Rebel Pizza Bar

Keeping it real, the food and service are inconsistent. When it’s good, it’s good. And then there is the not so good with slow service, soggy crust, cold meatballs and did I mention slow service? For every time we have had a prompt waitress who addresses our concerns quickly there is an unimaginably slow water, who would prefer to get your drinks to you halfway through the appetizer. This place is in a great location and has a great concept. However the inconsistency could lead to its demise.

The pizza crust was thin and crisp without being burnt. The toppings were plentiful and fresh. All in all, the food was quite tasty and enjoyable. Easily, the best part about this restaurant/​bar/​establishment is the second floor patio with bocce ball and cornhole. We had a lovely time, and we’ll be back.

Neat décor. I never thought that a restaurant would place itself at this unique location.
Some clever cocktails are on the drink menu; excellent beer selection.
Very nice server with a great attitude.
Delicious pizza. Overall: definitely will return.

I’ve been to Rebel twice — once during opening week and again this week. I chalked the first mixed bag experience up to working out the kinks of running a new restaurant. We enjoyed the thin, chewy crust and flavors of the Fowl Play pizza, but found the prosciutto and fennel leaf-​heavy herbs on the Pig & Fig off-​putting. The pricing seemed high for the product, but we were open to giving it another shot, especially since our service was friendly and the overall vibe with grafitti-​festooned walls and a non-​douchey rooftop bar felt refreshing.
Fast forward a few months and we’re back. Rainy day, empty restaurant, nice enough server, terrible food. We tried the fried artichokes, which were hard to choke down with an uneven, not-​so-​crispy texture that felt like we were swallowing thistle in every other bite. The not knots were fine (imagine fancified Totino’s pizza rolls), but not worth the $ 10 price tag. The pizza was a mess. We opted for the Athena, which sounded great on paper. Despite a bazillion ingredients (pesto, homemade ricotta, feta, red onion, spinach, artichokes, kalamata olives, sun-​dried tomatoes), it was weirdly lacking in flavor and so cheeseless that none of the ingredients stayed on the slice. It was difficult to get an artichoke, tomato, or olive (all cold) to your mouth because they were sitting precariously atop the pizza as if they threw them on as an afterthought. The kicker was that I nearly broke my tooth after biting into unpitted kalamatas… TWICE!
I used to think that there was no such thing as bad pizza. I stand corrected. I recommend making a beeline to one of the many outfits in town that make a far superior pie.

After my first review, the owner of Rebel, Frank, reached out regarding our experience. They offered us a pizza on the house and said to call back whenever we wanted to swing by again, I wholeheartedly appreciate his concern and quick effort to offer a solution to his customers. The other night I was craving delicious doughy goodness and decided to give him a call, Frank was very friendly over the phone and even followed up with me to see how the second time around went.
This visit they actually opened the pizza box in front of me (I guess this is something they’re supposed to do) and made sure everything looked good. We opted for the ‘Get Up Stand Up’ with marinara, spicy sausage, mushroom, house ricotta, jalapeño, and buffalo mozzarella.
Oh, man it looked really good! I really hate to say this after the owner’s efforts and genuine concern, but the pizza was simply alright. I’m sorry, Rebel, I really am. For all the delicious sounding toppings and great presentation, it was very plain tasting. So 5 stars because of customer service, but I gotta deduct one because I feel like there’s a lot of work to do before they can dominate the pizza world. It was fine, nothing terrible about it, simply… plain.

Disappointing first experience. We ordered the Get Up Stand Up through Amazon Prime and they left off the mushrooms and house ricotta. Pizza was only okay, may have been better had the two toppings not been forgotten. Pizza knots were also tiny and a bit dry. On a happier note, we did also try the sweet potato fries– great, especially the aioli; the Rizzo salad was good too but small.
Not sure if we’ll try again. Don’t want to waste money on another incomplete pizza.

