TL;DR - Substantial drop in food quality and service. I can't imagine myself visiting this location again, and you shouldn't imagine yourself going here either.
Pizza Luce has always been a place I could rely on for great food and service, but my most recent visit was incredibly disappointing. During my visit I got a Breggfast pizza to eat there, and Gluten Free Bruscetta to go; both were entirely disappointing.
Pizza - I got the Breggfast pizza with their Buffa-Luce sauce... well, at least that's what I ordered. What I got was a pizza crust with some ingredients on it, but no sauce. When I mentioned it to the waiter, he told me it was there. I restated that in fact, no, it was not, and showed him the pizza, and he informed me that I was incorrect and it was there, and then just walked away without another word. So apparently as far as this waiter was concerned, I'm blind and have no taste buds.
Gluten Free Bruscetta - Oh, I'm sorry, did I say Bruscetta, I meant the cheapest, most terrible gluten free hamburger buns you can find. Pizza Luce's GF Bruscetta used to be, hands down, the best around. I believe they got the bread from a local bakery and perhaps they aren't around any longer, but if you can't find a good alternative, then just don't have any. If I had to guess, they just use Schar hamburger buns, though that feels like an insult to Shar. These were terrible; they tasted like cardboard and were soggy.
Pizza Luce was always a safe bet when I was in the area, for both Pizza and gluten free items, but this visit was a joke, and an expensive one at that.
Food is always great and service is fantastic. We had vegan, vegetarian, gluten free and dairy free people in our group and the waitress knew all of the dishes and ingredients and was able to create plates that worked for everyone.
BreakfastPizzaDinnerPet FriendlyKid FriendlyOpen Late NightLunchOutdoor SeatingTake AwayVegetarian OptionsVegan OptionsBrunchDelivery
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Melissa Grant
Love love love this place! Amazingly good! The garlic cheese bread is the best ever! The pizza’s are soooo good! They did a wonderful job on the gluten free crust! The atmosphere is adorable and we had the best server ever!
My wife and I had the welcome party for our wedding here and Halina and the rest of the Number 12 crew were amazing! Halina took extra care to put together a wonderful charcuterie appetizer for us, and they did a fantastic job accommodating one of our gluten free guests. The space was perfect for mingling with everyone and there was space for the kids to play games outside. I can’t recommend this place enough for an event, or even just a delicious drink!
We have been a patron of Boludo's since they opened the counter only service on Nicollet next to NightHawk's restaurant. Pizza and service were always excellent. We have also gone to the new location on 38th - service with Oscar was always wonderful - pizza and empanadas were great. In the past couple years, we've had not so great service and food experiences at the Uptown, Dinkytown and even on 38th when Oscar was no longer at that location - the orders were often incorrect, the pizzas were sometimes burnt and the service was not what it was so we hadn't been back in nearly 2 years. Tonight we decided to try the location on S 4th Street Downtown. There were 2 problems - We arrived a little after 8pm and were told by the person taking orders that we could only order take out despite the fact that they didn't close until 9pm and it was lovely outside on the patio. We said that was fine and placed our order. After we ordered and were waiting for our food, a gentleman came in, placed an order with a different counter person at the counter and was given a number to sit on the patio. We then watched the person at the counter take 2 salads and a tray of empanadas to the gentleman and his companion on the patio to eat there at the restaurant. Next, the same counter person took two pizzas outside to the patio to another lady, who had ordered just before us. So I approached her and asked why we were told we could only order takeout. She didn't have a good answer or explanation and told us we could sit on the patio if we wanted. I asked my partner if he wanted to sit outside and he said at this point he didn't want to stay - so I told her we would just take our food to go. The second issue was with our order. We got a small order tonight - just the De La Casa Salad and the Margarita Pizza with extra sauce - which I stated to the person taking our order 2x - once when I placed the order and then checked again when we paid. When we got home, the pizza had NO SAUCE and tons of Cheese! Getting our order wrong has also happened several times before at other locations. Even when we ate regularly at 38th Street, would go into the restaurant to place our order as it was often wrong if we placed online or in person. Had to toss tonight's pizza. We also started ordering the gluten free crust about 2 1/2 years ago, right before we stopped coming the 1st time. The initial gluten free crust tasted a lot like the empanada dough and wasn't very good. We were also anxious to see if the gluten free crust had improved - it looked like it had but we couldn't eat the pizza with no sauce.
We used to eat at Boludo's at least 2x a month when it opened until a couple years ago, but the poor service, inconsistency with the food and inability to get the orders correct are not worth the time or $$ - too many other places in town.
Great pizza, even if you’re Gluten-free or dairy-free! Atmosphere is great (at Christmas it’s decorated really well!) and pizza is amazing. Our server was so great too! You can get half pies so I got half of the #11 (Persian beef, harissa) which was amazing and had a kick to it but wasn’t too spicy. Such a good middle eastern twist on a classic pizza. I also got #13 (ricotta, goat cheese, lemon, basil) which was good but not as flavorful as the other, it’s pretty subdued with the lemon and fluffy cheeses. My husband got GF crust with Vegan Cheese and pepperoni and said it was really good crust and liked the big thin pepperonis! Can’t wait to go back!
Celiac friendly
