Rino's Pizza

Location: 246 Main St # 6
New Paltz, NY 12561-1621
(845) 255-8600


Style of service: Mostly take-out and delivery with a few tables for eating in. Order at the counter, pick your drinks out of the cooler (or ask for a fountain drink), and they'll bring the food out to your table or deliver it to your house.


Food type: Mostly Italian, focusing on pizza (pie or slices), pasta dinners, appetizers, and sandwiches and wraps.

Ratings with best being five stars - FOUR STARS

Food rating: FOUR STARS
Rino's is a must-stop at the end of every 'Gunks trips. It's a bit out of the way (away from downtown in the plaza across from the Stop and Shop near I-87), but you won't be disappointed when you do. The pride of their pizzas is the sauce, and they offer several different varieties by the slice or can make whatever you want by the pie. The garlic knots probably don't come with enough sauce when ordered, but I get them every time I walk in anyway. The salads are huge and the moist chicken is cooked to perfection. They also use the good greens, not the lousy iceberg stuff that lousy restaurants use. Soups are also larger than you'd expect and are full of flavor. I made sure I soaked up every last drop of broth when I ordered my soup, and I was polite and didn't drink from the bowl. I mostly order the buffalo chicken BLT wrap. Don't see it on the menu? Read "service" below for the reason why.

Prices: THREE & A HALF STARS
Rino's is neither cheap nor expensive. You get what you pay for here, and then more. Yes, some of their dishes are very large for the price you pay (particularly the salads and soups), but there's nothing on the menu that could be considered a main course (sandwiches and wraps included) around five dollars. But who cares? The prices are definitely reasonable and I've always come away filled enough to not need another meal for hours without being overly stuffed. I'd say a typical wrap, drink, and appetizer will set you back about $12. Not bad.

Service: FIVE STARS
These guys get it. For one, the turnover at this establishment is minuscule. I see the same guys working the counter, the pizza oven, and the stoves out back every single time I walk in, and I've been going every weekend I'm in the 'Gunks for a couple of years now. Sometimes I'm there every Sunday afternoon for a couple of months in a row, and sometimes I'm not there at all for a couple of months (because I'm climbing elsewhere). But each time I go in the guys know what I want. They always wait before punching it in the register, but they also ask - "same as usual, buffalo chicken BLT on a wrap?" That's right, he doesn't just ask if I want the usual, but he recites the order just to make sure. And I'm not even local by several hours.
But here's what gets me. They have a buffalo chicken sandwich. And they have a BLT wrap. But do I want either one? Noooo, I want them both, in one sandwich, as a wrap. Can they do it? Not only can they do it, but I get a "coming right up" without any questions. No thinking about it. No shifting their weight back and forth from one foot to the next with a "you're a pain in the ass" look on their faces. No extra charges. "For here or to go?" and that's it.
Don't be a fool by passing this place up. The food is too tasty, the prices just right, and the service too good to not give a chance at least once. And then once you give it a chance you'll be going back for more, guaranteed.