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Offering wings, subs, and pasta dishes in addition to pizza, Bella Pizza has taken over the corner pizzeria stand in the Center Ithaca atrium food court. At the heart of downtown, this is a cluster of eateries we might wish were open longer hours -- like, say, at dinnertime or late-night. Lunch specials start at $2.25 for a slice and a soda. The pizza's crisp and tasty, and we look forward to exploring the rest of the menu.
Ithaca probably had plenty of chicken wings already, we're checking out Buffalo Wild Wings, the latest chain restaurant to open in town. On Route 13 in Ithaca's southwest, Buffalo Wild Wings serves not just wings and so-called "boneless wings," but wraps, burgers, and even ribs. We were pleasantly surprised that the wing sauces had lots of flavor. The hot actually was, and the spicy garlic and garlic parmesan both weren't shy about the garlic.
Our expectations aren't that high when we go to a fast food outlet, but this Burger King sometimes fails to reach even that low bar. Whether the food's not hot, or we've gotten where we're going only to realize we've got a different item than the one we ordered, this BK misses the mark just a little too often for comfort. When they get it right, though, a Whopper with onion rings can sure be satisfying.
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This Collegetown eatery, in new digs across from the Dryden Road parking garage, offers healthy, fresh, design-your-own wraps, salads, and smoothies. The custom wrap and salad menu (starting at $6) features no fewer than 35 ingredients to choose from, not counting the tortillas and meats (grilled chicken, tuna, or eggs), plus a couple dozen dressings. Or pick from one of the $6 pre-designed salads or wraps. Check it out from lunch through late-night if you're tired of bagels, pizza, and cheeseburgers.
Now open in Ithaca's southwest, Chipotle is one of several chains specializing in burritos and similar fare assembled to order. Their philosophy leans toward quality food produced as sustainably as possible.
This legendary College Avenue eatery moved to much roomier digs on their current corner in the mid '90s, and has expanded way beyond their bagel roots. With a wide variety of sandwiches handmade to order from fresh ingredients, including many vegetarian options and lots of top-notch bread, this flagship CTB location also makes fancy espresso drinks, serves brewed fair-trade coffee, offers smoothies, and has a bar at the back with a few draft beers and carafes of sangria.
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Collegetown Pizza has moved down Dryden Road to the former location of Mama Teresa's Pizzeria. As with most pizzerias, the slices that have been sitting out for a while are only appetizing at 2am, but the freshly made pies aren't bad.
This Community Corners institution is a family-owned delicatessen specializing in Middle Eastern specialties in addition to a wide array of fresh American-deli-style foods. The overstuffed sandwiches and pitas barely leave room for the exceptional baklava and other desserts. Great falafel and gyros, and fresh roast beef whose aroma permeates the neighborhood. Leave a little room for dessert, such as traditional baklava or a cinnamon baklava roll, honey cake, or a semolina cookie, along with a cup of the very strong middle eastern coffee -- or regular coffee or tea.
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D.P. Dough does one thing and they do it well -- an infinite selection of calzones with whatever you can imagine stuffed inside. I'm a fan of eggplant and ricotta, or go the Buffalo-style chicken calzone route. Check their Facebook for the daily $5 'Zone of the Day.
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No surprises at this franchise pizza shop. They have the advantage of being cheaper than the local pizzerias, but that's about it. Their poor food and service is made worse by the fact that they are extremely poor neighbors, and are rude to people who live and work near them. Go next door to Napoli, or call Papa John's if you want chain-pizza prices.
Doug's Fish Fry is worth the drive from Ithaca. It's a small privately owned Central New York chain with restaurants in Skaneateles, Cortland, Mattydale, and East Syracuse, that prides itself on simple, quick food, with no table service, no wait staff, and no tipping. Yes, a lot of the food is fried, but not all of it.
This non-profit, volunteer-staffed cafe on the corner of Routes 13 and 38 in Dryden is open Monday through Saturday for breakfast and lunch, plus has a weekly Thursday night all-you-can-eat pasta night. Stop in for coffee or espresso drinks using beans roasted by Cortland's Coffee Mania; fresh pastries or breakfast sandwiches in the morning; and soups, quiches, sandwiches, and paninis at lunchtime. Check their Facebook for daily specials.
Ithaca's is the 475th franchise of this DC-based chain that specializes in just burgers, hot dogs, and fries, all freshly prepared to order. The Five Guys web site says there are over 200,000 ways to order your burger, but if you want chicken nuggets, or cheese sticks, or milkshakes, or cherry pie, you'll have to go somewhere else. For fast food, the burgers are outstanding. Vegetarian options are limited to a grilled cheese sandwich or a burger-without-the-burger, plus the fries, but we know lots of vegetarians who are delighted with these.
