Fortel’s Pizza Den

They have a wide variety of pizzas and they taste pretty good, but the crust was thin and the atmosphere is stuck in 1987. Also, the server started by not coming often enough which changed to hovering. I had the impression they wanted it group to leave.

I’ve never been disappointed with Fortel’s pizza. Always generous with the toppings, and always a consistent good quality pizza. Definitely recommended!

Cool bar/​grill atmosphere. Basic Italian menu. Food exceeds expectations. Service lacks professionalism, but is okay.

I tried the Ruben Pizza tonight, From the crust, sauce, etc. it was perfect. I would for sure order another one when I’m in town Thank You

Ordered for delivery. They said 45 minutes. I called after 2 hours and my pizza hasn’t even left yet. Lady I spoke with said they have been slow tonight. I canceled and will never order from them again.

Place is a little misleading when you walk in. It smells like dirty mop water and the staff is not very friendly at all. I was disappointed because I had heard such wonderful things about the place. The food however was amazing. Best pizza I have had in a while!

If you are looking for a quick place for a lunch sized pizza for under $ 6.00, drink included, then this is a great place. The pizza is not the best pizza in the world but it’s certainly good and given the price, it’s a heckuva deal! The staff is outstanding and caters graciously to any special orders we have.

I’ve always liked Fortel’s since moving to the area 18 months ago. Crust on the pizza ordered tonight was much thinner than the last one we had. Doesn’t their menu say ‘not too thick, not too thin’ crust? What happened?
Also, every time we call in a pizza to pick up, they can’t find the receipt or the pizza and often try to charge us twice because the receipt isn’t marked paid (paid via credit card when order placed — generally hubby calls it in & I pick it up on the way home from work). This has happened at least 6 times over the past 4 months or so. Seems like a lack of clear communication or precise procedures. In fact, it’s been a few weeks since we’ve had a pizza from there because of past frustrations with the service… guess what? Tonight was no different than other times we had problems! UG

We had a late lunch so the place was fairly empty but we were still enthusiastically greeted. The restaurant is clean and there is plenty of room for tables, etc. The service was very good for a pizza place.
We had two small pizza’s, a soda, small house salad and a combo appetizer platter. I liked that they had two kinds of mushrooms. The pizza was good. The sauce is a little sweet. The salad was fair. The soda mix was good.
My only complaint was the combo platter. Most of the items were obviously burnt but they served it anyway. The mushrooms weren’t burnt but they were a bit doughy.
All in all, a decent place to eat. 3 stars = average.

Probably the best pizza I have ever had. I ordered BOB’S Deluxe and added meatball’s, absolutely delicious! Friendly atmosphere and employees. I will return for sure!

Stopped in for a quick lunch and needed to get some work done at the same time. Generally, that would interfere with my ability to enjoy my meal but I made a special effort since I have heard so much about these guys.
I started with a house salad. Pretty good offering complete with fresh lettuce and a bit of chopped Italian salami added to a pretty standard dish. I ate it and enjoyed it but decided it was unnecessary at the point that the pizza arrived.
I ordered the 9″ lunch special pizza with sausage and onions. It was described as a thin crust but I found there to be enough dough to make far preferable to some of the cracker crusts that I keep getting served in STL.
Yummy sausage! Very big Italian flavor complete with visible fennel seeds. I love real Italian sausage and this place delivered. The onions were sliced just right so that they cooked properly and evenly. They were slightly sweet which added to the overall taste. The sauce had a decent level of seasoning and there was enough cheese on the pizza to make it far better (my opinion, naturally) than most STL pizza I’ve had previously.
I was out the door for about $ 10. Certainly a place I would go again!

The ingredients are always very fresh here and that makes a huge difference in taste. It’s not the end-​all-​be-​all of pizza by any stretch, and you probably aren’t coming here for the atmosphere much (nothing particularly wrong with it, but nothing great about it, either), but once you’ve had this pizza YOU WILL BE BACK to get your Fortel’s fix from time to time. It’s at least a notch or two above the pizza from the national chains.

