Long Island Restaurants

Patsy's Pizzeria

You might also want to check out: Salvatore's Coal-Fired Brick Oven Pizza 124 Shore Rd. Port Washington 516-883-8457 The Pie 216 Main St. Port Jefferson 631-331-4646

There are days when the margherita pie at Patsy's Pizzeria is seduction in a pan, its thin crust crisp and lightly charred, its vibrant sauce topped with a lush melt of fresh mozzarella and bright bits of basil. I've had it three times; both the first and the last virtually ideal. In between, however, I found the crust a bit bland, the topping a trifle thin.

And then, there was the matter of Patsy's meatballs. Initially, they nearly transported me aloft, so ethereal and savory were they. "Just wait till you taste these," I told my dining companion on a subsequent visit. What we encountered, however, were garlicky globes as dense as hamburgers.

"New chef?" I asked our waitress.

"How did you know?" she said.

Like a pot of tomato sauce, Patsy's Pizzeria seems to be in a state of turbulence. One day, it's bubbling merrily on the stove; the next, it's boiled over; a week later, it's simmered down nicely. To try to regulate everything, the restaurant is adding menu items gradually as it works out the kinks.

Not an easy task for a place that was a hit from day one. Here, weekend waits can stretch to an hour. I've never found service anything but pleasant, if a bit ditzy at times. Noise levels frequently run high, especially in the smaller dining room, where pizza-fueled children have been known to run wild.

Families with kids gravitate naturally to pizza. In addition to its fine margherita pie, Patsy's turns out an "everything" kind of pizza topped with sausage, pepperoni, meatballs, hot cherry peppers that, for me, worked well because the ingredients had been sliced ultra-thin. Although I wasn't averse to the vegetable pie, I still don't understand why anyone would want to put broccoli on a pizza.

The kitchen produces some commendable salads - a lovely one of fresh sliced pears with blue cheese that contrasted well with its slightly acidic red wine vinaigrette, as well as a fine salad of grilled calamari on field greens. Warm grilled shrimp over white beans was a lot more ambitious - and successful - than one might expect from a pizzeria.

Overall, entrees seem to be heading in the right direction. The first time I ordered chicken Francese (egg-battered boneless breasts in lemon sauce), the dish was so bland that neither salt nor pepper could redeem it. On a more recent visit, however, what I got was a deliciously herbal and citrusy composition.

Because the tomato sauce and cheese here are so high caliber, I expected the lasagna to be a standout. Indeed, it might have been, had the pasta not been cooked to a state of gumminess. But linguine with white clam sauce was perfectly al dente, rife with clams both in and out of the shell in a luxuriant bath of garlic and oil.

"Are any desserts made here?" we asked our teenaged waiter.

"All of them," he said, a bit too hesitantly.

"Could you check?"

He returned moments later. "Well," he said, "they're all made fresh - just somewhere else."

Luckily, Patsy's offers gelato and, in season, ices. And after such lusty Italian fare, what more could anyone want?

Reviewed by Joan Reminick, 1/19/07.

Hours

Cuisine

Price Range

Wheelchair Access