The Must-Eat Pizza in New Haven

Your trip to Yale and New Haven won’t be a complete one without having pizza at the most famous Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in the Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut. Opened in 1925, it is one of the oldest and best known pizzerias in the United States.

Frank Pepe's pizzas are best known for two types: You pick the red one (tomato pie), or the white one (clam pie). I prefer the clam pizza, which also comes with a lot of cheese and you can only find in Frank Pepe’s. Yes, nowhere will do in America.

The restaurant is also good at desserts including Italy’s iconic Tiramisu, which tastes more like soft chocolate ice-cream here rather than a piece of serious cake. Frank Pepe’s is the go-to pizza place for Yale students and its fans also include many celebrities and politicians, for example, the 40th US President Ronald Reagan.

The legend of Frank Pepe’s is also a true “American Dream” story, thanks to its founder, Frank Pepe, an Italian immigrant, who immigrated to New Haven in 1909 when he was just a teenager. He later began to sell his signature “tomato pies” — only made of specially selected fresh Italian tomatoes — in Wooster Square, the local community known as “Little Italy” in New Haven, and eventually raised enough money to open the first formal Frank Pepe’s pizza restaurant on June 16, 1925.

Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana
157 Wooster St, New Haven, CT 06511

Belgian Time in New Haven

Shortly after I returned to New Haven, I revisited one of my favorite cafes in the college town for breakfast: Maison Mathis at Yale, which is owned by two Belgians, so the menu reflects the best their local food culture has to offer.

This is the place for good food from the heart of Europe, including its signature Belgian waffles (note: be mindful of American size of Belgian waffles!) and anything to do with avocado and eggs.

The restaurant has a famous slogan for all guests: Come here and slow down because you are on Belgian time here. I don’t know what it really means about Belgian time but yes, life is not always about “move fast”. Sometimes you slow down a bit before you get on a more splendid journey than you could have ever thought about. It’s always your time and your life so you should control it. Nobody else should do.

Bon appétit!

Maison Mathis
304 Elm St, New Haven, CT 06511

Let's Eat Donuts

Family-owned Donut Crazy is a chain cafe best known for its donuts that you can only find in Connecticut (so far). The Food Network already named Donut Crazy’s signature Cannoli Donut “the best donut in the great state of Connecticut.”

Donut Crazy, est. 2015, has a branch on York Street quite close to the Yale Law School. Yale students are said to love to go there for both tasty donuts and cool background music and songs often played in the shop. It also has cozy sofas and standard desks, so the place is good for both friends to meet up or if you want to work on something quickly, using your laptop.

There is also a cool ice cream shop just next door. You can certainly keep eating alongside the whole street in downtown New Haven.

Donut Crazy
290 York St, New Haven, CT 06511

The Taste of China in New Haven

Even before I came back to Yale, people kept telling me about ”Taste of China” (川園) in New Haven already, a Chinese restaurant that is well known among members of the Yale community for its authentic Sichuan cuisine.

If you want to prove how authentic a good Chinese restaurant is, mapo tofu is a must-have course and it turned out the Sichuan-style spicy tofu here tasted really good. Now I’m wondering if someone should come to Yale and open new restaurants called “Taste of Hong Kong” (focusing on dim sum?) and “Taste of Taiwan” (hot pot?) in New Haven…

Taste of China
954 Chapel St, New Haven, CT 06510

The Study at Yale

New Haven doesn’t have five-star hotels but The Study at Yale is a quite nice place for your temporary residence. The local boutique hotel also has a New England cuisine restaurant on the ground floor and it’s called Heirloom.

Heirloom claims to focus on local organic ingredients and coastal cuisine. It also has a large wine collection including wines from Italy, Spain, France, Australia, Germany, South Africa, and the United States. Its namesake burger is always a popular choice for lunch. Try to get a window seat so you enjoy the nice view of moving people on the historic Chapel Street in downtown New Haven.

The Study at Yale
1157 Chapel St, New Haven, CT 06511