Joe Squared Pizza

Excellent food. The pizzas are unique. Great craft beer menu. Friendly staff. Try the flag pizza, or the Archer. Amazing. My wife and i have tried pizza all over the US and Europe. This place rates in the top 5%.

Pizza is so yummy! I am a pizza lover and cant wait to go back!

They have a new location and it seems it has not been updated on Unilocal; it’s 33 W. North Avenue. I ordered take out and I ordered the Bacon and Clam Pizza along with the Capicola Risotto. Delicious! The new space is much better and has much more natural night; it doesn’t feel like a cave. The service was speedy as it was take out and around 10pm on a Tuesday.
I plan on dining in at some point, but I highly recommend based on what I experienced so far at both locations.

I liked the old place but I’m a huge fan of the new location! Same pizza and beer, but a much cozier atmosphere. A wide variety of menu items, not just pizza. Definitely recommended for out of towners.

We saw Joe Squared on triple D and had to try the pizza. We were not disappointed. Fresh ingredients, flavorful, crisp dough and plenty of menu flexibility to get any of your favorite ingredients on your pizza. Really liked that you can chose two signature square pizza selections in one pizza. So sharing on a date is ideal. Staff is friendly. We will be back.

I love this place, but since their North Ave location closed, I have been searching high and low for their new location… THeir website is sorely out of date, and I hope they read this review and update their schtuff, and get the new location open.

I’m very sad that the North Avenue location closed because my boyfriend and I went to the location at Power Plant and had the worst service we ever experienced.
We love Joe squared and knew exactly what we wanted to order but it was like pulling teeth trying to get one of the seven waiters that were behind the bar. Our waitress that finally came over forgot to put in our orders of risotto. After waiting for them for 30 mins she made another waitress come over to us and tell us! Very unprofessional. Such a shame because we love the food. But I am never going here again.

I love this place. Not a pizza I have had was not tastey!
The BBQ Chix pizza is very good. I think better than CPK (Cali Pizza Kit). Most recently had the pineapple Thai wings and they were a good size wing and not over sauced.
A favorite place for me!

We’ve been coming here for years and wanted to have lunch one last time in the original location. The coal-​fired oven pizza is truly the best — no other pizza can even compare. The fried ravioli are amazing. Sandwiches are also tops. The only thing that we’ve ever had that was not truly memorable was the risotto, but even that is better than most. Service is hit or miss, but who cares with food this delicious? The staff is always friendly, even if service is a little off. Good luck with the move to the new place!

Hawaiian pizza. Hot wings. Sriracha honey wings. Minestrone soup. Ricotta, spinach, almond potato skins. Yum! Done.

If it’s «hip to be square», maybe I’m just not hip enough for this overrated place. The atmosphere is ok for a pizza pub and the servers are efficient and pleasant. But the food! Ugh!
I had a Greek Salad with wilty greens, peppers and olives that clearly came right out of the can, all drowned in a no-​taste oily «dressing». The pizza crust was exactly like when you buy Lavash at the grocery store and make a sort-​of pizza at home. Soft, chewy and tasteless. No crunch, no wood flavor, no nothin’! Toppings were hard to judge, as they were obliterated by massize gobs of cheese. Oh, and the beer was kind of flat and warm. And the bill for 2 was $ 50. What a waste.

Joe Squared Pizza boasts that it is named Best Pizza in Baltimore and it is in a great location with both indoor and outdoor seating. We opted to sit indoors, which was kind of dark in a bar-​like setting.
One of my friends chose the build your own pizza option and had pepperoni, spinach and crab meat, which may sound like a weird combination but it actually worked really well together. As the restaurant name implies, the pizza comes out in a square shape and is thin, with fluffy crust. There was plenty of cheese, as well as all the toppings… The pepperoni was juicy and full of flavor and the crab was fresh, not fishy tasting at all. It was delicious!
I ordered the Lamb cheese sandwich, which consisted of roasted lamb, mint, caramelized onion, roasted pepper, asiago, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. The sandwich also came with a lovely large salad which had lettuce, tomato, red onion. However, the sauce was horseradish and too spicy for me and I didn’t know which sauce they were planning to use so it would have been nice if I was given the option to choose what dressing I wanted. The sandwich itself was pretty good, but the meat didn’t really taste like lamb to me. I was able to taste the cheese and veggies well though.
Our server was pretty good, but he left part way through our meal and the subsequent female server was not quite as nice.

