Carmine’s Pizza & Italian Take-Out

best pizza italian take out with the added bonus friendly conversations too around durham! you not just a customer, or part of the community you become family!

Definitely one of Durham’s best gems. I’ve had just about everything on the menu and have never been disappointed. The pizza is great, sandwiches are awesome, and each christmas we look forward to their catering platters. Very friendly and personable staff as well. Highly recommended.

Great New Haven style pizza in Durham. All your favorite toppings, and selections like a little bit of Wooster Street in rural Durham.
Best bang for the buck is Tuesday nights, with every large pizza, get a FREE small cheese pizza.

Great staff and awesome pizza! Best pizza in Durham!
Also the chicken cutlet subs are to die for.

Great little pizza place small it good they do a great job on the buffalo chicken and their eggplant pizza.

Very good pizza, SLOW delivery and don’t call during peak periods as they don’t have call waiting (WHAT!!!). Pick up is the way to go, if you are going to get delivery, order two hours in advance.

Awesome food, def worth a stop. I would recommend this place. Arugula salad is excellent.

I haven’t had any of the issues mentioned below with trouble getting through, poor pizza or being treated unprofessionally.
The pizza and sandwiches here are okay. They are not as good as anything you’d find in New York, but they do the trick and are pretty tasty overall. I have never had a bad or burnt pie. If you are looking for a basic pizza, I’d say it’s worth a try and everyone should enjoy their food. I do not know if they offer dinners, nor have I tried them. I think if you actually order a «french fry» pizza — you deserve the indigestion that will inevitably follow. Once, I had a panini here that guaranteed that I would never order one again… it was on the yucky side, so I threw it out, stay away from the panini.
Do NOT go here if you plan on eating in as this place is strictly take out. They have maybe 4 – 5 benches here max that are up against a counter. Another caveat is that you should definitely call ahead, because the one time I didn’t I waited outside in my car for over a half hour as their waiting area was too small and people were out the door. This is 100% my bad, as I should have known better and expected a wait on a Friday night.
I will most likely continue to get pizzas here for my son and his buddies on Friday night if I am driving by for some reason, but I wouldn’t go out of my way.

Really perfect pizza. Stopped by, ordered, went and got gas, in ten-​12 minutes it was ready. Spinach, broccoli, sausage, mozzarella red pizza. Thin crust, everything in perfect proportions. Best pizza I’ve had in years and I live in Guilford/​New Haven! Definitely going back.

Excellent pizza. I’d say it rivals New haven pizza, and they have ‘buy one large pie get a free small deal’ on Tuesdays. My two star rating is largely due to how difficult they are to contact. They are horrendously busy every time I go, which is a good problem for them I guess. Between my husband and I we called 30 times before someone actually picked up the phone– they only have one phone line and no answering service, so it either rings forever when they’re closed or its a busy signal. When they finally picked it up they immediately said «Carmine’s can you please hold» then put the phone down and we overheard conversations between the receptionist and other customers. For ten minutes. How professional. Then it’s was a 40 minute wait and I can’t blame them for that but come on, learn to use a hold button!

Love their food… however I had to give 3 stars instead of 4 because of the phone service. The line is busy 90% of the time. A big inconvenience if you placed an order and have a question or want to add/​change. Upgrade to a multi line phone system to better serve your customer.

By far the best pizza in town… If you can order it! I’ve been craving their pizza for a few days and whenever we try to call to place an order, the phone is busy. I don’t mind waiting an hour for a good pizza to be made, but calling repeatedly for an hour with hopes someone put the phone on the hook is really frustrating. Looks like we will be stocking up on frozen dough and making our own.

I am very picky when it comes to pizza, but Carmine’s is, in my opinion, right there with the best of them in the state. Quality an consistency is what they offer. The owner is always in the kitchen, making sure everything is perfect!

Being originally from New Haven, we are always looking for good pizza in the Middletown area. This hit the mark! Nice thin crust, good sauce and fresh toppings! This will join Mondo as our new go-​to place for pie!

Great take out pizza!

The best pizza and Italian dinners on the east coast. We particularly can’t have enough of their chicken piccata and eggplant parmigiana, of course besides the everything pizza.

Only one pie even comes close and that is Pepe’s in New Haven. An excellent pizza by any standards. I am a fan for sure and since it is close enough to pick up in 10 minutes, they always get my pizza business. Their lasagna is some of the best I have had in any restaurant, second only to my own! I love this place. Only downfall is getting through on the phone (sometimes you have to call and redial 20 times cause they are so busy) and their delivery service is terrible. Often taking more than an hour and a half and they get lost too. We live on the same street they are on only about 4 miles away and they STILL call almost every time saying «Where are you again?» LOL. and they charge dearly for delivery too. Picking up a large pie costs about 13 bucks for a cheese pizza. Delivery costs almost 20? Yikes! After tipping the driver (who is late and non apologetic most of the time) for the cold pie, it is over 20 bucks. So, we got get it now even if we are tired. Adding so much for delivery forces this hand. The pie is awesome though as are other offerings. Grinders are just okay. Pasta dishes are excellent.

Super New Haven style. Thin crust. Excellent dough. Terrific sauce.

Delish veggie pizza! An hour wait for Friday night but worth the wait!

This is one of those places that tons of people drive by every day and i’m sure they think «one day i will try that pizzeria» and yesterday was that day for us.
For starters, Carmine’s is pretty much a take-​out only place, with a few bar stools inside and a counter for people waiting to pick up their order, and in the warmer weather there are some picnic tables outside you could stop at and eat your pizza al fresco. The interior was to be expected of a take-​out Italian place, not too fancy but clean enough and you could see the kitchen and what’s going on back there — they were BUSY and cranking out the pies — overall the staff wasn’t super friendly (probably because they were so busy) but they took our order and got us our pies quick, and thats all that matters when you’re hungry.
Our pizza was really good, much better than a lot of other local pizzerias (when i say local i mean about 10 miles in any direction) — it was what I would call ‘new york style’ — not a thin crust, but not super thick or doughy — a little chewy inner-​crust and a little crunchy outer crust, really a nice amount of char and some nice cornicione bubbles. The sauce coverage was a little heavier than i like, but it wasn’t excessive — the sauce had a nice flavor; some herbs made it more than just your average tomato paste. The cheese was nice, melted well, had a good chewy texture and a good flavor — it was a little oily, but pizza is supposed to be like this. Overall maybe it was a little salty, but it was a decent pie, one I will definitely be back to try again. (if i remember — maybe i will ask for it well done and get it a little darker next time — i like it burnt)
Tuesdays they do a deal — if you buy a large you get a free small cheese pizza. free pizza is always good, especially when its a good pie. They have a full menu, and it all sounds good but I like pizza too much to stray.