May 21, 2009

Bradford's Grill & Tavern

Located downtown within spitting distance of Remo's and Capriccio, Bradford's Grill & Tavern doesn't exactly draw from their clientele as it's primarily a bar. Bradford's also happens to serve pizza after 5:00 PM on weekdays and all day on Saturday, so at times, they meet all the qualifications to be a part of the Tour.

Establishment. Bradford's is a bar. It has beer, liquor, darts, and TVs; as far as bars go, it's pretty well equipped. However, as a restaurant, Bradford's shows slightly less promise than The Cleveland Show. Typically, a bar atmosphere does not make for good seating or table service and Bradford's is no exception. After waiting at a "please wait to be seated" sign for long enough to know that we weren't going to be seated, we wandered into the dining "room," which is actually more of a raised platform with a few tables of assorted sizes ranging from cramped to laughably small. The service was slow and inattentive, and given the situation, that's the best it'll ever be. Bradford's menu consists of ordinary pub food including happy hour specials every day from 4-8 PM and a moderate pizza selection (as long as its after 5 PM...).

Pizza. Bradford's offers a full 16" pizza (fraudulently billed as an 18" pizza) in addition to a traditional bar pie. The crust was surprisingly exceptional, with a yeasty flavor and an elusive chewy-but-crisp consistency. The sauce didn't surprise us at all as it was every bit as bland as we feared it would be, tasting of canned tomato and little else. Alternatively, the cheese was straight-up horrible, seemingly flavored with copious handfuls of salt and grease with the texture of vulcanized rubber despite the pie coming to the table freakishly hot. Our topping, sausage, was above average quality and rather tasty, but its excess oil compromised the pie's texture a bit. Overall, the schizophrenic nature of this pizza and hit-or-miss quality of each ingredient translated to a less than mediocre product. Maybe after a few beers this pie would have been passable, but without help, it was well below average.

The bottom line. Bradford's is a bar with a big, boring pizza that should probably be ordered in conjunction with drinks, if at all.

Establishment: 16/30
Pizza: 17/30
Hits the Spot: 6.0/10
Large Cheese: $12.00

Bradford's Grill & Tavern on Urbanspoon

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