By John Devereaux
WABC Liaison

On the town line of Chelmsford and Westford, Massachusetts lies a small pizza place called The Willows. Located on 78 Brookside road, this pizza joint is a typical small New England style restaurant.

The Willow’s is open every day of the week, Mondays to Wednesdays from 11-9, Thurdays from 11-9:30, Friday to Saturday from 11-10, and Sunday 10-9. You can reach this restaurant through phone (978-692-7080). You can also look at their menu online; however, they don’t show prices and specials of the week or day.

This conventional restaurant might be small but shows its superiority with its food. During the warm weather, they open up a small little porch to expand their shop. Having both indoor and outdoor scenery gives the buyer a good choice. When entering the restaurant, you are greeted by an employee and occasionally, a manager. Since the register is right where you walk in, you can quickly order or pick up your food without awkwardly walking across the whole restaurant.

Parking isn’t a problem for this restaurant as they have a large lot that can fit a dozen or more cars at a time. The Delivery service at this restaurant has its limits. They don’t deliver all across Westford, but do however go as far as the outskirts of Tygnsboro, MA, and west and north Chelmsford. The delivery service is well rounded as they are both on time and nice. The service at the Willows isn’t like a typical restaurant. They don’t just serve with a smile and be polite, they make conversation if necessary unless unwanted. The workers aren’t disrespectful and try to meet the needs of the customer.

The timetable of receiving your food is relatively quick. This business doesn’t mess around when it comes to getting the order correct and dished out as fast as possible. The wait time for this restaurant will surprise you as they’ll try to get your meal done as soon as possible. Even on their busiest days, the time doesn’t get slurred and the food quality still stays the same.

Starting with the pizzas, the Willows use a greek style of pizza and bake them in a conventional oven. The dough is hand made, along with the sauce. The crust is flakey, and crunchy and compliments the pizza. The pizza isn’t pounded with toppings, but isn’t lacking any either. Each bite has a mouth full of flavor.

With a great selection of subs, this restaurant doesn’t disappoint. A commonly loved sub is the steak and cheese, which I tried was delicious. It had the perfect blend of steak and cheese, and neither overpowered the other. There was a wide variety of toppings to add such as salt and pepper, onions or mushroom, etc.

Pizza and subs aren’t the only thing that the Willows excel in. Their seafood is known to be good. The clam chowder at this restaurant is a typical New England style of chowder which is creamy and tasteful. Seafood dinners are very popular at this restaurant and are constantly ordered. The haddock dinner is one the top sellers when it comes to the seafood. The fish can either be fried or baked, and are served with two sides. The fried haddock is crispy and flakey, and is very filling.

The Willows serve the usual sides such like French Fries, onion rings, Jalapeño Poppers, wings, chicken fingers and more. This restaurant excels with their sides. Their fries are crispy and filling, and the Onion Rings are tasteful and flakey. The Chicken Fingers and Wings don’t disappoint either. The wings are small but packed with meat, and is served with large amounts. The fingers are seasoned in homemade seasonings and later fried. The Fingers are served fresh and crispy and doesn’t disappoint the tastebuds.

My favorite dish from this restaurant is the Buffalo Chicken Finger Dinner. This meal is served with a side of fries and coleslaw. The buffalo sauce is spicy, but doesn’t overpower the taste of the crispy chicken. Not only does this meal taste wonderful, it’s cost effective and you get more for your dollar.