Next Door Pizza & Pub

This place is a bit of a frustration for me as sometimes I think it’s some of the best deep dish I’ve had and other times it taste like a frozen pizza. We have been here a few times and the deep dish pizza often is very good and truly deep dish. However, sometimes I’ve ordered and what I received is a thin pizza with deep dish crust along the edges, in other words a whole bunch of crust around the edge and very little pizza, e.g. The last pizza we received had hardly any toppings very little cheese and sauce just randomly smatter around it.
The service here is also inconsistent, sometimes it’s really great and sometimes you have to go up to the bar to refill your drink.
The bar on the other hand is top notch and for so few draft options they offer some of the best in the city and clearly have a great idea of what good beers are. If you haven’t stopped by to try their drafts you’re missing out as they keep them on a pretty good rotation as well.
The bottom line is-​this place has a great opportunity to be a really good pizza joint if they would just focus on consistently good pizza in service.

Worst pizza ever eaten! we had the fire bug which was suppose to be award winning Bbq sauce and for that cost I would of had little Caesars pizza or Pizza Hut or even dominos, this place awful & the waitress never came to check on us & took forever to even order and we had to get up to get our own forks, almost got up to get out own drinks ! the only thing good was the appetizer ! Biggest waist of money spent ! Don’t waist your money !

It’s a trap! Don’t be fooled by the name, the sign outside, or even by all the carryout boxes — It’s not about the pizza, it’s all about the «other» stuff on the menu!
We had gone there a few times with our son, and the pizza was OK — yes, there are better places for pizza in the area (Waldo for instance) and in Kansas City (Caddy Shack, and so on), even the one night of the week when they have deep dish «Chicago Style» pizza. And then one night we happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to stop there for dinner — without our son. Neither of us were really in the mood for pizza so we happened to take a close look at the menu — Hmmm.
The first tip off was their reference to «sugu» rather than sauce. Then I saw «Grinders» — stop, grab the first server and ask what they believe is a grinder! He paused a few seconds and said, «Well, they’re a small loaf of Italian bread with one end cut off, the insides scooped out, meatballs or sausage and cheese stuffed in, and the end stuck back in backwards — that’s how Grandma always made them.» OMG, real grinders! It turned out that the sauces were all from «Grandma’s» cook book, as were the rest of the non-​pizza offerings. We had found real Italian home cooking!
Skipping the pizza, we dug in to grinders, egg plant, and over the next few times, all the other dishes. All were great! Now they do have a salad bar (something I am not fond of) that others tell me is adequate. Cool.
One of the nice things about the place is that they have a separate «room» with video machines and such for families with kids, so that they do not have to distract adult patrons.
The full bar is also a good thing. I mean, this is where I learned about «Kansas» Whiskey! (Worth a shot if you are in to distilled spirits.)
Service can run from «lackluster» to «very good» — it just seems to depend on who shows up for work that day. I believe they recruit from the Community College across the street, so it is going to be a lottery at your table.
Prices are well in line with a neighborhood pizza place that also serves a community college.
Going back? Yep, it is on our list.

Was very disappointed with our experience at Next Door Pizza today. We wanted the buffet but they wouldn’t or couldn’t keep it stocked. The salad bar was out of several items too. We settled on a sandwich. Service was poor and our concerns about the buffet & salad bar were shrugged off. We would not recommend Next Door Pizza.

This is fast becoming our new neighborhood favorite. The pizza and beer list are great. The atmosphere is cozy. And you have to try their empanada dessert. Is cinnamon butter deliciousness in your mouth!

This is my second time coming here as I tried lunch (buffet) a few years back. I’d say the dinner service today was more impressive. The buffet is a little small making pizza shortage a possibility.
To start off this visit we looked at the beer on tap menu. Not bad, not bad at all. Ordered a Deschutes Armory XPA and a Cinderblock Northtown Native. The later being pleasant surprise because I missed the chance when I was at Cinderblock earlier in the week. Several Founders options and a few other KC beer options were also on tap. Due to time we stuck with thin crust. We added a second layer to one of the pizzas to make it a little thicker. Ordered a cubano pizza. The pickles were a nice touch, but the pork while fine seemed like it could use some sauce. Also ordered some wings. The firebug grilling sauce is a barbecue sauce with a little kick. I like it hot so I didn’t notice it as much, but enjoyed it being less sweet than other bbq sauces. The others at the table don’t have much appetite for hot sauces and were able to eat some as well. I’d go back when in LS and wanting more than big beer with my pizza. Not that you can’t get a couple domestic bottles with your pizza here too.

Good local pizza spot. Ingredient are fresh and delicious. We went on a busy night and they gave us a free appetizer due to the long wait. Nice service, good beer selection.
The Chicago is a little thin for Chicago style, but still better than any other choices around here.

