Bella Nonna Restaurant & Pizza

Opened in 1999, they claim locals call it “the hidden neighborhood gem.” And no doubt, this is a nice little quaint restaurant, serving up fairly standard Southern Connecticut football pizza. I called in my order, like I always do; upon arrival to pick it up, I noticed one of the workers taking a pie out of the oven & casting it off to the side. As he began to frantically make a fresh pizza, I realized he had accidentally burned my pie. I didn’t want to wait another 20 minutes, so I asked if I could inspect the burnt pizza. After a few seconds of evaluating, I deemed the significantly charred pie to be edible and told them I would accept the overdone pizza. They even gave me a free chocolate chip cookie for my troubles (which was a solid 8.3). I thought I could handle the well done char, but some slices were beyond burnt. Luckily, about half the pie was preserved, mostly unaffected by the overcook & more than tolerable to consume. Thinnish, extremely dry & overly crispy, the extra time in the oven definitely hurt this pizza’s chances, but I took that into consideration. Lacking creaminess, the cheese is tight & rigid, obviously tougher from the extra heat applied, yielding a rather manageable amount of grease. Subdued by a little extra oregano, the sauce isn’t particularly sweet; but the spices give it some zip & zing for an overall zesty flavor. Aside from the burnt dough, the ingredients aren’t terrible, just mildly underwhelming. Even if this pie wasn’t severely charred, I can’t see a fresh pie scoring much higher than maybe low 7s. Overall, this is very much on par with typical tri-state area traditional football pizza.

Ehh, not enough crust for the amount of cheese. Oregano leaves a bad aftertaste.

Maybe it because I’m from Rhode Island, but I would kill to have something this good locally. Excellent crisp and structure, tangy sauce, cheese and crust fall a little short in the flavor department, and just some olive oil and a sprinkle of salt would take this to another level. Overall great pizza an 8.1 for sure.

1 cheese slice, 2:40pm on a Friday, $3.22 Pros: Thin and crispy, good ratio, nice tang to sauce, nicely browned undercarriage Cons: Crust a bit dry, not as tasty as the rest of slice Verdict: I like the thickness here (very thin). It's a good slice if you're in the vicinity

Football pizza with a crispy bottom; cheese and sauce could have been more flavorful

Zero flop. Good crunch. Decent taste. Tad of oil. Overall pretty good.

No flop, cheese falls right off

A tasty thin slice of plain pizza. Very solid. Enjoy!

Not bad