Stan's Chitch's Cafe

Over 35 reviews of this joint by the OneBite community and hardly a bad rating in the bunch. In fact, the locals seem to rave about this place like it’s the bar pie Mecca of NJ and I’m completely baffled. First of all, the name of the place is a little confusing with the double possessive; nonetheless, it’s got a great old school vibe, cash only, no website, a word-of-mouth hole-in-the-wall type of bar. I came in with elevated expectations from the wildly high ratings, boasting the best bar pie around, when it’s really more like a regular pie shrunk down to “schmedium” size. The cheese, sauce & crust don’t scream “bar pie;” the ingredients don’t possess that tight, sharp, crispy style most bar pies have. The sauce is totally overwhelmed by a slew of grease, creating a somewhat bitter and bland taste, not sweet whatsoever. Also hard to detect the flavor in the cheese amid all the excess oil. The dough is thinnish, soft to the bite despite the firm and uniquely textured undercarriage, more cardboardish than crispy, not particularly tasty. The crust isn’t befitting of a typical bar pie either, it’s thickish and tasteless. This is basically Mama Celeste frozen pizza at best. I like everything about this place except the massively disappointing pizza. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think it’s vastly overrated by the locals who are essentially continually returning here to eat a slice of nostalgia.