Ordered a pizza to go for me and my gf. We got a 12″ combo lock which was yummy. Looked gigantic in the box, hate to see the next size up. It was empty inside but it Was almost 10pm. They have a good selection of beers and the bartender was really nice. In the words of a great man… i’ll be back!

This place is in my neighborhood and and I like it! You just kind of have to find your favorite pizza or dish here and not expect too much. It’s a pizza place not fine dining. The bar is a nice place to sit and have a drink. I always run into someone I know. I wish the bar area was bigger because I think more people would hang out. I’m giving this place 4 stars because it’s a great neighborhood pizza place and people that work there are always nice! Only thing is the bar space… but it is a cozy space! AND I like the back door you can sneak in if you don’t want to walk through the restaurant!

Awesome local pizza place! I’m surprised by some of the poor reviews, because the service we got this lunch was outstanding.
The personal pizzas we ordered were perfect (we got the thin crust)
–the Death by Bacon (WOW. it was like bacon candy on pizza!) and sweet and savoury… so very good, though I should have ordered a side salad to alleviate my extreme guilt for indulging so much.
–and the Butcher of Longview (sausage, pepperoni, bacon and meatball) was soooo good. The fresh fresh toppings were not greasy at all. And so full of meaty flavor! Yeesh. We loved it!
Hubby was impressed by all the beer selection, I like the separate kiddie/​arcade game room, and the service was very good.
All in all, I’m looking forward to coming back and trying more.

Stopped in recently on a Wednesday and was hemming and hawing over the regular thin crust or Chicago style and the waiter mentioned on Wednesdays they do a New York style more traditional pizza crust.
Went this route and by far this type of crust is my favorite of the three that Next Door Pizza offers! If I’m craving pizza on Wednesday I’ll be going to Next Door Pizza.

Food was decent. Service was average. Until the end we had no real complaints.
Then, when we asked for our check, we asked for fried snickers to go.
20 minutes later, when we were about to cancel and ask for a refund, they were finally brought out
I bothered eating them, as I was no longer in the mood for dessert.

Have been here many times and have always had a good experience. They have a pretty good craft beer list, not huge but usually have at least one unique one mixed in. Not a big fan of deep dish but the thin crust is very good. I recommend either the nines or the hippie. Salad bar is basic but good enough considering I don’t go to pizza pubs for salad. The atmosphere is very family friendly with a arcade area on one side (they host a lot of parties on this side, I think). Overall, good pizza and a good beer list.

I really wanted to like this place because a friend of mine loves it and recommended it. So I gave them a shot.
It was good. Not super or extraordinary. I had Chicken Parm. Good. Not great. Better than Fazoli’s, for instance, but not up to the level of Garozzo’s, in my opinion.
I’ll probably give them one more shot and try the pizza, which is probably their strong point, I’d assume.
Service was fairly slow, I thought, even though it was not busy when we went. But the server was very polite.
I agree with Kurt T. If you’re in the neighborhood, sure. I don’t know if I’d go out of my way to come here, though.

I loved Next Door Pizza when it first came to Lee’s Summit. Good Chicago style, had delivery and o-​m-​g the fried snickers. HOWEVER, the last couple times I have ordered from them it has been a chore to get my food. I have met Patrick previously when an order was messed up and he was more than helpful but this time he was not there.
I called in and ordered wings, pasta, snickers, puerta fries. I asked for the puerta fries topping on the side because by the time I take it home it gets soggy. The rep said 25 min. I get there in 20 minutes, and the same rep (I can tell by his voice) says that they just put my food in and it would be a few minutes. Fine, I came 5 minutes early. I also noticed that the booth behind me was just ordering their pizza. Fast forward to 20 min after my order time, the table behind me has their pizzas coming out. How have they only ordered 20 min ago, but I ordered 40 min ago and I still don’t have my food? the first part of my order finally rolls out, the rep said «I couldn’t carry it all, I’ll be right back with the rest».
7 minutes later the rest comes out, obviously it wasn’t all ready. By this time I’m already upset, and then I see that the puerta fries were not made with the toppings on the side. I showed the rep and he said «oh.well we can take them off.» I told him that wasn’t the point, I needed a side for my husband and kid and I was not happy with that and wanted other options. A cook came out and said «well it wasn’t in the instructions» while I am staring directly at the rep that even verbally repeated my order back on the phone. I told them it was, now what were they going to do to fix it. The cook said he would remake them and it would be another 10 minutes. So, I wait again, while the rest of my food is just sitting in my lap getting cold. Finally I get my food. No offer to take care of my order, no apology, and definitely no order from me in the future.

