Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Bonafede's, Linden Ave.

Here's a place I never even knew existed until very recently: Bonafede's, which is on Linden Avenue, which is just off Rt. 441 in what I guess would be East Rochester. This particular stretch of road doesn't seem like a major artery, so I imagine Bonafede's is very much a neighborhood place.
My lunchtime pepperoni slice had a thin to medium crust with an attractively charred, non-greasy underside. The bottom crust and the outer edge had pretty good flavor, with some breadiness and a slightly chewy texture.
The cheese was melted without being browned. It seemed like basic mozzarella. The sauce was a tad sweet, with some herbs detectable in the background. Both were applied moderately, and in balance with the relatively thin crust.
Bonafede's has a decent list of pizza toppings - 17 by my count - and eight specialty pizzas, including a meatball parm pizza that may warrant a return trip. For some reason, their specialty pizzas are only available as a "large," so that will have to be a dinnertime visit.
In addition to pizza, Bonafede's has wings (five sauces, including a "Crazy Hot"), hot and cold subs, wraps, salad, grilled sandwiches, pasta, and fried fish and shrimp. (Fish fry is available on Fridays only, but fish & chips can be had anytime. I'm not quite sure that I get that, but I'm not that big on fish fry, so it doesn't matter.) Ice cream is also available in the summer months. There is some seating inside, though the atmosphere is pretty Spartan, just a basic fast-food type of setup, with a counter on one side, some tables on the other, and fluorescent lights above. Still, they had a reasonably good crowd on my workday visit.
All in all, this wasn't a bad slice of pizza. Bonafede's says on its menu that its "pizzas are hand tossed and cooked to perfection in (their) brick deck ovens," and while I'm not quite ready to say this was perfect, I did like the crust, the components were well balanced, and the flavor was pretty good. I'll give it a B+.
Bonafede's Pizzeria & Pasta Kitchen, 514 Linden Ave. 248-5040
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 8 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Closed Sundays.

4 comments:

  1. This place is now "Gianna's NYC" now. Not sure if its a pizza place or not. Same phone number tho

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  2. Gianna's is a pizza place after all -josh

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  3. I just came from Giannas and loved it! Definitely NYC pizza! A friend of mine also ordered garlic knots, which is something I haven't seen in years. A great place to try.

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