Vacillated a bit in how I should rate this. If it was located in NYC, I'd be rating it lower. Cecilton, MD? Three stars is probably fair.
I'm only intermittently a "pizza snob." NY has the best Italian food anywhere. And not just NYC--- some of the best Italian food I ever ate was at a mini mall restaurant on the outskirts of Amityville, Long Island (and...yes...we did drive past THAT house, and saw no demonic pigs or hordes of unearthly flies or whatever else was in that crappy movie-- although I wouldn't have minded seeing the 1980's version of actress Diane Franklin floating by through the ether, or the late, tragic actress Margot Kidder circa 1979...but I digress...). NJ, my home state, is more of a mixed bag. Some excellent Italian; some very mediocre Italian. NY serves the biggest pizza slices, if you're concerned with quantity (unless you're eating pizza at Benny Tudino's or Old Lorenzo's in Hoboken-- they serve pizza slices the size of manhole covers).
It's when I'm outside the NY/NJ area that my "pizza snobbery" or "Italian food snobbery" truly kicks in. But I like to think I'm fair.
Italy? The best (of course it is!), although it was a culture shock after eating American-style Italian all my life. Lots of differences between what you'll order in Naples and what you'll order in Paterson.
Connecticut? I've had decent Italian in CT.
Rhode Island? Not especially memorable, not even in the center of Providence's Little Italy on Atwells Avenue. Not to me, anyway. Not bad, but not great.
Florida? I liked what I had because I was young, less discriminating, and perpetually hungry. But it didn't match anything I'd had in NY/NJ. Not even close.
Chicago? Actually, it was pretty decent Italian food. I still preferred what I'd had on the East Coast.
California? Strange Italian. Not bad, necessarily, but...strange.
Tijuana, Mexico? Believe it or not, it was actually some of the best Italian I ever ate. Pasta and seafood. Of course, I was half drunk when I ate it (ok, I'm lying...I was very drunk), but it was delicious!
My elderly father lives with my sister and her boyfriend in MD, and I visit frequently. Sometimes, we've eaten out in a restaurant, but in a pinch, my sister seems to like Pizza House. Take out and delivery only, according to their website. I ordered a calzone one time and found it nearly inedible--- lots of dough, not a lot of cheese or meat. A turkey sandwich, a hamburger, on other occasions, weren't bad. Not Italian, but I didn't regret ordering them. The last time, my father had me order spaghetti with sauce for him (I didn't throw the word "gravy" at them when I phoned the order in--- I figured I was likely to get spaghetti with the glop that gets put on chicken-fried steak). My sister suggested a large pizza with pepperoni and garlic for the rest of us. A slice of cheesecake for my father. I phoned the order in, and the delivery was relatively quick. Unfortunately, they forgot the spaghetti. My sister's boyfriend called them back. The person answering insisted I didn't mention spaghetti (I had). They agreed to deliver the spaghetti as quickly as possible. When I insisted to my sister's boyfriend that I HAD ordered the spaghetti (it bothered me maybe more than it should have, but I like to think my senility is still a long way off), he said calmly, "I know you did; I heard you when you ordered. Look, the person I talked to sounded like she was 9 years old." He shrugged. OK. Good help can be hard to find, I guess. Maybe it was my NJ accent.
The pizza was smaller than I expected, more of a personal pizza...in my opinion...than a large, but the taste wasn't bad. The crust was more bread-y than I like, but that's subjective. It was satisfactory. I had a few slices and wasn't left feeling hungry. And they included another piece of cheesecake, which was nice.
Not to sound like an arrogant "pizza snob," or a "NJ snob" (is there such a thing?), but MD Italian isn't something I pine for when I'm back up in my natural habitat of the Garden State. Maybe it's different or better in Baltimore? But I'll continue to order from Pizza House when I'm back in north MD and my sister hands me the menu. If you're hungry and have never been to NY/north Jersey, it's not bad. Still, I recommend you be judicious and exercise caution when you order. Especially if the 9 year old answers the phone. read more