We met up at Next Door Pizza for their buffet today. I was awestruck by how the interior was decorated. It’s called Next Door for a reason, as there’s doors, decorated in sports teams, fireman, police, music. Even in the women’s bathrooms there’s a Girlscout door.
But lets discuss the real reason it’s so good. The Chicago pizza tastes like there’s romano cheese in the thick crust. They add a spicy pizza sauce on top. The pizza itself is alfredo. I don’t know how many pieces of it I ate. It’s worthy of a review by itself. The crust has a cool pan pizza taste to it definitely hitting the Chicago type pizza right on. It kind of reminded me of Tree Guys in Itasca, Ill.
During the buffet, which has a warming bottom metal type of system, instead of the usual warming lights above, the staff kept bring out pizza after pizza. Pepperoni, pep/​sausage (made locally), meat lover’s type, Hawaiian, and cheese pizza. All with a crispy thin homemade crust. There was pasta, but I usually ignor pasta on a pizza buffet. Aah, the cheese pizza, possibly the best I’ve had around here. It tastes like they use several types, and it’s perfect. The pizza sauce us fresh, obviously homemade.
I found the taste lively and original. I love the location! They give discounts to students, making my son’s buffet with drink only 5.95, mine was 6.95. There’s parking around the back.

I had heard good things about Next Door Pizza over the past year or so, so when my friend and I decided to make this week our Lollapalooza-​away-​from-​Lollapalooza week, we made the trip from downtown KC to Lee’s Summit to give this place a try.
First, let me say, our waiter was awesome. None of the food issues were his fault and he was completely empathetic to what we had to say about our food experience.
We had the donuts as an appetizer because, well, we’re grown ups and we didn’t figure we would have room afterwards for dessert. They come with an awesomeness sauce… and it was pretty awesome. So awesome it hurt my poor, sensitive teeth, but I kept eating it nonetheless.
When we got our pizza, we were really expecting something akin to every pizza I have ever had in Chicago in my entire life, no matter in which restaurant it was. What we got was a pizza with the crust similar to the Chicago style — tall from the pan it was made in, but the pizza itself may as well have been New York style, as it was a mere millimeters thick with barely any topping and splotches of sauce splattered on top. Where is the gooey cheese? Why does the sauce not cover everything? Why is it served on a flat serving tray and not in a pan to catch all the gooeyness? Right, cause there wasn’t any. We ordered a 14″, which was said to feed 4 – 5 people, and there was just two of us. We wanted to take home the leftovers, so we ordered a larger one. There is absolutely no way that would satisfy that many people.
When our sever came by to ask us what we thought, I told him up front that we were disappointed. He even said normally they are much thicker, yet I have seen others here complain about the thinness of their Chicago style pizzas. They discounted our order without our asking, which was nice, since we got about half of the pizza we should’ve gotten.
When I posted a comment on the Facebook page voicing my disappointment, complete with a photo to prove how thin it was, my comment was deleted. Then, to show another level of unprofessionalism, they made an entirely new post about how «a recent customer» didn’t think their pizza was «thick enough» and went on to compare their thickness to Lou Malnati’s in Chicago. They are DRASTICALLY different from one another. The owner was looking to get people riled up against something they hadn’t seen themselves. They need to learn to take criticism and fix what is wrong, which is all I was aiming for with my simple, three sentence post!
At least I know this one can’t be deleted so my words will be here, on the Internet, ringing my experience loudly whether or not the owner can handle it or not.

Four star food: very good thin crust pizza, a unique deep-​dish-​ish crust but done thin… unique and delicious. Three of us had one cheese, and another with one half-​chicken spedini, one half-​meatball. We finished all but 3 slices! Donuts for dessert were memorable, Oreos on a plate were just Oreos, on a plate — Ho hum (but my 15 year old liked it). The pizza dilla app was fair, and arrived just seconds before the pizza.
Star deduction: novice, slow service.

Just wanted to update my previous lousy review… I was reached out to almost immediately by the owners of NDP. We had a great conversation, honestly feel like they cared…
My previous review, although was ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ their fault/​our fault, we are all entitled to a bad night…
Moral of the story with NDP? They listen and are interested in the relationship as much as making a good pizza…
See you soon!

Tried both the Chicago Style deep dish pizza and thin crust pizza’s.
Chicago Style deep dish: Tip: It takes 30minutes to cook so if you don’t want to wait you might want to call and ask to see if you can order ahead and then eat in house when you arrive so it’s hot.
Must eat at the restaurant, DO NOT take it to go from previous friend’s experience it gets soggy and doesn’t taste as good. We ate in house of course I had a half Butcher of Long… and half Hippie .
Butcher is kind of a meat lovers, absolutely no vegetables or fruits just all types of meat. The Hippie is the total opposite, no meat but mushrooms, onions, tomatos, etc.
Thin Crust Pizza: We ordered a different day to go, and chose our toppings. The pizza is a typical type of pizza freshly made, though it can use more ingredients. Parts of the pizza felt bare with just crispy crust, tomato sauce and cheese.
Make your own pizza starts about $ 13.75ish and each topping $ 1.25/ each topping.
If you have a Groupon, it basically pays for a large pizza easily or depending on how you make your order maybe some small change.
PS. be sure to walk toward the bathroom area and around the restaurant they have many designed doors hanging around and looks cool. There is a semi arcade looking area also.