Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana

Such good pizza! We started with a Caesar salad. And everyone looks forward to the Foxon Park ginger ale. So much that we bring some home. Delicious, fresh hot and the joint was jumping so we were glad to have a reservation.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Foxon Park Soda, Caesar Salad

Pizza was really good. Fresh vegetables, really thin crust. Crust too crunchy to eat was our only complaint. Waiter was attentive and friendly. Good meal.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Rustic Mushroom and Sausage Medium Pizza

Pro service. Resonable price. Great taste.

Delicious authentic pizza ?

Vegetarian options: Vegetable pizza

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Margherita

Fast service, crispy crust slight char generous topping. Highly priced

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Pie, Salad

Their pizza is delicious. You can sit and eat with pleasure. Your order arrives immediately and the staff is friendly.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Rather mediocre pizza. Got half margherita and half fresh tomato pie. Not really sure what the hype is about but Dave is way wrong. This may as well be the Chili’s of pizza. And after 5 minutes the crust became ultra chewy. Won’t return.

Food: 2

Service: 5

Pizza was outstanding.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Doppio Pepperoni Pizza

Great pizza and tastes just like the delicious coal-fired pizzas from the original location in New Haven.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Frank Pepe's Original Tomato Pie

Great pizza

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Incredible thin crust pizza. Open kitchen. Clean. Fast friendly service. Very busy.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Frank Pepe's Original Tomato Pie

Stop by today because you know, one bite challenge. This makes it In the top 5 best pizzas I’ve ever had. Worth the drive/wait. 10/10 would go again.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great pizza. Late lunch so not busy.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Cheese Pizza, Frank Pepe's Original Tomato Pie

UPDATE
Since I wrote the review below I have been back to this location perhaps a dozen times. Sadly, I have to downgrade my rating. I always get a regular cheese pizza with mozzarella, not fresh mozzarella and not the fresh tomato pizza. I like the fact that they normally use Romano cheese but I also like to have them add mozzarella. The sauce and the cheese are still very good. My problem is the crust. Most of the time it is now thick and bready instead of thin, crispy and chewy the way it was when they first opened. I prefer thin and crispy to thick and bready. Some spots are thinner than others, but much of the pizza dough is more like bread than pizza crust. Not good.
Old review:
I'm very picky about my pizza. Santarpio's in East Boston is my favorite, but it isn't convenient for me. I also love the classic Greek pan pizzas from Town Spa, Cape Cod Café, Christo's and Lynwood. I went to Frank Pepe's original location in New Haven about 10 years ago and I was not overwhelmed, so I wasn't expecting a great experience in Chestnut Hill. Boy, was I wrong!

Frank Pepe's at the Chestnut Hill Mall is making some of the best pizza in the area right now. The crust is equal to or better than any other that I have tried recently. It is thin, crispy and chewy. I have had 3 pizzas thus far and the crust was lightly charred in all cases and delicious. Normally I leave a lot of crust on my plate because I am more interested in the toppings, but this crust is too good to leave behind. It is as close to perfect as any that I have ever had.

I should point out that Santarpio's has a great crust also, but it is different. It isn't as chewy and they use corn meal on the bottom, a great way to get a crisp crust. Pepe's doesn't use corn meal. They produce a very different style of crust that is outstanding!

So far, each of my Pepe pizzas has been covered with toppings all the way to the edges, unlike some pizza joints that leave big spaces with just a little sauce or cheese.

So, how about those toppings?

Let's tackle the sauce first.

I have only tried the Original pizza style which uses a crushed Italian tomato sauce. Although the sauce is very good, it is very mild. It is not sweet (I don't like sweet sauce unless the sweetness is just from the tomatoes) and not spicy (I can always add pepper flakes) but it doesn't have as much flavor as the sauce at Santarpio's, for example. I asked for extra sauce on one pie and it gave me more flavor, but I think that this is a style issue. It is very good sauce, but not the best that I have ever had. An interesting side note is that Pepe's offers freshly made sauce during July and August, using local tomatoes. I will be trying that soon.

Cheese - the first pizza that I tried was a plain with mozzarella cheese. There was plenty of cheese and I thought it was very good. Since then I tried a grated cheese version that the waitress said was made with Pecorino Romano. My first thought was that I should try combining the mozzarella and the Romano for some extra cheese flavor. I have learned that Pepe's actually wants you to try different combinations and they offer several additional options including asiago, gorgonzola and goat cheeses.

Considering how great the crust is, and that the summer fresh tomato option is here, and that there are so many cheese combinations to try, I have a lot more fun research to do over the next few months.

I did try a pizza with bacon and sausage because I wanted to see how the pizza flavors stood up to that (and because I love bacon and I love sausage) and it was also great. The sausage was mild, sliced into quarter inch thick disks and the bacon was cut into eighth inch thick strips about 2 inches long. The sausage was good (although I like it a little more chewy, coa

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 2

Service: 4

Was a Boston resident for 60 years , moved to central Mass 6 years ago , still cannot find a really good pizza like the ones from Boston but I can honestly say whenever I head back there I'm usually stopping to grab a pie before I head back home and and I've got a thermal insulated bag , it's still hot enough to eat without having to reheat in the oven , highly recommend you give it a try but everyone has their own preferences , hope you like it as much as I do

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Cheese Pizza