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Now open across from the State Theatre, in the former home of the Prize Diner, Gorgers offers soups and gourmet subs on homemade bread, with locally sourced ingredients wherever possible. At $3 for soup, $6 for salads, and $7 for subs, the price is definitely right. Try the coconut shrimp po'boy, served with pickled vegetables and a Thai sweet chili sauce on a homemade sub roll, or make any of the subs vegetarian with eggplant instead of meat. The potato salad, made with a balsamic vinegar reduction, is a tasty side dish. Ready for a challenge?
A new eatery from our friends at Gorgers Subs, opening soon on the Commons just a block from their sandwich shop. We're expecting excellent and quick tacos made from scratch with fresh ingredients, and we can't wait!
This natural foods grocery has prepared foods including a hot and cold salad bar, packaged entrees and sushi in a cooler, and a deli counter where they'll build whatever sandwich you'd like, with or without meat. GreenStar also provides excellent catering services that showcase the superb local produce and meats available at the store.
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One of Ithaca's top pizzerias, this latest incarnation of Italian Carry Out (which used to be on Meadow Street) also offers hot and cold sandwiches, wings, fish fry platters, and such Italian dinners as lasagna, chicken parm, and a variety of pasta. Delivery takes a while and they might not get your order quite right, but they'll cheerfully fix it.
When I told a friend in Florida I was going to visit the Ithaca Bakery, she exclaimed, "Oh, I love bakeries!" I had to stop and think for a moment, then explain that our Meadow Street "bakery" doesn't just do bread and pastries. They do bake the fresh bread, rolls, donuts, cookies, and cakes for a number of hotels, stores, offices, and other eateries around the region, but I was there to visit the eatery part of the business. Any time of day, you can satisfy your appetite at the Ithaca Bakery for just a few bucks for a bagel sandwich or deli sandwich, or spend $8-12 for a full meal.
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For delivery, carry-out, or to eat in, check out Jack's Collegetown Grill on Dryden Road, offering burgers, cheesesteaks, generous breakfasts whenever they're open, and Ithaca's only vegetarian wings, as late as 4am on weekends. It's an oddity at an eatery that serves so many burgers, cheesesteaks, and actual chicken wings, but vegetarians will appreciate the tofu wings. They expanded in the summer of 2012, with a new bar area so you can enjoy your food with a pint of beer and the game on TV.
They're not rocket science, they're sandwiches. But Jimmy John's focuses on doing decent sandwiches and doing them quickly, and they've gotten very, very good at it. You can have french bread or seven-grain wheat slices, or go the "unwich" route for a low-carb sandwich wrapped in lettuce. We love the Vito or Italian Night Club, though we can't imagine why they put oil & vinegar and mayo on a sandwich. We usually remember to ask them to skip the mayo.
A tiny, casual eatery for take-out or eat-in service. You can order items from the menu, but your best bet is to select two already-prepared entrees from the steam table as a combo (or one large portion) for $6.25. We recommend the Pad Thai and one of the other entrees, such as red curry chicken or eggplant and tofu. For a treat, add a Thai iced coffee to your meal. Some dishes are deliciously spicy, and there's good chili sauce if it's not hot enough.
On the north edge of Cornell University's campus, Louie's Lunch has a history that dates back almost a century to a Greek immigrant named Louis Zounakos who pushed around a food cart. These days it's more of a diner on wheels, open lunchtime to late night on Thurston Avenue near the north campus dorms, with breakfast sandwiches, burgers, wraps, sandwiches, and even salads. During the summer and other school breaks, Louie's is just open for lunch.
This quick, new eatery in Collegetown, formerly Xeo's Cafe, now serves Tejano-style (Tex-Mex) taquitos and the like using fresh, local ingredients. The taquitos are tortillas wrapped around a variety of fillings, mostly local pork or beef. The vegan taquito, with marinated tofu and potatoes, is excellent, too. True to the Texas roots, it's not a vegetable-heavy cuisine, but there are a couple of vegetarian options. It's minimalist Mexican. We like it.
Call it Mexican food or southwestern food, Moe's is all about putting food in tortillas in various forms. Moe's welcomes visitors with an assembly line, very much like That Burrito Place or even Subway. The place is colourful and full of energy, a perfect match to the southwest-style pseudo-Mexican fare. You can get a well-stuffed taco for three bucks or even less, or an overflowing salad in a big tortilla shell, or a burrito or quesadilla. Try fajita steak, ground beef, or chicken in any of the above, or even veggies or tofu.
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Our favourite among the area's traditional, round pizzas is from Napoli Pizza, at the foot of the East State Street hill in the Gateway building. Napoli's roots go back decades in downtown Ithaca, and they know how to make their pizza. Napoli also has by far the best wings in town, great cold or hot subs, and beer on tap if you're dining in or waiting for your pizza.
