Pauly’s Pizza and Pasta

Very disappointed to see that Pauly’s has closed its Clarence location. Its Batavia location remains open.

Pauly’s closed this past week, the For Sale /​Lease signs are in the window and a thanks for your business sign is in the window. I am sad to see them go.

Pauly’s is a medium sized stand alone building with a good sized parking lot. You have a good mix of table and booth choices.
The guys running the place were great and you could tell they enjoyed what they do.
If you like high temp pizza oven pizza then you will enjoy their pizza. The crust is crispy on the bottom with a little blackening. Overall it is a good tasting pizza.
Zipping down Main Street you could easily blow by Pauly’s and that would be a shame because it is worth s try.

Before we start, this place is not owned by any fake tanned shirtless boys from the Jersey Shore TV show. Which is a good thing. There are some seriously cute girls working here though. Seriously seriously cute, there is one in particular I am head over heels in love with but I will never tell her, and she will never know, and such is the tragedy and travesty that we call life. Wait a minute. Am I supposed to be reviewing the food? OK, let me focus on that, because Pauly’s… is… incredible!
I can’t say enough about Pauly’s, really. It’s one of the best things that ever happened to the Clarence dining scene. We were already spoiled with Bozanna’s Pizza. Then, from out of the blue (or rather, from out of Batavia), comes Pauly’s, storming onto the top 10 lists of every food category known to man. They are just out of this world, and I thank the Gods of Batavia every week for sending them West to us.
What you should order from here if you only order one thing, are their breaded chicken tenders, with wing sauce instead of hot sauce. O. M. G. So good.
I will say that their service is fairly bad in the evenings. The lunch crew are usually friendly and astute but the night crew can be really mean and confrontational (some of them), and seem to get orders completely wrong 95% of the time. So please check your order before you walk out of the shop, or you will be disappointed. Anyway, who cares about the service. Let’s focus on the food, shall we?
We’ll start with the Pizza. It’s nothing like the over-​the-​top, utterly sinful thickness and disproportionate deliciousness of Bozanna’s Pizza, which will always be at the top of the tree. Bozanna’s is almost Chicago-​esque with how thick and deep it is… Pauly’s is quintessentially Buffalo, and along with Zip’s and Imperial it’s probably the best «true Buffalo» Pizza you’ll find… which is ironic, given that this Pizza was born in Batavia. It’s not sweet, the crust is always delicious, and when it’s hot and fresh it’s very hard to beat. Their white Pizza with homemade Garlic sauce is also divine, and their Steak Pizza is absolutely delicious.
Then on to their wings. My only complaint is that they tend to send their wings dry, and if you order delivery, you will likely get them this way. I’ve asked many times for «extra saucy» and a couple of times, they absolutely nailed it and gave me wings drowning in delicious medium Buffalo sauce… but the majority of the time, the extra saucy request was ignored, no matter how many times I stressed it. But let’s focus on the times they do get it right (just make sure you check before you leave!). They are positively some of the best wings I’ve ever had. They are miles ahead of Bozanna’s wings and close to the lofty levels of Zip’s and the Brewpub. Their wings are truly delicious… highly recommended.
Then there’s the Garbage Plate. How can any place outside its home of Rochester do a Garbage Plate properly right? I’ve tried several in Buffalo (Zorba’s, University Hots), and they didn’t compare to the original at Nick Tahou’s and/​or Steve T’s. Well Pauly’s dispels all the myths and makes what may be the best garbage plate I’ve ever had. The meat sauce is juicy and addictive, the hot dogs and burgers are huge and way bigger than what you usually get on a garbage plate (insist on one of each on your plate), and the homemade fresh cut fries and the mac salad are divine and go with it really well. I don’t recommend the beans because Americans don’t know how to make beans, but I have never tried them to be honest. The Garbage Plate is so greasy and heavy it gives me chest pains — it will last you for three meals but don’t make a habit of eating them (or any Buffalo food really) because it is very bad for your health.
Their chicken fingers are in a class by themselves. Most places in Buffalo just take frozen chicken patties, grill them and then toss them in Buffalo sauce. Not Pauly’s. These patties are handmade, never frozen, and utterly spectacular at that. They are not even tossed in sauce… the sauce comes on the side. They are so deliciously breaded and thick and juicy, they are probably the best I’ve ever had. The only chicken I can ever remember tasting that was this juicy and heavenly and thick and divine, is the Buttermilk Fried Chicken at the Moose Lodge Café in Asheville, NC, which is the best chicken on earth and worth driving a thousand miles for, so that says a lot about this chicken, now, doesn’t it?
I finally tried their Calzone, and while it wasn’t half bad, it also wasn’t the best or juiciest Calzone I ever had, but you can’t have everything, so I recommend trying all of the aforementioned stuff before you try one of those. The good thing about the Calzone is, though, that you can add as many stuffing ingredients as you like for free, the bad thing is, they’re not overly generous with the portions of stuff inside.
Anyway, I can’t say enough good stuff about Pauly’s. Even if you live outside WNY, try it!

It was ok. I don’t think I will go back. The pizza seemed cheap, the crust was good though. The wings were fine, but we ordered an order of fingers and they gave us wings instead. Not happy about that mixup.

I ordered their large pizza & wing special on 2÷11÷2012 and was disappointed with the pizza & wings. We ordered the wings hot — the wings were over cooked and had very little sauce on them — they tasted mild — we had to add our own sauce to them to make them hot. The pizza sauce tasted like spaghetti sauce out of the jar and the round pizza was sliced into squares. I like a round pizza sliced into slices, not squares. My wife said the crust was good — so that’s one positive comment about the pizza.
This was my first and last time purchasing pizza & wings from this place. Sorry Pauly’s Pizza you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

I was excited to see another pizzeria open up in the area, competition is always good for the consumer as it tends to keep the prices honest.
I’ve tried Paulys 4 times
The first experience was their first week so I had lower expectations while they got their feet wet in a new building. The pizza was average, no sauce, decent crust.
The second time was a Royal sub that had stale bread and small amount of peppers… I’m going to stick with the Clarence Deli for my Subs.
The third time I called twice, was placed on hold both times for in excess of 4 – 5 minutes to place an order. Come on Pauly’s…its a pizza order… if you cant make change and take a basic order you might need some one new to take the order. I ultimately gave up and used my «go to» location for my meal that night.
My fourth time was my final test. They have been open for over a month since my first visit so it was make or break for my future patronage. How could Batavia’s best fail this time I thought…
Well, I ordered the Pauly’s Special for 25 bucks Large 1 topping, dble wings, and a 2 litre of soda. Great deal so far.
I get home and the pizza was soup in the middle. How someone cut through this and did not recognize that this was a horrible pizza is beyond me. The wings were overcooked, dry, and tasted like 2 week old grease. The soda was the best part of the meal. So for 25 dollars you can have pizza soup and burnt wings. Horrible. I spent 25 dollars on a 2 liter of Soda, uggh.
There has to be something wrong with the ovens that the pizza is cooked in, or the fryers the wings are being cooked in. This used to be a hotdog and hamburger joint that had a great business, its sad to see other come in and not make this place take off. The residents will return but you have to put out a good product… Cheap is not always good.
I don’t expect this place to last another 6 months. By that time everyone will have been disappointed as I am. I wish I was writing a positive review for these guys…
I recommend that you try other pizzerias in the area and pay the cple extra bucks.