By Dennis Chu on June 10, 2011 • ( Leave a comment )

BERTUCCI’S

Address: 2847 State Route 35, Hazlet, NJ 07730

: Tableside view of the Sofia brick oven pizza.

: A slice of the Spicy Salami brick oven pizza.

Bertucci’s is a brick oven pizzeria that my friend and I headed over to tonight for some dinner before going to see X-Men: First Class (which, by the way, was quite an excellent movie). I have been to Bertucci’s multiple times before and the food has never disappointed me. Although the pizza offerings have changed over the years that I have been coming here, the quality has consistently remained the same. It is located in the same plaza as the Rave Motion Cinemas, so it makes a great place to grab a bite to eat either before or after a movie showing.

I have habitually ordered from their Classic Brick Oven pizza menu, selecting from options such as the Pucillo (pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms, onions, peppers), the Sporkie (sweet Italian sausage, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese) or the Ultimate Bertucci (sweet Italian sausage, meatball, rosemary ham, chicken, pepperoni). Today, however, my friend and I decided to try something off of their recently revamped Artisan Brick Oven pizzas. We went for the Sofia, which was a white pizza topped with mozzarella cheese, a roasted artichoke spread, fresh thyme, and some sausage. I found it to be very delicious, but rather oily; I had to use a napkin to soak up some of the excess oil off the top of the pizza. But needless to say it was a good choice and I would be more than happy to sample more of their Artisan Brick Oven pizzas in the future.

One thing that I really like about Bertucci’s is that before your entrées arrive, they serve you some fresh bread with a plate of olive oil. It’s a pretty great way to start off the meal, and all of the bread is hot from just coming out of the oven in the back. I have never had the opportunity to try out their pasta dishes before, but I’ve heard that they aren’t too shabby either. In turn, Bertucci’s is a good place to grab a meal that will have your stomach filled.

Here are my rankings for Bertucci’s:

Food: 4.5 / 5
The menu offers a great spread of pizzas, spanning a variety of flavors. Their new line of Artisan Brick Oven pizzas are sure to excite your taste buds as well.

Atmosphere: 4 / 5
The restaurant is what I would call a “studio dining area,” an open-air large dining area with the brick oven in the back corner at the pasta preparations along the back wall. If the place gets crowded, it could get a bit noisy. Also, the dining area was a tad bit dark for my tastes. But I do love the smell that comes with an open-air kitchen.

Service: 4 / 5
Our waitress tonight took a little while to initially attend to the table, but later on she kept coming back to refill our drinks and ask us how our meal was going.

Price: 4 / 5
All the pizzas do shy on the expensive side, with individual portions about $10 and splitting a pie costing about $7 – $9. But, the portions are good, the flavors are all there, and the price is comparable to other pizzerias as well.

Overall: 16.5 / 20 (83%)