Coals

Amazing grilled pizzas! Our table ordered 4 different kinds of pizza and they were all delicious. We also had a salad but can’t recall which kind. It too was magnificent.

Oh no, this place is closed!?! I came here earlier in the year, and the pizza and sandwiches were good, but the service, not so much.

Minimalist décor, looks like a re-​purposed bar. Limited menu and limited wine list. The wine is all inexpensive. Had an acceptable bottle of pinot noir. The pizza was excellent. Non-​traditional, thin crusted grilled pizza. The pizzas are irregularly shaped. The crusts were crispy. The ingredients were excellent. The flavors were intense and artisanal. We tried the rustic, pure bliss and heaven scent. We liked them all. The small size pizza is enough for a person to eat and be satisfied without being stuffed. They contrasted each other well. We had trouble choosing a favorite. We were sorry that we didn’t order salads– they looked good. We will definitely be going back. This is not your typical Neapolitan joint.

I have recently reviewed this restaurant!
Read my last post about how much I love the pizza here…
However for the first time my boyfriend and I ordered the dessert pizza item. Which has nutella and mascarpone cheese on it. And I was rather disappointed… the dough was tough and chewy… the mascarpone was watery and did not taste right… next we will just stick to the regular pizza!

Best pizza I have ever had!
Also, the burgers, salads, soups, etc. are ALL top shelf!
The food will take a bit of a while, but MAN is it worth it!
The food is 5 stars. However, the waitresses are hit or miss!
I do not want to be waited on some one who, 3 minutes ago was gossiping with her friend about someone else’s boyfriend, loudly, or while the cordless phone is still the her hand! That needs to be addressed! Very inappropriate! But, I have had some crackerjack waitresses there who made sure I received the necessary fluids along with prompt delivery of very good appetizers.
Despite its employee conduct issues, the place simply sores!!! The food is THATgood!

first start that has the best burguer in NY.
Afer that, you can order your food, and do something meanwhile as it is going to take forever.
The sae with the drinks, so on hot days drink something before going there, becausje it is going to take a long time to get liquid.
ah! and don t expect a cheap place even if it is in the Bronx

Delicious thin crust pizza and at reasonable price. Went there for dinner and was not disappointed.
Ordered Rustic pizza and chipotle chicken panini. Just remember to finish the pizza as soon as it arrives on table. Tastes a lot better while it’s hot!

Solid Bronx lunch if you are ever in the Morris Park/​Einstein area.
I have only been for lunch, so can’t comment on dinner. But it’s good value when I have been there, with nice thin-​crust brick-​oven style pizzas plus salads and other appetizers. I have never had a bad dish.
Crowd seems to be a mix of locals and a lot of hospital workers.
You can do a lot worse than Coals in this area.

Don’t overlook the burger and soup specials– they have some creative stuff going on.

Yum pizza! I came here during my visit to the Bronx to visit my sister. She had gone to the library or something and left me stranded in her apartment. With no where really to go, I decided to stop by Coals and order pizza to go. She recommended the nutella pizza but I wasn’t really craving it at that moment. I just wanted a simple Margherita pizza and YUM it was delicious. The tomato sauce was divine and the sprinkle of fresh basil was delicious with the perfect amount of cheese. The thin grilled crust was not too brittle and it tasted filling but light. I crave this place many nights and I always ask her to bring me a personal pie from there.

Went on Tuesday to satisfy my craving for pizza. Walked into an empty establishment and the staff was obviously engrossed in conversation because it took 23 minutes to get my Dean Martin. Apparently team is under duress behind the second location anyhow maybe customers shouldn’t be hearing expletive filled rants while customers pine for their pizzas. Four minutes after getting up to ask what happened my pie arrived and of course it was great. But it sucked to wait that long in a completely empty restaurant listening to employees gripe.

