Clemenza's - Westfield

Was expecting more from previous reviews. Sadly I am not in the habit of spending hard earned for compost. My lunch salad came with nasty wilted greens and when I asked about them my waitress said they were fresh but that's with the vinegar does to it?! She brought me a Caesar salad instead that was OK at least the romaine was fresh. And the pasta fajiole soup was missing fajiole! Soup with tomatoes and pasta is typically understood to be minestrone!! Maybe the pizza is good? I won't know because I'll never be back.

Service was excellent, prompt, attentive Eggplant fries app was a huge portion, crispy, very tasty but would have liked more of the pesto dipping sauce. The small salad is huge, easily could have fed two, but we wanted different things.. the cranberry walnut salad was perfection, garden salad also didn't disappoint. Enjoyed the butternut ravioli special, cream sauce with spinach and pecans, tasty not sweet or cheesy so I could really enjoy the butternut flavor. No room for dessert, looking forward to next visit as the pizzas looked delicious

So, the pizza here is actually pretty good. It created a good base for a night of drinking on New Year's Eve. Here is the thing.... the service was really sub par. We were a group of four. Ordered an app, 2 pizzas, and a round of drinks. Here is how the wine convo went: Me Do you have a wine list? *trying to read through the red wines listed on the chalk board in the back* Waitress We have any wine you could want... we have so many types. Me Ok, do you have a Malbec? Waitress What? ...Malbec? Is that the brand? Me No... it's a type of wine. Waitress Is that new? I've never heard of it! Me No.... nevermind. So, basically they have maybe 5 red wines on the board, and they were fine but nothing great. Also, the restaurant wasn't THAT busy, but we could NOT get the waitress' attention. We figured she'd be all over us trying to get us to buy another round, and it took FOREVER to get her attention just to get a second round of drinks. Overall, I think we saw her 3 times and then sat and sat and sat waiting for her to check on us and bring the bill. Maybe it was an off night?

We returned after over a year for the sweet potato tater tots, but soon wished we had gone elsewhere. The waitress made us feel like we were having an awkward first meeting with a surrogate without the charm of Juno. 8 patrons (Two each in four parties 3 sets at tables, one set having drinks at the bar , a busboy, a host, a guy tending the pizza oven, two servers, and a gentleman in his early 80 's all seemed to be part of a mannequin challenge with the exception of the pizza guy and our waitress (who broke the stillness by wiping the corners of her mouth, then nose with a napkin before tossing it in a nearby trash barrel; then later eating a maraschino cherry from the bar garnishes. The tots that originally brought us back were overcooked and greasy, on wilted greens. (Not wilted from the heat of the tots, but as if they had been out for hours at a church picnic. The patronizing endearments used to address us by the waitress could not make up for the poor quality cheese. It was greasier, and more rubbery than a poor excuse for something from a carnival vendor, and I couldn 't swallow the bite of BBB pizza. The taste of the awful bacon (YES! I said, awful bacon in my mouth had me drink the entire class of iced chlorine water and sickeningly sweet martini I had been served. Wanting to avoid another drink that might induce a diabetic coma, I ordered a Classic Cosmo light on the juice hoping for something to cut the grease. It was at least 15 min before it arrived tasting like bottled lime juice and a hint of cranberry juice cocktail, with all the color. (Two cocktails , and I guarantee I could have passed a breathalyzer, but failed a fructose tolerance test. A night away on our own, with hopes of a nice casual dinner out, and I 'm back at the hotel with pretzels and tea for my stomach. *I failed to mention the dust on the enamel tiles that envelope the domed, stone pizza oven. It could be seen from our seats At least 15 ' away. Wish we had read the latest reviews and seen the pics. (The dust can be seen in at least one of them!

The salads at this restaurant are excellent and reasonably priced. However, their pizzas are quite bland. We ordered the Clemenzas pizza special, and it was lacking in flavor — the cheese was off as well. I'm not sure what kind of cheese they use, but it definitely needs to be better mozzarella. The dough is good, but overall, the pizza just didn't impress.