Popped by here for a quick lunch and was impressed. I’ve been a bit hesitant to try their pizza based on the mixed reviews but I took a chance and was pleasantly surprised!
While I only had a pizza (make your own) it was tasty and came out quickly. They offer more size options than most places (10″ 12″ 14″ and 16″) and they actually tell you approximately how many people each pizza feeds. They also have an impressive selection of toppings that are hard to come by elsewhere. Brie and boursin are even cheese options! Nice touch! Had it been dinnertime I would have tried one of their many signature pizzas which seem a bit heavier. I wasn’t quite in the mood to be rolled out of there after lunch! The prices may be on the steep side but I think you get what you pay for. I also love that they have late night pizza. Glad I finally tried this place out and hope to come back soon.

Bottom Line: Delicious food served in an artsy space with some «charm.»
I bookmarked Joe Squared on Unilocal many moons ago while still living in San Diego. Although not artsy myself, I appreciate the charm of the Mount Royal neighborhood and was excited to give Joe Squared a try after moving back to the East Coast. I went here as part of my Sunday Funday so I did not experience the live music scene but I did experience free, close by street parking, delicious pizza, a quiet restaurant and welcoming service. As a thirty something, those are all things I really appreciate.
As for our meal, we got a few local draft beers, a salad and a signature pizza. I agree with another reviewed that draft list would have been awesome because I usually like to study beer lists and choose wisely. The Caesar salad here was awesome and not just an ordinary Caesar salad. The dressing, which of course is the key to a good Caesar salad, had the perfect amount of seasoning and anchovies. Not too strong, just right. As a place that has been featured on Food Network, I figured Joe Squared is much better at inventing pizza combinations than I am so we went for a signature pie — the Chicken and Balsamic. The combination of a balanced garlic cream sauce, roasted chicken, caramelized onions, fresh mozzarella and herbs and a thick balsamic dressing made for a light and easy to eat pizza. I’d definitely order it again or go even more adventurous with one of their other gourmet selections.
As another Unilocaler noted, the ambiance of Joe Squared is a bit tired and grungy but perhaps without this «charm» they would not have been featured on Diners Drive-​Ins and Dives. I know for some the dive atmosphere adds character and I generally agree except that I could have gone without the «character» in the bathroom. (For $ 20 at Home Depot you could have a toilet that flushes without sticking you hand inside the tank…) Unfortunately I went from gourmet pizza to grungy bathroom in no time and that had me wondering what the kitchen looks like. I think on my next trip to Joe Squared I’ll check out the Inner Harbor location.
(As Seen on TV: Food Network’s «Diners, Drive-​Ins and Dives» Outside the Box and Best of Pizza episodes.)

One of the non trashy parts of Baltimore. I would call this place a hipster bar, but still good. Decent beer selection, pretty good service, and great food. I had the lamb cheese sandwich and it tasted like a true Philly cheesesteak but with lamb. The other downside is this place encourages people to use the bathroom of the opposite sex. Now I get to expose my penis to women and not get in trouble for it because I named my penis Daisy and call it a vagina.

Not good. I would not come here for pizza or wings
We ordered the margherita, which is tomato, basil, and buffalo mozzarella. Of those, the cheese was the only thing that tasted good. The tomatoes tasted of the tin cans they came out of, and while I have no problem with canned tomatoes (they’re usually better than their fresh counterparts), I don’t like to be reminded of metal on my tongue.
Now let’s talk crust, because the crust here was no bueno. Thin crust pizza is good, but this was like passover matzoh, all charred with a cardboard-​like flavor. Thin crust is supposed to be a bit of chew under the toppings, just a tad, giving way to a nice, crisp bite. What’s more, the texture of the crust is that of matzoh, largely because of the odd, chainlink trays the pizzas seemed to be baked on.
A quick note: Joe claims to use a coal-​burning oven, which I was worried would give the pizza an off-​putting, industrial flavor. That was not my experience.
Finally, the wings. They tasted like chicken parts dumped in a deep frier, no sauce or flavor of any kind. They were bland and boring, served with what most have been the most high fructose-​laden bleu cheese dressing this side of the Mississippi.
So in short, I will not be back at Joe’s. I recommend you avoid it.

I heard a lot of good things about this place prior to checking it out.
Average performance under pressure.
There was a jazz band playing the night I went, so that certainly helped things out. The pizza and wings were good, but nothing to write home about. It’s a good little spot for groups, college kids, late night eats, but I won’t be rushing back anytime soon.
I’m a pizza lover and just wasn’t blown away.