One extra star for consistency.
Ordered the Smokey Joe which was as good as the other pizzas and also a Caesar salad (just romaine lettuce, dressing and Parmesan cheese). We decided to splurge and got the Fluffernutter (which is a Nutulla pizza) which was rich and sinful and a once in a lifetime order (well, for now).
Service was slow and it was sssooo loud (Friday night) in there we were practically shouting at each other.

I could echo all the other reviews (weird hours, and yes, it’s in the Bronx and «out of the way» if you’re cool enough to live in Manhattan). Instead I’ll give my personal recs, because for me it’s clearly worth the trip:
–hummus/​spinach/​onion vegetarian pizza
–Dean Martin (pepperoni and other deliciousness)
–Rustic (truffle/​mushroom/​fantastic flavors)
–nutella pizza dessert — as good as it sounds!
Good beer, pretty good Happy Hour specials, love the ambiance — very chill and unhurried, I’ve sat there for hours catching up with friends and was consistently checked on by the waitress. Neighborhood fav (though to be honest, it is a neighborhood dominated by car washes and hospitals).

This place is cozy and comfortable, a neighborhood bar where you feel at home on their comfortable couches (if you’re lucky enough to find one empty when you get there). The music is generally good, yesterday’s selection was a great 90s grunge set including pearl jam and soundgarden and going back to classic rock like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix! Also, they have a TV on which you can watch any games, so just tell them if you want to watch anything at that moment.
In addition to the atmosphere, they have a good selection of beers including many seasonal brews. However, their highest attributes lie in their menu, their thin crust pizzas are delicious, with the vegan (hummus, spicy olive oil, red onions and covered in arugula) is great for vegetarians, and my favorite is the rustic, which has truffle oil and mushrooms, and is incredible!
Also, they have amazing burgers that are made to order (by the owner himself, i was told), these are not even on the menu, but just order it and enjoy the taste! Thye have a bunch of other sandiwches, the «Coals Parm» is the «best and cheapest parm sandiwch i’ve had yet» (quoting my girlfriend) and i completely agree with her assessment!
And finally, always check the board for the soup special of the day because every once in a while they will make chilli (different ones, the duck is incredible, but all the others are really really REALLY good), so i would DEFINITELY recommend you have it! i usually tend to order two of the chilli, one to eat and one to take home for later, it’s THAT good that you want to hoard it!

i dont know what the hype was about.
If the sauce would have tasted better, then but it was a bit tangy, like about to go bad. maybe it was me but the other 2 people that came with me said the same thing. Other times they had great tasting pizza, maybe it was a night off.
The pizza looks great and without the sauce tasted good. think crust very crunchy, lentel soup was great and the salad to die for.
will try it again, since everything else was on point.
the Petite size is good enough for a person, the larger for two.

This place is great for pizza if you don’t like the typical NYC thin crust greasy slice that you get everywhere else. The Buffalo Mozz app. is pretty awesome as well.
They have a burger that isn’t on the menu but you can ask for it. We went entirely for this purpose because there just really aren’t that many great burger joints in the area, and I heard this one was special. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Nothing more than grocery store ground beef patty on a Sunbeam bun (which was really sad because the dipping bread on the table was outstanding).
Go here for the pizza. That is if they are open (weird hours, don’t seem to stick to any kind of schedule).

I tend to frequent very regularly since I go to school right across the street.
Their pizza is good and the beer is always cold!
It is a bronx favorite!
The Dean Martin is outta this world!
It can get pricey for dinner which is why i took off a star.
Def. hit it up for their unique twist on pizza.

I like the atmosphere here, and come here occasionally for a draft.
Looks like it could be in the LES, instead of an industrial/​hospital zone in the Bronx. Lounge-​like, with some bookshelves, comfy sofas and chairs, along with an excellent selection of beers and wines by the glass. The place is small though, with non-​descript tables for dining and a long hardwood bar. My ladyfriend ordered a Caesar salad, which was huge, fresh, and loaded with good-​quality blue cheese.
They need another waiter/​waitress, though. If more than half the restaurant fills up, service slows to a crawl.