Being a native of the area I’ve been to a lot of the pizza places. Fortels is one of the best, it isn’t a flashy place but the pizza is great and fresh! They never skimp on the toppings and sauce and the thin crust is absolutely perfect! It’s greasy but in a good way and you will never walk away sick!
The silverware is cheap but clean the restaurant is clean the tables are clean and the drinks are good! No loud music just sports on the tv and you can enjoy conversations without talking over the music. No servers to bug you either everything is seat yourself.
Great pizza place with none of the fluff!

Fortel’s Pizza is I would say average pizza place. The pizza tastes good and the choices are good too but the prices are pretty high for an average pizza place. I don’t mind paying more if I get more but with Imos being less expensive and I believe better pizza you have your work cut out for you. Also the building is very outdated so delivery is a much better option

«Den» is right; there’s nothing showy or flashy about this place. But hey, it’s pizza, do you REALLY need anything besides that triangular nourishment? If you said beer or sody pop, Fortel’s has you covered there too.

My partner’s father was kind enough to take us here for dinner, since it was nearby. I’m pretty sure I’ve been there before, but probably as a kid, and certainly not recently enough to remember it.
And no wonder I didn’t remember — there’s not a lot here that’s memorable.
When we walked in, a sign overhead instructed us to relax and take our time and serve ourselves, or something like that. It took a few minutes before the woman at the counter acknowledged us, and explained that we were supposed to seat ourselves. We looked over the menu, chose a large deluxe pizza (sausage, mushrooms, pepperoni, green peppers, and onions), and paid for it at the counter.
All three of us wanted water. We were handed our plastic cups (mine had detritus in the interior bottom, and bits of sauce stuck to the outside), and poured water from a large container that was 1) lukewarm 2) nearly empty. We ended up getting our water from the sink behind the drink machines, since it was the same taste and temperature as the stuff we were «supposed» to get, anyway.
We sat for thirty to forty minutes waiting for our pizza, which was pathetic, considering there were only two or three other seated tables, besides us. There were maybe seven customers in the place. At 5:00 in the evening, there’s no excuse for the kitchen being this slow.
I used the bathroom while we were waiting, and as soon as I stepped through the door, I was hit by the wet stink of an old public school bathroom tucked away in a basement. One of the two stalls wouldn’t lock at all.
When we finally got our food, we were lightly chided for not getting our own melamine plates from a table next to the bathroom doors. Why the dishware was nowhere near the register or fountain drinks is beyond me.
The pizza itself was all right, but nothing special. It managed to be incredibly soggy for a thin-​crust pizza. The sauce was waaay too sweet for my taste, and the sausage seemed like it may have been starting to turn.
Everything in this restaurant smelled and tasted like plastic. It’s in dire need of a renovation. If someone offered to take me again, I would strongly recommend that we all choose a different place to eat.
Fortel’s seems like the sort of place that people go to out of habit, not because it’s actually any good. Everyone’s convinced themselves that it’s a local specialty, perhaps out of a lack of experience.
Go to Peel in Edwardsville instead; your money will be much better spent.

Kind of run down, but great pizza.

The place is not very clean. There was 3 other people in the pizza den & they insisted I take a number. I got the lunch special small spaghetti & a soft drink $ 7.95. The coke machine was dirty, and also the ice machine was not cleaned.

