Gianfranco Pizza Rustica

I wanted bad pizza.
«Bad» as in, I’m «ordering pizza in.»
This time, got the chicken parm pizza.
It was surprisingly fantastic.
The boy said it was «great» and couldn’t stop eating it.
I said it was great hungover food even though I wasn’t hungover and couldn’t stop eating it.
So, 4 stars?

I used to say I’ve never met a slice of pizza that I didn’t like. Then I moved to Philadelphia… and this is by far the worst. Just horrible pizza that was incredibly difficult to get down. Their salad and lamb gyro were pretty good though, so at least that… but this is supposed to be a pizza place, so I can’t just let it slide for a good lamb gyro! 2 stars and perhaps I will try again. I usually like to try things I didn’t like twice (just not the unrelated Pizza Rustica!) just to confirm that I do not like them. If it still is terrible, at least there will be a lamb gyro and salad there to somewhat comfort me.
Having said that, I really want to try the Gianfranco Pizza Rustica in Old City because that looks incredibly delicious.

Pizza here is not very good. It’s kind of chewy. The ingredients are cheap. The people are nice enough. The place is okay… with so many places around, this isn’t close to being my favorite.

Used to be a faithful customer of Gianfranco’s when they had their Broad and Snyder location. I was unaware that they moved but started to suspect that my orders were coming from the 11^th street location because of how long they took to be delivered and the fact that they were cold by the time they got to my house. Well, that was confirmed tonight. They sent me the wrong pizza order, and when I called back to straighten it out, the girl who told me their pizza cook was «new» and had made a mistake. Um, if your pizza cook doesn’t know the menu, why is he working there?! Had to wait an additional 45 minutes for the correct order that was lukewarm and tasted like the cardboard box it came in. A cheesesteak was also ordered, I was told it tasted like defrosted Steak Ums. Officially done with this place!

So it is with a heavy heart that I write this review. Tonight’s experience actually caused me to join Unilocal.In short I have ordered from Gianfrano’s many a time. I’ve suggested to people their cheese steak hoagies and pizza. Tonight we ordered 2 cheese steak hoagies. We got our order and ran across the street to grab a coke and as we went to sit down realized that our order was wrong. Everyone makes mistakes right? So I called them up to inform them very politely that a mistake was made. In short the woman who answered the phone was rude and curt with me and basically blamed me for the problem even though she admitted making a mistake. Instead of fixing the problem, offering a solution, or even a simple «I’m sorry about that.» would have sufficed the woman on the phone blamed me? Instead of fixing the problem after quite a few times ordering from them and suggesting them to friends and family I got «Well we’re closing, I don’t know what you want me to do about it.»
Not to mention I paid an extra $ 2.50 and didn’t get what I ordered (they were also the crappiest cheese steaks I’ve ever had from them) and you don’t know what to do about it?!! I’ve worked in several restaurants and pizza places and the first thing that should be your number one priority is customer service. You could have offered me a free drink the next time I came in, gave me a coupon, apologized sincerely, offered to make amends the next time your open, there are a lot of options you could have offered and you didn’t offer any, you blamed the customer (and I know the customer isn’t always right, but you even admitted to messing the order up and you still refused to do anything) I unfortunately will never be eating at this establishment or ordering out from them again and I will notify my many family members and friends of the poor customer service I received this evening. Don’t eat here. If they make a mistake they will blame you and you’ll receive bad customer service and a bad taste in your mouth.

If you are looking for great pizza, friendly customer service, at a reasonable price then this is the place to come to with the family. My kids loved the pizza and the salads are yummy.

