Kay’s Italian Restaurant in Daleville: A Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Pretzel Pizza I Won’t Soon Forget 🥨🍕

I walked in, ordered, paid the bill, and reviewed the pizza like every other customer. No heads-up. No comps.

Countless NEPA Pizza Review followers have told me to get back to Kay’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria in Daleville and try their famous Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Pretzel Pizza. I finally listened, and you were absolutely right. This is one of the most memorable pizzas I’ve eaten in years.

Kay’s has a loyal local following, and its creative double crust stuffed pretzel pizzas have been generating plenty of excitement online. They come in several varieties, including Cheesesteak, Ham & Cheese, and Buffalo Chicken. I went with the Buffalo Chicken, and even with high expectations, I wasn’t prepared for how impressive it would be.

Atmosphere

The people at Kay’s are insanely friendly, and the service is unbelievable. The building is historic and has a ton of charm, and you can tell patrons come for the atmosphere as much as the food. A lot of them settle in and stay a while.

The Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Pretzel Pizza

The Pretzel Crust 🥨

This was the biggest surprise. Specialty crusts can sometimes feel like a gimmick, but Kay’s delivered an authentic pretzel experience. The thinly pressed pretzel dough had the unmistakable aroma, flavor, and character of a real pretzel, right down to the pretzel salt on top. This wasn’t pizza dough pretending to be a pretzel.

The Cheese 🧀

Between the two layers of pretzel crust was a wonderfully gooey, creamy cheese blend that I suspect included American cheese. It brought richness and tied everything together.

The Buffalo Chicken 🐔

Instead of big chunks, Kay’s prepares the chicken almost like a chicken cheesesteak, finely chopped on the griddle. That was an excellent choice. It made the filling consistent, spread the chicken evenly through the whole pizza, and made every slice easy to eat.

The Buffalo Sauce 🔥

The hot wing sauce had that familiar, classic Buffalo flavor and just the right consistency. It held its body through the bake instead of breaking down or turning watery, and it played beautifully off the creamy cheese, savory chicken, and salty pretzel crust.

Pizzaiolo’s Notes 🍕

• The real story is the execution. Combining a stuffed pizza with authentic pretzel dough is creative, but making every part work together is the hard part, and Kay’s nails it.
• Cheesesteak-style chopped chicken is the right move for a stuffed pizza. You get chicken in every bite, and the slices hold together.
• A Buffalo sauce that keeps its body in the oven keeps the filling from getting soggy.

What I’d Order Next Time

• The New York-style pizza again, to see that deep golden-brown bake for myself
• The Cheesesteak Stuffed Pretzel Pizza, which seems to be even more popular than the Buffalo Chicken
• The chicken parmesan entrée that everyone is talking about
• The world-famous cinnamon rolls

My First Visit, Back in 2013

My first trip to Kay’s was for my birthday back in 2013. When the First Lady of NEPA Pizza asked what I wanted to do, she already knew the answer: go out for pizza somewhere new. Readers kept suggesting the spot in Daleville/Moscow, so that’s where we went.

The building is a local landmark, with old signs and artifacts on the walls that keep its history alive. The dessert case grabbed us the second we walked in: cannoli, gigantic eclairs, cakes, brownies, and more. The dining room is family friendly and down-home comfortable, and everyone was so happy and friendly that it made for a great place to eat. While we waited, we were treated to a pepperoncini and chickpea salad and watched generous Italian entrées land in front of smiling diners.

Kay’s offers plenty of styles, including crunchy crust, deep dish, Old Forge, and gluten-free. I went with a regular 16-inch New York-style pizza. That night it was baked on the lighter side, soft and very foldable, with an oregano-forward sauce and a salty, stretchy cheese blend that was the highlight for me.

The New York-style pizzas I’ve seen at Kay’s in person, and again and again on their Facebook page, look nothing like that one now. Today they bake to a deep golden brown and look like a premium New York-style pizza.

Final Thoughts

This was one of the most creative, well-executed, and ridiculously delicious specialty pizzas I’ve tried in a long time. Every component had a purpose, and every ingredient complemented the others. Add the courteous service, generous Italian dinners, that dessert case, and real Daleville history, and Kay’s has earned every one of those reader recommendations.

My Takeaways

• 🥨 An authentic pretzel crust, right down to the pretzel salt
• 🧀 A gooey, creamy cheese blend tying it all together
• 🐔 Cheesesteak-style chopped chicken in every bite
• 🔥 A classic Buffalo sauce that holds up in the oven
• 🍕 A New York-style pizza that has clearly stepped up since 2013
• 🤝 Insanely friendly people, unbelievable service, and a historic building full of charm

To everyone who told me to visit Kay’s: thank you. Have you tried one of their stuffed pretzel pizzas? Tell me which variety is your favorite in the comments.

Pizza is Similar to:

• Mendicino’s Pizzeria in Covington Township
• Pompei’s Pizza in Tunkhannock
• Antonio’s Pizza in Scranton

Rating Table

Technical Scorecard

Pizza Ordered: Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Pretzel Pizza

Style: Double Crust Stuffed Pretzel

Visit: October 2026

Pizza Ordered: Large 16″ New York-Style Pizza

Style: NY-Style Round

Visit: September 2013

The story behind the scores: the 8.3 for Taste is the high mark, and it goes to how well every component worked together: salty pretzel, creamy cheese, chopped chicken, and classic Buffalo sauce. The authentic pretzel dough earned an 8.1 for Crust, the biggest surprise of the visit. The gooey, creamy blend landed a 7.9 for Cheese, and the Buffalo sauce that kept its body through the bake scored a 7.7. It all adds up to a 7.9 Overall, a step up from the 7.5 New York-style pizza I reviewed back in 2013. I stand by my gut ranking of what I enjoyed most in the moment, and I stand by the technical scores I locked in 24 hours later.

Kay’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria
894 Drinker Turnpike (Route 435), Daleville, PA 18444
Lackawanna County
Italian restaurant · Dessert case · Stuffed pretzel pizzas · NY-style, crunchy crust, deep dish, Old Forge, and gluten-free pizza

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