City’s Ocean Pizza remains a reliable favorite

Let’s get the one quibble out of the way first.

I like New London’s Ocean Pizza quite a bit, and go there in spite of the fact that they charge for iced tea and fountain drink refills.

I mean, I’ve spoken with folks in the restaurant biz, and I’m pretty sure that it costs about 15 cents to refill a glass of iced tea. Now, since an average restaurant probably charges between $1.50 and $2 for a glass of tea or cola (Ocean’s at $1.75), the profit margin is sorta cruel. If, on a mealtime visit, I drank eight glasses of tea (at 15 cents each), I’d be costing Ocean $1.20 — meaning they would still make a reasonable profit.

“Tell you what,” I’d call to my waitress — and the service folks at Ocean are always kind even during peak-hour capacity — “go ahead and bring me glasses of tea numbers nine and 10, and I’ll throw in a Kennedy half-dollar to keep your profit margin lookin’ feisty.”

Otherwise, I really like Ocean Pizza. It’s reasonably close to our house, the crowd is very diverse and clearly comprised of regulars who also really like it, and it feels a lot like the neighborhood spot that it truly is.

It’s a large, open, rectangular room with privacy afforded through three rows of comfy booths running parallel to Ocean Avenue and, at either wall, strips of perpendicular seating. There’s a small bar at the back of the restaurant overlooking the kitchen and prep area.

Over a few recent visits, we’ve tried a representative variety of offerings from an expansive menu that includes seafood, pizza, grinders, wraps and sandwiches, Greek specialties, salads and pastas. In terms of starters, they’re quite famous for their onion rings ($6.25) — a hydra-headed pile of intertwining, delicately battered strands — which are quite popular in spite of the fact that onions tend to not agree with me. One won’t hurt, right?

Mozzarella sticks ($6.95) are served eight to an order and with a dish of house-made and tangy marinara. The uniform size and shape of the sticks makes me suspect they’re frozen, but that’s okay: there’s a brittle, crunch-happy exterior protecting thick stalks of gooey cheese. Fun fact: if you take some home, they taste really good cold — as in that “I’m walking past the ’fridge, might as well eat a Mozz stick” fashion.

Of the sandwich possibilities, one of the finest choices a human can make is Ocean’s sausage grinder ($6.25 and $8.25). They use a sweet sausage served with the links cut in angled slices. This somehow results in an intriguing structural shift in terms of the bite/tongue spangle. The roll is chewy and by adding a slice of Swiss, you’ll enter a state of complex bliss. A turkey grinder ($6.25 and $8.25) utilized actual carved breast and the shredded lettuce and tomato were new and crisp. Almost by definition, you never know a turkey grinder doesn’t work unless it’s not good — but the Ocean version is just fine.

Of the many superb pizza outposts in our region, Ocean turns out a very respectable pie. The Greek-style crust is pillowy-thick and caressed with mellow cheese and a slightly sweet tomato sauce — all serving as solid foundation given that the cooks are damned generous with toppings. My large hamburger and black olive ($12.95) creation was a melange of sensations and taste — and just as good on reheating back home as when first brought to our booth.

My wife, a vegetarian honest enough to admit she very occasionally misses certain aspects of the carnivore lifestyle, enjoys portabella mushrooms not just for their distinct woodsy flavor but also because the fungus has a steak-y texture. An entrée of ziti with portabella ($11.95) was a huge portion; the ’shrooms were thinly sliced and charred from the grill and strewn over a heap of delicately toothsome pasta and some of that nice sauce. The char mingled with the marinara to present a pleasantly smoky aura and aftertaste.

Entrees come with a large salad (fresh iceberg, tomato and cukes) and a hard roll with butter.

These components were actually brought to the table after the entrée — but the server’s apology was heartfelt, and the place was Sunday-afternoon jammed. No worries!

A fried shrimp platter ($18.95) was also far more than I could eat — and, trust me, I can inhale some shrimp. There were a dozen substantial crustaceans, finely coated and flash-fried to provide a surface yin to the wonderful yang of absolutely fresh shrimp. Accompanying fries were serviceable, and a small cup of coleslaw was tantalizingly cold and not remotely too goopy.

Bring me another glass of iced tea, then, and put it on my bill, Ocean. I’m coming back!