So, pleasant little surprise here. It’s a word-​of-​mouth kind of place unless you have the terrible luck/​judgment of living on West Anderson and frequenting places upstairs from a chain mattress store. But Rebel does a lot of things well, even if it does not do them especially cheaply. The location itself – a minus on paper – turns out to be a cool upstairs view, with a heated porch (sadly, nearest heater was broken) as an option (although the things to view in Outer Stripmallia could probably be improved).
Food is uniformly good. Did a veggie pie for the missus and I and a meatilicious version for friends, the barbecue and buffalo wings, and some of those dough-​knots that are all the rage these days with a spicy and tasty marinara. All the food is a cut above average, and there’s a small-​but-​focused selection of craft brews to wash it down. Sadly, the prices are a cut above average as well, and I could have done with everything being a buck or two cheaper. But unlike, say, the god-​awful Goodnight down the street, the mildly inflated prices are rewarded here when you leave happy with the food, atmosphere, and total experience.
Our service was solid, with a delay or two addressed and explained, so no complaints there. The look of the place is going for something I might call «graffiti chic» if I was good at explaining interiors, which I clearly am not. Even the music, which bizarrely fluctuated between pop-​singer Christmas and nineties rock, added to the quirky charm. Despite various reservations, though, this isn’t just a place that I’d return to, but one that I’d look forward to returning to. Rebel’s got an oddly likable kind of novelty going on that puts it a star or so above Salvation Pizza and The Parlor, some of my other repeat options. It’s a win.

I’ve written about Rebel in an article. I’ve suggested it to friends that live up north. But I’d never been there until last week. For me, Rebel is kind of like a guy that looks good on paper. The theory of it is better (IMHO) than the execution.
They do have a delicious looking menu, several pizzas, salads, appetizers. They do have a bocce ball court and a cool rooftop. They do have awesome graffiti everywhere, a solid local beer selection and indoor and outdoor seating. They focus on using local ingredients and they have wifi. These are all things that drew me there and are right on the money for this city.
My actual experience here was less than the sum of its purported parts. Our server was nice but very forgetful, making the experience jerky and disjointed. My pizza was fine but not $ 15 good. A small meat pizza that didn’t inspire any kind of exclamation (the contender.) The on-​the-​house pickled items would be a nice touch but were so vinegar-​y as to be inedible. Their wine list definitely needs a look. And I was sitting on the rooftop with nary a heater in sight.
The bocce court is a cool idea but I found that it was packed with kids shrieking wildly. Their parents are hollering from their seats: «Maddy-​lynn and Oliver! Come eat this pizza! Don’t hit your brother! We’re going to leave if you don’t behave!» It’s like being at the ball pit at ChuckECheese instead of this cool urbane rooftop court with a martini in hand.
It’s fine — some of that they can fix and some of it they can’t. I think they could drop the price a couple of dollars, get some heaters, do some training, re-​do the wine list. They can’t do much about the kids but maybe there’s a warning that comes with sitting outside if you look like a childless adult. A fine addition to the neighborhood that has the potential to be a great one, given some adjustments. I’ll definitely come back and try their happy hour and see if I have a different experience.

Good for the neighborhood. My parents live in the far west neighborhood so I can see this becoming the new neighborhood hangout over there.
I wouldn’t suggest for friends to go out of the way to come here though. There’s pizza places opening up left and right so I’m interested to see how they hold up. Pizza was decent, we all said not the best and not the worst. My big complaint was that the pizza tastes oily.
The best part of this restaurant was the atmosphere. We couldn’t stop looking around, the graffiti artist for this place is super talented! Nice vibe too with it being rooftop.

Went to Rebel Pizza Saturday afternoon for a party. The place is upstairs, attached to Suzi’s remodelled restaurant. It is modern, with an edgy urban feel with graffiti walls. The place was comfortable and cozy, with nice lighting. We sat inside, but the patio looked nice.
We arrived late, so the waiter promptly came over and helped me pick pizza. I didn’t even look at the menu. The food and drinks arrived promptly. The artisan pizza had fresh and tasty ingredients, and a nice crispy crust. We tried the subtly root beer flavoured cotton candy, which is nice.
I loved the service ambiance and food. Glad to see Austin getting another restaurant offering a fun dining experience. I have already told friends about the place. I recommend going during happy hour for the best deal on pizza and drinks.