After twenty years operating popular gyro and falafel stands on the Ithaca Commons, at the Ithaca Farmers Market, and at countless area festivals, On the Street now has its very first brick-and-mortar location, right next to Maxie's Supper Club in Ithaca's west end. They serve overflowing pitas including gyros, falafels, chicken, pork souvlaki, and even cheeseburger and cheesesteak pitas, plus breakfast gyros and Greek salads. Free delivery in town, $2 delivery farther out.
They style themselves an upscale bakery, but Panera Bread is really just a soup, salad, and sandwich eatery with counter service. The food's not bad, but the slim portions, high prices, and general air of confusion behind the counter make it tough to justify a return visit. The many-columned menu board, with its "signature" and "premium signature" price bumps, is also optimized for making you spend more than you thought you were going to. If the place is full, it's probably because someone who bought a $2 item has parked at a table for two hours to enjoy the Wi-Fi.
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Papa John's makes one of the best traditional, round pizzas in town, thanks to a focus on fresh ingredients despite their chain status and their surprisingly affordable prices. It's a little dry unless you ask for extra sauce, which they'll gladly provide at no extra charge. We've always been a fan of the garlic dipping sauce and hot peppers that come with each pizza, and the slices-and-soda lunch specials are a good deal.
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This quick eatery on Dryden Road makes hot and cold sandwiches to order in white or whole wheat pitas, with your choice of a whole host of veggies. Start with your choice of ham, turkey, tuna, or maybe go vegetarian with falafel or hummus. While the filling's grilling, pick out your toppings from an impressive selection, and Pita Pita's friendly crew will fill your pita layer by layer. Pita Pita even has breakfast pitas, featuring scrambled eggs mixed with hash brown potatoes, cheese, onions, peppers, and ham, bacon, or crumbled Italian sausage. Formerly part of the Pita Pit chain.
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Pizza Hut offers their own style of deep-dish pizza that's perfect when it's fresh and hot. This location, in the Cayuga Mall in the Village of Lansing, has a decent lunch buffet featuring pizza and salad, and sadly, like most Pizza Huts across Central New York, doesn't serve beer.
While it's definitely the place to be on a summer evening, Purity Ice Cream traded away its "made right here" cachet to gain additional indoor seating space. The ice cream is made for them elsewhere. They also offer pies and seasonal eggnog, quite good but overpriced.
Formerly the Corner Store, this unassuming, little red shop on the edges of Ithaca's downtown neighborhood is a deli and convenience store, but they also serve foot-long hot dogs, 1/3 pound burgers, and a seriously good fish fry. Stop in and grab a freshly fried haddock dinner, served with fries and cole slaw for less than ten bucks, or just have a fish sandwich for under $5.
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This sandwich shop, pizzeria, and convenience store is perched on Ithaca's South Hill just below Ithaca College. We don't enjoy their pizza, though we realize tastes vary, and the wings and subs are pretty good.
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This pizza shop at the east end of the Ithaca Commons is perfect for a late-night slice, and delivers decent subs, pizza, wings, and even fried chicken. They're not trying to be culinary artists, but they hit the spot when they've got what you need.
There are a few select entrees from the main Collegetown Sangam Indian Restaurant here at this steam-table counter in Center Ithaca. The food always tastes fresh, and it's always ready when you walk up. There's also a small selection of Indian groceries and videos.
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This combination pizzeria and brewpub has good deals on decent pizza, wings, and subs, with both pizzeria and pub-style dining rooms, and a bar with a few beers brewed in-house.
Whether you call them subs or grinders or hoagies or whatever, Shortstop Deli specializes in those long sandwiches on fresh-baked French bread, or smaller sandwiches on kaiser rolls. They've got the usual ham, roast beef, and turkey, but they've also got seafood salad, eggplant, seitan, or prime rib. For the last few years, the Shortstop hot sub menu has had a selection of the famous Hot Truck French bread pizza subs. Supplement your sub with a fresh hot bowl of soup or chili. In the morning, enjoy their own custom coffee roast and a breakfast sandwich.
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This pizzeria has offered freshly made pies and pizza by the slice, plus lasagna and other Italian dishes, salads, and side dishes for many years in the Cafe Square food court at the Shops of Ithaca Mall. The pizza's especially good when it's fresh, and the Italian entrees are a pretty good deal.
Sharing a building with C.T. Bento next to the Hampton Inn, Smart Yogurt in Ithaca's Southwest offers frozen yogurt with an ever-changing array of toppings, such as pastel-colored M&Ms for Easter. The yogurts themselves range from a basic, tart yogurt similar to Greek-style yogurt, to fun "birthday cake" and "cookies 'n cream" options, and there's even a green tea yogurt made with top-notch tea imported from Japan. Toppings include the expected crumbled cookies and candy bits, but also a surprising variety of fruit, some of it fresh.