Very dissatisfied with these guys. I just ordered a three meat pizza and when I ordered they told me that they didn’t have any sausage. They kept pushing to have double the ground beef, which I didn’t want. I asked if they had bacon and they DIDN’T (which is ridiculous of itself). Then I asked if they had chicken, and they didn’t have that either. The only suggestion they provided was prosciutto, which I accepted.
They said it would be 30 minutes, which was ridiculous considering they are less than 2 blocks away. However, it took 55 minutes, and when it arrived it was cold. Not only was it not hot, but written as a note on the receipt was «Out of prosciutto, added SALAMI instead.» FREAKING SALAMI? ON A PIZZA? Absolutely unacceptable. And they did not call me, even though they used my phone number to identify me at the beginning of the order.
The pizza itself was mediocre at best. About as bad of pizza as someone could claim was professional quality. I would NEVER recommend this pizza to anyone. Especially because it cost $ 17 to deliver. Bad pizza, really bad service, and really bad business practice.

Such a bummer. I ordered from rustica over a year ago and it was really yummy. I decide to get the same order again tonight, what a mistake. I got a large pizza with black olives, large house salad, cheesecake, and a free 2L of soda.
First, the delivery guy said to me I didn’t know what soda you wanted, I brought coke. I wrote in the instruction, diet coke please. The instructions is also where I wrote my phone number that he called, so I’m not sure how he saw that, but didn’t see my soda preference.
Second, I get the salad out. This is not the same salad I had before, it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t nearly as yummy as before (also, what kind of restaurant gives you hard boiled eggs with green yolks?).
The pizza was the real disappointment. There was barely any cheese on it. I didn’t pay $ 15 for tomato sauce on pizza crust. Lastly, my cheesecake had a lovely hair on it. And they kept the papers on the side of the cheesecake so I know it was frozen. And the inside was frozen. Very disappointing food. I feel no need to order from them again.

You don’t know what you got til it’s gone. I used to be a regular lunch time customer here and their pizza always hit the spot. I would host seminars and order up to 20 pies at a time and they were always punctual with delivery (and take off 10% for Jefferson employees). Gianfrancos makes a great thin crust pizza and alt the varieties whether it be plain, single meat, buffalo chicken (my favorite), or any of the white pies, there was always the perfect combination of fresh ingredients.
–1 star for their other items. They do have $ 7 sandwich/​fries/​drinks deals but the cheesesteaks are on the bland side and the fries seem to always come out soggy. If you do go the sandwich route it can take a while so call it in, otherwise slices are on display and heat up quick. There is a nice sitting area to eat in so stick to the pizza and you won’t be disappointed.

Just OK. The crust was a bit soggy. I had the pizza delivered. GPR is about 1 mile from my hotel, so I wouldnt expect the soggy crust. The sauce was bland. The cheese was medium quality. I got sausage on the za, and it was very bland.
Maybe I am too much of a pizza snob. Next time, based on the Unilocal reviews, I would try NYPD pizza.
You likely wont HATE this pizza, but you probably wont be thrilled, either. Good, safe bet for an out-​of-​towner. They have a lot of other items on the menu (calzones, stroms, subs, etc), which might be good.
Plus, you can order and pay online, which is kinda nice.

After a rocky start with this Gianfranco location, I was persuaded to go back — and I’m glad I did. I tried two pizzas that were different than the one I had ordered last time.
The Pepperoni was good — thin crust with the perfect amount of cheese. There could have been a little more pepperoni, but overall it was a very tasty pizza.
The Tomato, Garlic, and Spinach White Pizza was also very good — this one was a little thicker, but had a delicious garlic bite to it. The tomato and spinach were clearly fresh and added a nice flavor.

