The Don’s Pizza Lounge

I liked this place, garlic city, I only got delivery.
It is closed now & replaced with the Kitchen Factory.

Definitely try the bacon-​jalapeño-​chicken pizza when they have it — it probably has a name but I don’t remember what it is. Their pizza is generally awesome and they have a variety of combinations like chicken-​bbq, tomato-​basil, veggies, and others to suit any taste, but sometimes the bottoms are a little dry and crispy. I live half a block away on Chase and I love having Don’s there to tempt me when I’m too lazy to cook dinner.
They’ve been experimenting with their hours recently, closing during lunch and instead staying open late for the after-​bar crowd, which is great. The staff here is really nice — sometimes they’ll give you an extra slice of pizza if you order two and there are only three left.
It’s definitely a neighborhood pizza place, catering to the walk-​in Northside crowd and people who live close enough to walk over and pick up their orders, so don’t expect parking to be easy.

I want to like this place so much, I really do.
It has all the makings of a cool, trendy hipster late-​night pizza joint that I want, but why can’t they make a decent damn pizza!!!
Seriously, one of Cincinnati’s biggest food issues in my book is a dearth of good late-​night pizza places.
While Don’s pizza certainly isn’t bad, (it’s dramatically better than what I remember Northslice’s to be,) it still just doesn’t taste that great to me.
I will get Don’s points for being cheap and readily available.
It’s in a great location and I’m sure it’ll do well.
But c’mon Queen City, lets pool our resources and make a series of great pizza places. We deserve it!

I’ve been to the Dons three or four times but last night really took the cake. Stopped by at 11:55 p.m. to grab some pizza by the slice, they didn’t have any regular cheese so I ordered 4 slices of tomato basil, the staff was nice enough to give me the last 5 slices left for the price of 4! Not only this but the pizza was AMMMAAZZINNGG. Perfect ratio of cheese, tomato and basil per slice, perfectly seasoned and re-​heated to an amazingly cheesy temperature.
This is all aside from the normal times I’ve gotten the dons, usually I order a spinach ricotta pizza to go and it’s always so good. I hated ricotta cheese before I had this pizza and i’ve loved it ever since.
A true gem in Northside, a lovely addition!

Awesome selection and amazing flavor. Love that NY style crust. Also love the StarWars Décor! I will definitely spread the word!

Came here the other night after work and ordered a slice of cheese and the «Don». Pizza came out in a timely fashion, but it was lacking some flavor, it was just OK. The sauce was fine and so was the cheese, but it didn’t stand up to A Tavola –which I consider the Gold Standard of pizzas in Cincinnati.
Also, there was no parking available in front of the store on either side of the street, I had to park on a residential street a block down.

(update) I went back and tried Don’s again, hoping it had improved after being open for a bit, one night after the Tavern. The pizza was just as bad as the first time. It tasted terrible, the pizza had no flavor. The pizzas that were for sale by the slice looked like they had been sitting for hours.
I miss Northslice. It was delicious.

So my first review was written within the first week The Don’s opened shop, and I have to take back every word of it. The quality of the pizza has improved astronomically over the span of a month and a half, and I think it’s safe to say it’s as good or better as its predecessor. Love it.

Yum! Finally a good late night pizza place in Northside! I will admit… I hated NorthSlice. I found their pizza to be dry and the crust to be a bit like eating cardboard. When I heard a new pizza place would be opening in it’s place I figured it would be much of the same. When your specialty is serving pizza to people coming home from the bars the quality of your product just isn’t THAT important.
The Don’s has finally done both! Late night pizza that is extremely yummy as well. While they serve pizza by the slice you can also dine in and order an entire pizza or have it delivered. I had the BBQ chicken pizza and… it was life changing. I can’t attest for the rest of the pizzas, but this one is not to be missed! I think what I loved most about it (aside from the delicious Montgomery Inn BBQ sauce) were the ratios. What I’m referring to is the ratio of dough, to cheese, to sauce, to toppings. They got it just right! Every bite had a little bit of everything in it and it all went together magnificently.
The atmosphere is very chill. I was a little surprised by the amount of technology they use. Their menu is posted on a flat screen TV and their cash register is an ipad! It was pretty cool… perhaps this is the wave of the future for the modern restaurant.
All and all I am a VERY happy customer. I live basically across the street and had been extremely dissatisfied with NorthSlice. Finally I have a place to get late night pizza after an evening at Northside Tavern. Huzzah!

Yay! Another delivery option for Northside. My 4 year old loved the cheese pizza, she says «it tastes like tomato!» She claims this is now her «most favorite pizza». We got a chicken philly sandwich — it wasn’t quite a philly, but the bread was really good and the veggies were fresh. I’m going to ask for pesto on it next time, though. We also ordered the Troyboli — it was gigantic! We will certainly be back!

I was really hoping for a Northslice pie by another name. There was magic in those slices, especially on a trip home slightly drunk after a show at the Tavern. That was a pizza experience I will never forget.
The Don’s pizza is alright, but it is kind of expensive for mediocre pizza. I like the addition of red onions and spinach on the veggie, but it was otherwise unmemorable. NYPD is about five bucks cheaper and is really just as good, if not better.
I think things could be improved by a couple of things, like offering a wider variety of toppings (green olives, banana peppers, roasted red peppers) and spicing up the sauce a bit (it was truly dull). I totally respect and understand the desire to differentiate from Northslice, which, after all, did go out of business, but I think there are ways to do that without sacrificing the quality of the food.