The Valley has had a handful of pizza places spring up throughout the last decade. There's more…read more(claiming to be) Italian pizza like Original Italian Pizza, new comers like Rosa and Coaches, and your usual Pizza Hut places. With no short abundance of pizza places, Pudgies doesn't really stand out.
--Food: It's funny, really. My fiancee thinks the pizza is mediocre at best, and most people can easily list a pizza place that they like to eat at more. Even I admit that the pizza itself, foundationally, isn't that good. The crust is soft and sometimes there is too much sauce on the cheese and pepperoni pizzas. However, for some reason, Pudgies has some pizza that makes me look forward to the 7 hour trip from where I live, knowing that I'll get some delicious slices and the opportunity to bring a pizza or two back.
I always get the Chicken Wing pizza or the Chicken Bacon Ranch. The Chicken Bacon Ranch is pretty much the same as any CBR pizza that you'd get anywhere; chickeny, bacony, and ranchy. The tomato sauce is replaced with a ranch sauce, and the whole slice is delicious.
The Chicken Wing pizza is single handedly what gives Pudgies a five star review for me. The first time I had the chicken wing pizza I absolutely loved it. The sauce is not a tomato sauce, and it's not a white or plain pizza like some places make. The sauce here is a wing sauce, orange and spicy. The end crust is buttery, sort of like a Pizza Hut crust and the cheese is tasty. I've looked for other places that have Chicken Wing Pizza as delicious as Pudgies, but I haven't had any luck finding any around the Valley, Rochester, Geneva, other places around Upstate NY, Richmond VA, or the general Richmond VA area. There are some places that are close, but the combination of the sauce, chicken, and crust of Pudgies wins my vote over for favorite Buffalo Chicken Wing pizza anywhere.
I ordered one just to bring home to VA.
On the other end of the spectrum, the rest of the pizza is just okay, haha. The garlic knots were average and more than once we had cheese pizza that just wasn't that great. I have had some good experiences with the pepperoni slices too though, it just seems hit or miss. A lot of the misses seemed to have too much sauce or just tasted old. Pudgies doesn't reheat or crisp slices, so if you go at a time that might not be prime lunch time, you might get old slices.
--Cost: The other review mentions that it's too expensive to eat here, but $14 for a medium Chicken Wing pizza (which is a specialty pizza, a medium cheese pizza is $10 and a large is $13) or $5.50 for two slices and a drink seems pretty cheap to me. Also, their menu and online ordering states that a Sheet Pizza is $20, so I'm not sure where the "Nearly $40 for a sheet pizza" comes from. *shrug*
In fairness, $8+ for a sub that may or may not be that large does seem a bit steep given that things like Five Dollar Footlongs exist at Subway. I haven't had the subs so I can't comment on whether it's worth it.
--Atmosphere: Pudgies is located in the heart of Waverly and while it isn't a large place, it isn't small either. The interior is essentially a row of tables and booths, with little frills in between. There are plenty of seats and I've never been there when they've all been occupied. I have seen times where the tables are a bit dirty.
--Service: Most of the employees are pleasant. Anytime I've ordered pizzas whole they seem to come out in a reasonable amount of time. I do wish that the staff would notice if they are about to serve an old slice and offer to have you wait for a fresher one since old slices are easily noticeable due to the lack of reheating. Perhaps it isn't their fault though. I can't comment on their delivery as I've never used it. (Pudgies, if you're reading this and are up for a drive to Virginia, I'm interested in ordering some Chicken Wing Pizzas!)
--Overall: If I were rating just the Buffalo Chicken Wing Pizza, this would be as much a 5 as I could possibly give it, but overall I admit that Pudgies has its flaws. While it may be my favorite pizza place almost anywhere, I admit that it probably won't feel that way to most other people, especially if those other people don't like Buffalo Chicken Wing Pizza. I can't possibly give a place that has one of my favorite pizzas in the world a three or below, and can't give a place that has subpar other items a five, so four stars it is.
