I’m excited to find another good pizza place nearby besides Angelico’s. Comet Ping-pong is a new venture from the folks at Buck’s, and it’s only about three blocks from my place. We ordered a pizza with smoked mozzarella, melted onions, roasted red peppers and garlic. The mozzarella was wonderfully smoky with the onions melted beautifully. The roasted red peppers didn’t really have much of an impact on the flavor, since there weren’t that many on the pizza. The garlic, in addition to the basil pesto was wonderfully garlicky and a little spicy. The crust was crispy and a little burnt. With the addition of the sauce the crust was a great texture. I really like this place, and though it’s a little bit pricey, would be a good treat for takeout for me every now and then.
Beware the service though. I don’t know if it was just really busy or they’re not quite fully staffed yet, but we were standing at the door for about five minutes by ourselves before the hostess came up. During that five minutes the waitstaff would see us, look at us and ignore us. It would be one thing if the pizza was cheap, but I don’t really want to pay that much money to be ignored.
* Just an update – 11/15/06 – I feel strongly enough about this to write an addendum, seeing as how this is a relatively hot review. Word on the street is service is not good here. According to what someone wrote on Tom Sietsema’s 11.15.06 chat: six pieces of lettuce for six bucks in a salad. After jokingly mentioning it, the salad was whisked away by the OWNER without comment, apology or replacement. Like I said before, I have no interest in paying that much money to be treated poorly. I would comment that the general attitude from the ownership is crummy.
1. There was the whole DC Foodies Buck’s Fishing and Camping photo posting debacle. In short, DC Foodies posted pictures of the food and was threatened with a lawsuit. Blah blah blah – intellectual property.
2. They don’t list the ludicrous prices on their menu, of which only one is posted above the cook’s area.
This place seems to treat customers like they don’t need them. Did someone say Soup Nazi? The price nor the food is good enough to get treated like that. Until things change I would refer folks to Angelico’s on Wisconsin Ave. near the Tenleytown Whole Foods. They have a good veggie pizza. It’s a better deal, and they will treat you a lot more nicely.
Update 11/30/06: There’s been a lot of discussion today on Don Rockwell about Comet’s service, prices, etc. It’s been an interesting and hot topic. Some say that mistakes are handled politely though quirkly. Others have commented that there is an air of “take it or leave it” to a number of local concept restaurants – good or bad, who’s to say? Anyway, you can check out that thread. I’ve pointed it to the start of that discussion.
12/9/06: Sounds like they have menus with prices now. That’s an improvement. Perhaps it’s time to go back and see if things have improved service-wise.
Update 6/30/07: I stopped and got take out pizza from Comet. I’d kept meaning to get around to doing so for the soft shell crab pizza. I didn’t experience much service except for the bartender who I placed the order with. He was quite cordial as was the hostess. Things are picking up quite nicely here it seems. And $17 for a soft shell crab pizza was well worth it, given the soft shell crab at New Heights is $15.