Subway has captured lots of attention with its $5 foot-long offers, its weight-losing spokesman, its toasted subs, and, yes, its "Chuck" exposure. What it comes down to is that Subway is a decent place for a decent sandwich made with decent food at a decent price. If you skip some of the gloppy sauces and the potato chips, it's even a healthy meal.
On the east end of the Shortstop Deli in Downtown Ithaca, Sweet Melissa's is a seasonal ice cream stand offering a variety of soft-serve treats, hard ice cream, and more. There are even vegan options made with coconut milk from GreenStar Co-Op.
This new counter-service eatery in the Center Ithaca food court on the Ithaca Commons offers tacos, enchiladas, and the like, both meaty and vegetarian. Listed only.
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That Burrito Place makes burritos, nachos, quesadillas, and rice bowls to order, on a quick assembly line. Nothing unusual here, just tasty Mexican-style food to go. Watch their Facebook for daily specials. (If you want to eat in the restaurant, you'll be standing up. There's no seating, unless the weather's nice and you hit the bench out front.)
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Pretty good pizza and subs in lower Collegetown, often with tempting special pricing. Stop in for a slice or call ahead to order a pizza or three to go.
Ithaca has had food trucks for decades -- the Hot Truck and Louie's Lunch -- but, except on special occasions, they're always in one place. Enter the Good Truck, our first entry in the fad of food trucks that pop up in different places around town. Common stops for this taco truck are next to The Shop or The Westy, or at the Food Truck Roundup at Thompson Park in Fall Creek. The locally sourced food is tasty and almost, but not quite, worth the $5 per taco price.
This tiny Lansing eatery across the street from Rogues' Harbor, the Lansing Skatepark, and the Lansing village ball fields offers handmade, hot and cold sandwiches, pasta dinners, freshly baked pastries, and more. They've got a cooler full of Stewart's sodas (as well as what may be the only cold 2-liter bottles in the area), individual Keurig K-Cups of coffee, and loads of used books at reasonable prices.
This Canada-based chain of coffee, donut, and sandwich shops snuck into Ithaca a few years ago thanks to a deal to open a coffee kiosk in most Tops Friendly Markets stores, but we finally have the full experience. Tim Hortons offers breakfast sandwiches in addition to the coffee and donuts, plus the famous Timbits, but in the afternoon and evening they add excellent freshly made sandwiches and soups to the mix. Stop in for a snack or a meal, and pick up a canister of their great and affordably priced coffee for home, while you're at it.
Just southwest of Downtown Ithaca, Uncle Joe's is a straightforward and honest sports bar with good food, good drinks, and plenty of TVs for watching that game you've gotta catch. There are a dozen beers on tap, and the menu includes good wings and burgers, plus sandwiches and salads. Veggieburgers are available, and there are nightly specials. The half-pound burger with fries is a good deal at the regular $6.50-7.50 price, but the Tuesday $5 burger special is a bargain.
Affordable and unassuming, this taco and burrito eatery provides a limited menu of pretty good if unexceptional California-style Mexican fare. The burritos used to be humungous and cheap, enough for two meals, but the portions aren't what they once were. The soft tacos offer better bang for the buck, and the soup's a pleasant surprise.
Is it the simplest restaurant concept ever? In the space best known as Juna's, Waffle Frolic features handmade waffles, from basic to buckwheat to gluten-free, with a wide variety of toppings including fruit, Nutella, bacon and eggs, and even all-natural, free-range fried chicken. There are also variations on the grilled cheese sandwich theme. A meal gets expensive fast, but it's a fun treat. The coffee, roasted by Coffee Labs in Tarrytown, is top notch. Our biggest concern is that the often-confused service better matches the food's simplicity than its price.
What is it they say about the underdog trying harder? Wendy's is dwarfed by McDonald's and Burger King, but we think that, as a general rule, they offer the best-tasting, best-quality food of the three. Despite occasional missteps like chicken nuggets dressed up as "boneless wings," Wendy's has very good burgers, delightful spicy chicken sandwiches, and top-notch (and affordable) side dishes like salads and baked potatoes.
This 24-hour convenience store hapens to have one of the best deli counters in town. There are always some sandwiches ready to grab and go, and they make an excellent Italian sub.
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This franchise of the growing "Wings Over" chain offers a chicken-heavy lunch buffet and extensive delivery. The hottest "Afterburner" wings are hot enough for Ithaca, if not Buffalo, and flavourful as well. Vegetarians are basically out of luck, unless they're satisfied with fries and macaroni salad. Poultry-eaters, though, might enjoy the 15 varieties of wings, and those who can't stand bones should try the "boneless wings," excellent hand-battered chicken strips sold by the half pound.
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311 Third Street
Ithaca, NY 14850
Phone: 607-345-3333
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309 Lincoln Street
Ithaca, NY 14850
Phone: 607-216-1616
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