IN SHORT: Overpriced, run-​down, and thicker thin-​crust pizza that reminds me of Chef Boy-​Ar-​Dee.
DETAILS: My wife and I have been hearing about how good Fortel’s Pizza Den is, and so we decided to give it a shot. Man, were we disappointed.
The pizza itself was OK, and it’s probably the only thing you should order from them, though it’s pricey considering what you get. A large 14″ with just cheese will run you $ 11.40. Toppings are about $ 2.50 each. Foodies will be glad to know that there are a staggering number of toppings available and sauces that include beef gravy, and the pizzas are served on a thin crust that has a slight thickness to it and — I wish I were kidding about this — tastes vaguely sweet like the product of one of those Chef Boy-​Ar-​Dee Pizza crust kits.
Between my wife and me, the 14″ was just enough to be filling. We also ordered the beer-​battered fried mushrooms and the toasted cheese ravioli. Both were obviously pre-​packaged and tasted like something you’d get from the frozen food section of Aldi. The horseraddish sauce served with the mushrooms was awful, so we dipped the mushrooms in the marinara instead. These appetizers weren’t cheap — they were about $ 5 apiece. Everything on the menu seemed overpriced by at least a dollar or two.
I suppose if we were ordering out, we might considering Fortel’s again if we really wanted that style of pizza, though I could get a couple of better-​tasting pizzas from Domino’s or Little Ceasar’s for the same price.
But as for eating in? No thanks. The restaurant is run down and not very well-​planned. You’ve got to walk across the restaurant to get drink refills, for example, and yes — Fortel’s not only charges $ 2.25 for a 20 oz fountain soda (it comes with a plastic souvenir cup!), but also charges $ 1.25 for refills. Though the cashier didn’t seem to be enforcing the refill policy, I resent the chain gouging customers for soda that costs them a couple of cents to dispense.
(Needing no plastic cups and not wanting to spend $ 5 for two measly cups of soda, we went with water and got sodas from McDonald’s afterwards. Those were only a buck apiece and were 32 oz.)
The menus also indicated that refills were originally a dollar — but someone had scratched out «$ 1.00» with an ink pen and scribbled in «$ 1.25.» You’d think with the extra soda money they were making, they’d have plenty to pay to get new menus printed.
It occurs to me now that maybe the $ 2.25 was to buy a cup that could be refilled on subsequent visits for $ 1.25. It’s still not such a great deal, but it would have been nice for the menu to have indicated that in clear language. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t have guessed that from either the menu nor the inattentive cashier taking orders. Despite confirming with me that it was our first time in the restaurant, she did very little to explain how things worked there. Rather, she pointed me to a sign.
And that’s important, because Fortel’s is not a full-​service restaurant. It’s more like a quick-​service restaurant where you order your food and they bring it to your table. But the rub is that it _​appears_​to be a full-​service restaurant, and you’ve got to read the signs to discover that you seat yourself, read a menu and then order your food. You’re also supposed to get your own plates and silverware, despite the fact that they’re buried in a corner. It would be nice if they’d set the place up like Fazoli’s where these things were made clear, but the restaurant is so shabby that it’s clear that little thought has gone into the customer experience.
«Who would eat at a place like this,» you might be wondering? My wife tells me that this chain is big with «breadheads» — the people who listen to the local country music DJ known as Cornbread. Fortel’s is apparently a sponsor of his show, and he’s got a pizza on their menu. Most of the folks we saw in the restaurant looked like locals from Belleville and Fairview Heights.
A few other details about Fortel’s:
–Yes, they serve beer, on tap and in bottles.
–Yes, they deliver.
–Yes, they’re a local chain in the Metro East.
–Yes, there’s a Sno Cone place in the back corner that looks like it could use some business.
–Yes, you really can order a pizza with corned beef and gravy, should your heart desire it.
–No, we won’t be dining in there again. There are just too many other, better pizza places in the area.

MICHELOB GOLDEN LIGHT… Only place in the whole STL area that I’ve seen it on tap. I know recently when I went to the Anheuser Busch Tour they said this was the closest place to St. Louis. They don’t sell it in Missouri. This is the best beer EVER! I actually wish they had just the Michelob Golden but I’m not gonna gripe. $ 8 a pitcher of smooth, yummy, goodness and I am SOLD! Ok enough about the beer…
I love this place. They have a wide variety of pizzas from Corned Beef to Spicy Bacon Cheeseburger (which I got.) OUR Spicy Bacon Cheeseburger was so cheesy and just melted in your mouth. I really can’t think of anywhere else in IL that I will waste money on when it comes to pizza.
It’s a very busy restaurant. The parking sucks when it is. Also it’s kind of awkward because you walk up to the counter, get your menu, order, then go sit down, and then they bring it to you. Just different I guess.
Check it out and for goodness sakes if you love beer try the Golden it’s hard to come by!