of melting. I agree the crust may have gotten slightly sogy from the travel but really the overall falvors of the pizza just weren't there. I'm sorry that I disagree so vehmently with your assesment.

          1. re: wingman

            Nothing to be sorry about. I had a transcendent experience and you didn't.

    2. Funny, I ate there for the first time last night as well. We ordered one large Rustica pie (mozz, sauce, guanciale, shiitake mushrooms). The first thing we noticed was the the pizza looked thick - not Domino's thick, but thicker than Lombardi's, say. The crust was big and not really remarkable at all, while the rest of the pizza struck me as 'inauthentic' - very sweet sauce, slightly gummy cheese, the meat was thick and sweet-salty hammy. It wasn't bad (we devoured it all, as we were starving), neither of us were impressed. I'm going to try Arturo's on Friday night.

      1. how do you think cronkite compares with lil' frankies?

        2 Replies
        1. re: brokeinEV

          Last paragraph of my post - I think Lil Frankies is vastly superior to Cronkite.

          1. re: wingman

            As someone who enjoys dining at Lil Frankies on a weekly basis, admittedly more for the vibe and comfort of the place than the deliciousness, I must say the 2 pizzas I had at Cronkite were vastly superior. It's no DiFaras or even Frannys but it's quite good. The crust I had was nearly perfect, cracker crisp with just the proper caliber of char. There are a lot of pies on the menu, maybe the consistency isn't there yet or there are different Pizzaiolos on different nights. Next time I'll try some of there other pies and report back.

            Iron Frank

        2. i thought cronkite was all right. for the price and the overall product, i'm not going to be a regular (even though i live in the neighborhood and often crave some good pizza). when i went, i enjoyed the DOC mozzarella pie but i too found the monzese (w/ fennel sausage) VERY disappointing! for all of the interesting things on it, it was surprisingly bland. very odd..
          i did appreciate the thin crust and the fact that it wasn't soggy and floppy despite the load of toppings...