Like many an insufferable New Yorker, there are two basic styles of pizza I recognize as legitimate: NY-​Neapolitan and straight-​up Neapolitan. Thus, when after work I was waiting for a bus on a corner way the hell up in the Bronx’s Morris Park neighborhood, the sight of the term «grilled pizza» on an awning across the street instantly transformed in my head into «grilled toppings-​on-​flatbread concoction». It’s sort of a defense mechanism I unconsciously employ so as to not completely screw over my enjoyment of pizzas that are not Pizza.
Of course, grilled pizza has charms all its own, and it is not a common style in NYC. When I realized the awning belonged to Coals, a place that once sneaked onto a NYMag pizza roundup, I decided to delay my trip home for a ready-​made lowercase-​p pizza pilgrimage.
The space itself was surprisingly nice for being in the middle of nowhere — clean wood, tasteful lighting, a bookcase inset into one wall with actual books on it. The menu was full of cocksure names, items like «Heaven Scent». I went with the personal-​sized Pure Bliss, mostly because it contained ricotta.
A few minutes after I ordered, my server came up to me, spurting apologies like an aide to an ancient Chinese emperor. «I’m sorry! It’s going to be three more minutes. They’re making fresh pesto for your pie.» In my world no one ever has to apologize for fresh pesto, but I appreciated the gesture.
It did indeed come shortly thereafter. Considered as a color photograph, it looked wonderful. Shavings of pale, nearly translucent fontina suspended in the deep green basil pesto formed an undulating background. (I later realized that this lacquered effect was borne of necessity, as a grilled pizza is heated only from the bottom.) On top of that were dappled islands of bright red tomato sauce and bigger dollops of titanium-​white ricotta that rose from the flat plain of the bread like foothills. And that underlying bread, whose edges just barely poked out from under the pesto, showed the unmistakable linear burns of a grill. Cut bar-​style into squares, all this was about the size of a sheet of letter paper, and while it wasn’t quite *paper*-thin, it was certainly among the thinner things I’ve ever been served labeled «pizza».
And it was delicious. No quote marks needed. The elements were brightly flavored, with the oomph of the pesto nicely balanced by the cool creaminess of the ricotta. The one thing I assumed would be its weakness, the bread, had a sort of crisp softness that would be the envy of many a slice joint. Of course, because there is no baking, there is no «rise» and thus no end crust — but that’s forcing my narrow-​minded views onto something that’s not trying to conform to them. Besides, the burn marks of the grilling contributed tasty carcinogens to the proceedings.
The one knock I do level against the pie on its own terms is that it’s greeeeeeasy. As a general policy, I never degrease anything if I can help it, but I came damn close here after my first couple of pieces. I paid for my obstinence with the heavy feeling I carried in my belly for some time afterward, quite a feat considering the lightness with which the impossibly thin pie went down.
But some things are worth the hit. Coals is definitely worth a try for the pizza completist. And it makes me want to go to Providence, RI for the originator of the style; when a place can make you want to go to friggin’ Rhode Island, it must have something going for it.
Probability of return within 1 year: 40%

This place is pretty damn good, way out of place, and a little weird. First off, its in Morris Park, which makes sense as its a pizza place, but its down by all the hospitals. Inside there’s a long bar with plenty of wooden tables and chairs, and some ceiling fans. There’s a small wall of glass diner-​style blocks, behond which are some couches, coffee tables, chairs, and some bookshelves. Its an interesting clash of styles to say the least.
The service is ok, nothing special and it can be slow at times. They have a very good beer selection of both draft and bottles, a good mix of interesting beers (IPA’s and stouts) with some more common but good ones (Newcastle, Yvengling). The menu has some salads and paninis, and the main attraction: grilled pizza. I had a small hevaen scent pie, and it was great. The aged provolone made it very rich, the crust was great, and overall it was a very interesting pie. My only complaints were the wait (though my pie was obviously fresh) and that the tomato sauce had a sour tinge to it, but this wasn’t a big problem.
The place is pretty cheap as well, and overall was worth the trip. I definitely will be back.