Crispy Basil – Guilderland, NY

When I’m in the mood for pizza, I’m really in the mood for pizza. It’s not going to be enough to sit down with a slice or two; I need to make sure there’s a whole pie ready for me in case I can’t stop.

And that’s really the reason I have to abstain from pizza for the most part. That and it happens to open my appetite for massive amounts of all of the other great things in the world no matter how much pizza I eat!

I’m human.

One day, when I was ready to eat, I sat down at Crispy Basil in Guilderland (Formerly a Friendly’s) with a pie.

It was a little difficult to decide what kind to pizza to get. I wanted to try something with toppings, and Buffalo chicken sounded great, but they offer three different types.

• Classic Buffalo Chicken Pizza: Pizza sauce, mozzarella, hot sauced crispy chicken. Tomato sauce base.
• Cheesy Buffalo Pizza: Crispy chicken with hot sauce, bleu (sic) cheese, mozzarella. White base.
• Artisan Buffalo Chicken Pizza: Pizza sauce, mozzarella, hot sauced crispy chicken, celery and carrots drizzled with blue cheese. Tomato sauce base.

All were $13.99.

Ultimately, I decided on the classic buffalo chicken pizza; I figured it would be most similar to what I’ve had elsewhere. I also ordered a Mediterranean Salad (Lettuce, baby spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, onions, roasted red pepper, feta, olives, banana peppers with Greek dressing – $6) to eat while I waited for the pizza. [Maybe, if I fill up on salad, I’ll eat less pizza. Yeah. Yeah, right!]

It was somewhat disappointing but not unexpected that the dressing served alongside was not homemade. The salad wasn’t particularly outstanding or great by any means; the size of the portion was worth the price.

I was the only customer at the time, so the pizza didn’t take all that long to arrive to my table.

It was hot, so I let it cool for a moment before digging in.

When I did grab a slice, I was taken aback by the serious lack of crispness. The regular dough they use wasn’t terribly crispy, especially under the pie; the edge had an ok amount of crispness, but was also very chewy and soft. The lack of crispness in the chicken was also troubling, since “hot sauced crispy chicken” is verbatim from the menu. The flavor of the chicken was good, but the sauce was very acidic and not much more flavorful than something like Frank’s Red Hot.

The size of the pie and amount of toppings make the pizza a decent value, but I can’t say it’s the best pizza around for miles.

They did have a number of pizzas for slices behind the counter, and there were quite a few I’d like to try (especially the cheeseburger pizza) in case I ever want just a couple of slices.