I’m calling it– this place deserves all 5 stars. Yes, it’s a bold move. But there’s solid reasoning behind it.
1) The ambience. It’s cool, it’s modern, and it’s also comfortable. Graffiti adorned walls, modern light fixtures, and artificial turf on the upstairs patio overlooking the road. That’s a bold move.
2) The food: very nicely crafted pizzas. Yes, i agree that you can make a pizza with the same toppings at one of those pieology places, but I seriously doubt the quality of ingredients at those other places. The cheese is good, the herbs are fresh (it’s literally growing in a planter box on the patio) and the sauce is Gooood. I tried the Athena, and loved every single bite. The sun dried tomato knots are great, too. My favorite part was the variety of house made pickles, some of which taste phenomenal on pizza.
3) service: it’s slow, but the staff are very accommodating.
There’s not a huge beer list– just the usual Austin staples, and there are some cocktails. They’re overpriced IMHO, although this may be the cheapskate in me talking.
There’s a bocce ball court on the patio, which I’m sure generates a long wait line. Tip: Sunday afternoons are quiet, you can have the patio almost to yourself.
Bottom line: awesome pizza, great atmosphere, a little pricey, and completely worth it.

Stopped into Rebel Pizza on a Sunday night while in north/​ish Austin after visiting the Chinatown near north Lamar (I’ll save that part of the story for another review). After reading all of the reviews on Unilocal I was excited to try this place. When you walk in, you go directly upstairs. The décor was neat and had graffiti spattered all over the walls. I guess it went with the «rebel» theme. We opted to sit inside since it looked a little crowded and warm outside. The restaurant wasn’t packed, but there were certainly more people sitting outside than in.
To start, we had the sun-​dried tomato not knots. They were just ok, but I appreciate what they were trying to do there. Rebellious of them to do something besides regular garlic knots. Ha Get it? Meh nevermind. After waiting again for our server to stop by our table for quite some time, Boyfriend and I ordered a 14″ Queenie pizza to split. It’s basically a Margherita pizza. The crust was somewhat burned. I wanted to try the cotton candy for dessert, but we’d been waiting around so long, it was just nice to get the check.
Maybe it was just an off night. I’d go back and try it again if in the area.

What a fun new pizza joint! The restaurant is situated on top of the newly remodeled Suzi’s. The walls are sprawled with graffiti art from various artists. The long bar is front and center of the restaurant and has a few TVs showing the games. They pour some local taps and some fun themed cocktails. The outside rooftop patio equipped with a bocce ball court.
We dined in and caught the tail end of happy hour. I ordered one each of the three Not Knots and Jesse ordered the 10″ Contender pizza. The Not Knots are small, folded in like wontons and come with a side of warm marinara. The Not Knots are your choice of 3, 6 or 9 and come in flavors of buffalo mozzarella with sun-​dried tomato, pepperoni & buffalo mozzarella
and spicy sausage with Rebel marinara. All three were delicious and are the perfect size for a light snack. The pizza was decent and I especially like the crust which we dipped in the extra marinara sauce from the Not Knots.
Their happy hour is exceptional:
$ 5 wines (all wines by the glass)
$ 5 Rebel Ritas
$ 1 off pints
$ 5 calls
$ 2 off apps
½ off 10″ pizzas