Good beer selection, friendly helpful staff got us off to a great start!
We got the bacon risotto and the flag pizza. The risotto was really cheesy and the apple was a nice touch. That said, I probably wouldn’t get it again. It was more like a mac & cheese than it was like a risotto. The flag pizza is split in thirds: (1) crushed tomato with mozzarella, provolone, romano, parmigiano and asiago; (2) roasted garlic cream with mozzarella, cheddar and ricotta; (3) pesto sauce with fresh mozzarella. It was really very good!
I’d go back again in a heartbeat next time I’m in Bmore.

So we were in Town for a Halloween Unilocal!Event and we decided that it was about time to check out Joe’s; see what all of the hype was about. My friend was super excited about going because he is a huge pizza fan and had heard a lot of good things about this place. Me on the other hand I was a little leary. Why you may ask? Well see I’m a Unilocal Elite and I depend heavily on my Unilocal family to give honest opinions and from what I was reading the reviews were pretty mixed. I told him but he still wanted to go and I agree that at times you just have to find things out for yourself. So after our wonderful drunken fun on the Urban Pirate ship I wobbled (literally) with him over to Joe’s. Now let me just put this disclaimer out there that I was TOASTED (had a hella good time with my Unilocal family)! LOL He was nowhere near the level of intoxication I was at.
Ok so we *cough* excuse me I mean «I» wobbled beside him as we made our way over to Joe’s. There was a Halloween Beer Pub Crawl going on so it was crazy crowded and apparently we had to pay $ 20 to enter the area where Joe’s is located. He wasn’t too happy about that but he wanted his pizza so bad he paid. I slightly remember him trying to reason with the guy about the admission saying to him that it was really late, pub crawl was ending, we weren’t there to drink, we just wanted pizza but nope the guy was stern and basically said «pay or no go». We paid and we went.
Walked literally 20 steps (if that) to Joes. It was almost empty. Bar had a few people. We headed to the bar and the first thing out of the bartender’s mouth was «we about to close so you can’t order any food because the kitchen is about to close but you can order a drink» WHAT THE WHAT!?! WAIT??? Did I really just pay damn $ 20 to come over here and you tell me this B.S.?! I don’t want anything to drink I just want FOOD! My friend was HIGHLY disturbed and made it known as politely as he could.
He expressed to the bartender how he has been waiting MONTHS to come to this place. We just paid $ 20 just to walk 20 steps over here. I get here and you are telling me I can’t order pizza…
The bartender caved in and said ok I will put in a to go order for a pizza. I can’t recall exactly all of the toppings he got on his pizza but I can guarantee you that it had all of the meat you could think of on it because he is an «all meat» pizza eating kinda guy. So having said that he got the Meat Lovers pizza.
The pizza arrived shortly thereafter and from the looks of it… square and dry I didn’t want to tell him that I think you are going to be disappointed with your pizza. Especially after he waited so long drooling over it and went through so much to get it… ugh I felt bad for him but remained optimistic and hoped for the best.
We left, took the pizza home. Got home… D.I.S.A.P.P.O.I.N.T.E.D!!! HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT! First of all the pizza looked like some old rinky dink hole in wall pizza. It was square. Didn’t look enticing at all. Bit into it and your first thought is «WTH?!? Is this card board or pizza? Why isn’t the cheese ooey gooey, where is the flavor from the meat… This pizza place is one of the most overrated pizza joints ever! It was dry. Had NO TASTE. Not cheesy. Just PLAIN OL PIZZA.
After spending a little over $ 55…Yes you read that right, FIFTY-​FIVE DOLLARS! After the $ 20 entrance fee, $ 25 pizza and soda… SMH we highly regret taking time out of what was a fantastic night to go to this place… I promise you that you could have possibly got a slice of pizza from one of the stands in the mall that would’ve tasted better than that! As of right now I have absolutely no plans of returning to this place!
I am giving it 2 out of 5 stars for quite a few of the above obvious reasons. The only reason I didn’t give them 1 star is because the bartender at least got us a pizza even after saying the kitchen is closing.

The best potato skins comprehensible.
I don’t understand what just happened. I ordered 4 BBQ Chicken Avocado Potato Skins.
Deep breath, stick with me.
What you see in the picture is what was set down in front of me. Essentially, it’s a GIANT plate of the most divine potatoes imaginable with unique flavors and a spicy kick on top of a bed of lettuce. I didn’t even have to order pizza at the pizza place because it was too good and too filling.
Also tried the «Special Skins:» a Brisket Potato Skin. It was delicious, but you really can’t top the BBQ Chicken Avocado.