Review: Villa Capri

Type: Italian Restaurant & Pizzaria
Location: 51 W. Court St., Doylestown, PA
Phone: 215-348-9656
Delivery: Yes; no delivery fee
Take-Out: Yes
Liquor License: Yes
Carry-Out Cold Beer: Yes

Villa Capri's menu is about what you might expect from this sort of restaurant: bar-type appetizers, salads, soups, veal/chicken/seafood/eggplant dishes, calzones, pizza, pasta dishes, stromboli, hot sandwiches, and cold hoagies. They also package their sauces for take-out. I wasn't in the mood for a cheese steak, but wanted a sandwich -- a big one.

Stuck without a car for the day, I ordered two hoagies (turkey & provolone, and ham & provolone), and a medium mushroom pizza for delivery. Sure, I could have made myself a ham & swiss on rye with mustard, and started some foccacia dough for a pizza crust, but I really had a craving for a hoagie, and couldn't wait for dough to rise or leftover (frozen) Easter ham to thaw.

Now, a hoagie is no substitute for a Jersey-style Sloppy Joe from Millburn Deli or Hill City Deli (a double-decker of your choice of meat or meats and cheese on rye, with Russian dressing and cole slaw), but when in PA, go with a hoagie.

Some places have 9" or 18" ones, but Villa Capri made me a couple of very tasty foot-longs for about $5 each. The medium 'shroom pizza was about twice that. There were no delivery charges, but of course, I tipped the delivery guy.

As is typical, the hoagies come with lettuce, tomato, thinly sliced red onion, and your choice of dressing: oil & vinegar, mayo, or "dry." I'm sure I could have told them to hold the onion, if I had wanted to, but I was up for it. Delivery was prompt -- within half an hour. I'm sure the pizza was what took the longest, since anyone can make a hoagie within a couple of minutes.

Here's a picture of the turkey hoagie with mayo. Extras such as sweet or hot peppers, and pickles are available for an additional charge, but I didn't bother with them.

I'm afraid I scarfed down the entire ham hoagie before it occurred to me to take a picture, but it looked pretty much the same, with thinly sliced pink ham, instead of whitish turkey. The bread is chewy, which is the way it's supposed to be, without having an outer crust that crumbles when crushed to fit into a normal-sized set of choppers.

On to what's left of the pizza . . . as you can see, they use freshly sliced mushrooms, not the canned variety, and they don't skimp on the mozzarella. Interestingly enough, they sprinkle oregano on the cheese before it's baked, rather than leave it up to the person who ordered it to do so, after the fact.

The pizza in the picture is the one slice that was a leftover, and is cold. It reheated just fine on a baking sheet in the oven, until the cheese got bubbly. The crust was on the thin side, which is the way I like it.

Most restaurants/pizzarias like this don't make the thin crust really crispy (at least, not in the center), but upon reheating, it comes out that way. I prefer my pizza crust to crunch when I bite into it. Others prefer chewy crust, or even "Sicilian" pizza, but that doesn't rock my socks.

I cannot comment about the atmosphere of the place, or the difference between sit down, and take-out/delivery. What I can comment about is the quality and tastiness of the food, value for the money, and promptness of delivery. The entire order cost me a little over $20; even with the tip I gave the guy for delivering it, it cost me $25.