First and foremost, the pizza here is really good. I am super excited to have decent pizza in driving distance from my house. Other awesome pizza places are just a little too far and this is perfect! We ordered the Contender and the toppings were a perfect mix with the sauce and crust. It was crispy, deliciousness!
And don’t get me started on how good the Misfits, tiny pumpkin donut holes, were. Paired with their daily ice cream (amaretto peach) it was a perfect finish to the meal.
The salad we ordered could’ve been better. The dressing seemed watered down and lacking flavor, crucial when you are eating a Caesar. I also felt the cocktails were overpriced for what they were. If I’m paying $ 11-​$ 13 for a cocktail, it should be much more than what their mixing. Not bad drinks, don’t get me wrong, but just not quite that price level.
So, many of you may be like «Why 4 stars April!?» and it’s because this place is still getting it’s legs. It’s new enough that I wasn’t shocked when our salad came out late and at the same time as our pizza instead of before when we wanted it. The staff was quick to recognize issues and compensated us for it. THIS is customer service done right. Yes, there were issues but they were obviously aware and working on it and that’s all you can ask!
The space is super cute. Inside is windows everywhere for a nice view of the area. The patio space is where it’s at, though. I can see this being a popular spot with other folks in the nearby neighborhoods. Definitely worth a visit!

We went to check out Rebel Pizza Bar on a Saturday nigth during football season, hoping to catch some of the games on TV while we were there. Despite the crowds, we were seated promptly and they even complied with our request to turn on a specific football game.
For 2 people, we shared an order of the not knots and a medium pizza, with plenty of leftovers to take home. The service was prompt, the food was good, and overall we were pleased.
We will be back again to our new neighborhood pizza bar! Only removing one star because we tried to go on Friday for lunch and it turns out they aren’t open, seems like a missed opportunity.

Very fun place. I appreciate the imperfect theme with decorations and such. Walking in, the walls are spraypainted and funky. I love good graffiti art (not just some random words in poor writing). For those of you with physical impairments, you’re in luck! Though Rebel is on the 2^nd floor, there’s an elevator! The main floor is nice and open and leads out to a 2^nd story patio with a large covered area, turf grass, bocce ball set-​up, and cornhole. Landscapers did a great job selecting plants— it’ll be even more beautiful up there when everything’s established and blooming. The patio is surprisingly pleasant. Though Rebel is right off MoPac and Anderson, you can’t hardly hear street noise and the patio wall is tall enough that you almost forget what an ugly, strip-​mall riden area it is.
The pizzas are just fine for me: D Love the fun topping combinations. They do a fun spin on garlic knots that Rebel calls «Not Knots.» There are three options of stuffed dough rolls. We tried the spicy sausage and really enjoyed them (this comes from 2 people who don’t care for sausage).
Salad: Rizzio salad was nice. Rebel, put less salad dressing on or serve it on the side. The salad probably would have been phenomenal had it not be completely soaked in dressing. That arugula never had a chance— it was a big ball of stuck-​together-​greens with all that dressing. Still, very fun salad combinations. I’ll definitely get the salads again but with dressing on the side.
Pizza: The Goldeneye was not what I expected but quite tasty. Think shoestring potatos fried and used as a pizza topping along with sausage and a fried egg in the middle. Quite nice, really. The Pig and Fig was nice as was the Atomic. I’m a bit of a pizza snob. I feel like the Pig and Atomic were missing something to pull it all together. Overall, really good pizza. We WAY over ordered. 10″ pizzas sounded so small so we ordered 3 to share between the 2 of us. We easily could get 1 pizza 1 appetizer for a no-​leftovers meal or 2 pizza for a little wiggle room.
Cocktails: Alter Ego with 512 Pecan Porter, Absolut Vanilla, amaretto, and candied pecans was great! Sounded like it could go either way and it swung the direction of a strong win. It’s a good bang-​for-​your-​buck drink with a full beer and a shot of vodka. They line the rim of the glass something (cinnamon?). The candied nuts are few, which I liked because floating chunks in a drink is bit new for me. The Bourbon Slush was just fine— being described as a take on a Slurpee, I really thought it’d be Slurpee consistancy. Instead, the drink has crushed ice to give you the Slurpee feel. Rebel has a nice happy hour, however, only the Rebel-​Rita (frozen marg with 3 flavor options) is discounted.
Service: Shaun (Shawn? Sean?) our waiter was great. Friendly, prompt, helpful. The hostess could use a bit of training (couldn’t hear her either time we interacted and had no idea what she was there to do for us). The managing partners are very involved. Two of them checked on us throughout our dinner— they’re working hard during their initial weeks to keep a presence and interact with customers. I really like that. And the bartenders, also awesome. Many of the staff greeted us, introduced themselves, asked if we could be helped, and did something to make our experience as pleasant as possible.
I’ll be back!

