Food: ★★★☆☆
Atmosphere: ☺☺☺
Service: ✔✔✔✔✔
Price: $$
Location: 63 New St.
Distance from Campus: .4 miles
Website: http://robertspizza.synthasite.com/

As your average American we have had our share of pizza. From chains like Dominos and Pizza Hut, to mom’s homemade, we’re what some may call aficionados. We look forward to a crispy crunch of the crust, the tanginess of the sauce, and the melted, yet not molten lava heat of the cheese. And in no way, shape, or form should pizza be eaten with a fork and knife.

Robert’s was not the best pizza we’ve ever eaten but for a change of pace it does the job. Located directly across the street from the Rutgers Newark campus, Roberts pizza does a few things right.

They have fast friendly service, big portions, and a good price. The restaurant has your typical American pizzeria feel with wooden bench seats that form to the shape of your body and traditional wooden tabletops. The kitchen is completely open to view so you can watch as the chef’s prepare your order. The walls are a colorful mix of yellow, blue and green with paintings and photos depicting the scenes from “The Old World”.

Drink options are many with Coke, Pepsi, Snapple and Juice in both cans and bottles, though there are no fountain beverages, which was a little disappointing but the amount of choices made up for it.

The service was extremely quick. I sat for barely a minute before my slice of pizza appeared in front of me. The crust was thin and crunchy, the sauce was a good amount and the cheese was melted just right. But nothing about it struck me as special; it was average pizza. We also decided to order a few of the other menu items to see how they faired to our taste buds.

The next item that came to us was the Italian Cheese Steak, with cheese, onions, peppers, French fries, and mozzarella cheese on crusty Italian bread. The bread was awesome. We have seen cheese steaks where the bread was not toasted and couldn’t hold up to the moistness of the meat, but Robert’s toasted there bread which was a welcomed surprise. The steak was thinly sliced, mixed with the onions and peppers, and packed into the bread; the cheese was then melted on top of the steak mixture with the French fries placed on top of the cheese. We actually liked that the fries were placed on after the cheese was melted so the fries wouldn’t get soggy.

The last dish we tried was a calzone. We were a little surprised that the calzone was made with pizza dough and not different dough. Pizza dough gave the calzone a thinner crust and therefore made it prone to leaking. We decided to get ours filled with cheese, ham, pepperoni and peppers.

The cheese was great and there was lots of it. The pepperoni was cut in normal slices that would go on top of a pizza, but there were too many peppers and not enough ham. The ham was sliced ham cut up into smaller squares, and there was more peppers then anything else. When we tried to eat the calzone with our hands all of the fillings gathered at the bottom of the calzone, making some bites only contain crust. We would recommend getting fewer fillings so it has equal flavor and cutting the calzone in half so it is easier to eat.

All in all, the word I was use to describe Robert’s is “Meh”. It wasn’t anything amazingly delicious that would knock your socks off, but it wasn’t the worst thing we’ve eaten. With a price of $15 for all three items and two cans of soda it isn’t a bad deal. And with free delivery and late night deals, Robert’s is a good option to consider.