We stopped by Rebel pizza bar on opening week for dinner. I really liked the warehouse-​like, urban feel. It was different feeling than other things in the neighborhood, which was cool. They have a roof deck overlooking Anderson that has tables and bocce ball courts which were a nice addition for a few families and singles that were there for dinner.
THE GOOD?
The pizza was delicious. The crust was tasty and the choices of pies were nice. You can also make your own.
The drinks. .. yes they have a full bar, are good. The bar is in the center of the room which lends itself for happy hour drinks and whatnot.
The atmosphere? Cool and urban.
WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT?
Our appetizer came out after our pizza did. Whoops. Our waiter said he would take it off, which was a nice gesture, but it never happened.
Also, the service was a little off. I’m forgiving of this during the first week because it is «opening week» but they need to get it together in the future, quick-​style. Our waiter never offered us drink refills so we eventually got up and got our own from the soda/​tea station. Maybe we’re supposed to do this? I don’t know. If that’s the case they should let people know what to expect.
All in all, I’m glad Rebel Pizza Bar is in the neighborhood and I’ll definitely give it another go because the pizza is worth it.

They were out of gluten free pizza, so I had to be flexible and try something else. Surprisingly, they let me know their calamari utilizes a potato based breading, and is gluten free. Or, I could try their meatballs which are also gluten free. Both of which would pair well with a salad. So I ventured out and tried the calamari and salad. I was surprised by how tasty the calamari was. It is served with this amazing spicy marinara sauce. The calamari is fresh, not frozen. It wasn’t chewy or tough. The potato breading is light and has an excellent texture. The salad was also delicious, fresh, just a tad too much dressing. I will ask for that on the side next time. The service was incredible.
BTW– The pumpkin beignets are served warm and are yummy morsels of deliciousness. They were worth using my once in awhile wheat cheat card to sample.
They now have a corn hole game set! Which is a bonus, as the bocce ball is a bit hard to play as the turf used for the court is too smooth and the balls fly way to fast.

So happy there’s a new pizza place/​bar in this area! And it’s dangerously close to my workplace. I can already see the after work drink bills piling up!
My group of 10 arrived here on opening night and this place looks great. Awesome graffiti art on the walls, a large bar in the middle of the room, TVs placed around the walls, and my personal favorite — outdoor patio seating. Now the patio has a large bocce ball court on AstroTurf taking up most of the patio so seating will probably be limited on busy days but I was still impressed. Maybe they’ll add some couches along the walls in the future.
As for the food, there were no complaints at my table about the pizza. I had the Contender which is basically a meat lovers dream. The crust was crispy just how I like it. There was a nice selection of appetizers and desserts (there’s Amy’s ice cream Mexican vanilla here!). My table loved the buffalo mozzarella knots. I had a ginger cotton candy treat which I shared with everyone. Not too bad. Everyone was happy with their drinks. I loved my strawberry margarita.
The staff was amazing and we were introduced to the manager who was very inviting. I can’t wait to go back and see how this place grows!

First off, rooftop seating is always a plus. Tonight was the grand opening and everything from the service to the food was amazing! I ordered the fowl play pizza. Deeeelicious! Anything with Basil Pesto takes it to the next level. I really liked the Graffiti art on the wall as you make your way up to the rooftop. Very unique! Our waiter was on point. He took really good care of our party of 10.
The atmosphere in general is very casual. The drinks were great. The owner came by and asked how everything was. I appreciate that. It shows that she cares enough. Now, to top that all off they have bocce ball. I personally have never played but it is nice to have the option. Our server was explainig how it works. Simply incredible. Everything about my experience at this place was phenomenal. I will be back very soon! Cant wait to try different menu items. Enjoy :)