It’s hard being a New Yorker ex-​pat — more so because people expect you to be really, really opinionated when it comes to pizza and therefore on a constant quest to find the best place. In reality, I don’t care too much for pizza, but my bf DOES. His food quests are the kind I appreciate as a bystander (and occasional try-​er too), but at least with pizza I’m slightly more game to join the party.
He really wanted pizza for dinner one night, and we hadn’t tried too many places in CC yet so we consulted Unilocal,Menupages, and our tastebuds and took a chance on Gianfranco’s. They have several locations, but this one was within walking distance for us so we opted to pick our order up and save a few bucks. We ordered online and opted to create our own pizza, which was fun but can quickly get expensive. We were careful and did half mostly various veggies and the other half with sausage and pepperoni per my bf’s request (there may have been something else, but I wasn’t eating that half so I let him create it).
The pizza took as long to make as it did for us to walk over and pick it up, and we reheated it a little when we got home, but not much/​too long. This was pretty good pizza. Don’t ask for my NY opinion, though, because it’s been eons since I had NY pizza (I know, I’m weird, get used to it). My bf (who really cares about his pizza quality) also enjoyed it alot. The crust was on the thinner side, although not technically thin crust, and the sauce and cheese used were flavorful. I mostly enjoy that I can so easily order it online and customize my own pizza, and specify what I want on each side!

Best pizza in the area (Midtown Village/​Wash West/​Gayborhood).
Actually, best in Center City since Lombardi’s is gone now for a few years.

I’ve been here probably 100+ times in the last few years and the pizza, sandwiches, and salads are terrific. There has been an occasional slip up on my order (nothing major), but that’s bound to occur with the volume they deal with – and they seem genuine when they apologize.
This place is probably the best cheap meal of its kind in center city.

Update, I recently ordered from Gianfranco’s and I am back to being a fan. I am still going to wait a while before using the website to place an order so this time I called it in. The only reason why they have not reached 5 stars again is because they were out of sausage which is one of my favorite things they do… (it is that perfect thin shaved kind and being pregnant it is what I wanted :(…) but the pizzas we ordered were great, delivered fast and were yummy! You are back to my go-​to pizza place when I want delicious!
I haven’t re-​ordered from Gianfranco’s yet but I am changing my review for now based on the owner’s clear passion for customer service. After posting my review about how they were loosing me as a loyal customer he personally reached out to me to offer apologies and work out the issues. I look forward to giving them another chance soon. There is great merit to a place that takes customer complaints seriously rather than just blowing them off like they don’t matter. I look forward to them becoming my favorite pizza place once again.
Gianfranco’s used to be my favorite pizza place but the last 4 times I have ordered from them my order has been wrong. This seems to be an ongoing problem all over the place lately but I cannot fathom how my past 4 orders at least one thing has been wrong. Last night it was 2 things. I am 7 months pregnant and want what I ordered… I was horribly disappointed with what I received so with that… you have lost my business.

Sorry Gianfranco, I had to downgrade you after recently ordering the three-​meat pizza, which was supposedly topped with prosciutto, pepperoni, and sausage. Well… I don’t know what the heck that was but it was certainly not prosciutto. E’s first comment was «It looks like there’s beef jerky on my pizza». Not a good sign. After racking my brain for literally days I figured out what that mystery-​meat most likely was: Scrapple cut in thin slices. It had a queerly rectangular shape and a ground-​meat like texture but was a sad grey-​brown colour. A while back we tried getting bacon on something and were told they no longer serves pork products, and if that is still the case this must have been their version of «prosciutto». Know what? If you don’t want to serve pork, don’t fake like you do.
Sadly, even though they make a mean sandwich we won’t be ordering from here again. Nothing else they make is good.

Got a living social coupon and ordered a monstrous pizza with fresh tomatoes, sausage, and fresh mozzarella. It was delish.
The crust is a little chewy, but in a good way. Its a part of every bite and holds together so you can successfully pick up a slice, even if its loaded down with toppings.
I’ll definitely try it again!

This pizza was about as bland as I could stand. I was gonna eat in but ain’t it somethin when all the workers are taking the good seats? Posted up at the window everybody was chillin watching futbol. I actually found this place on the way to the place I was really going to go to, but who knows which is the lesser evil.
Overall, I think the vibe killed it for me. I will say that the prices aren’t bad and it’s great they gave me a DUTY FREE TAX FREE box to go. Other Center City establishments could stand to learn a thing about that.

3 cheers for Dali (co-​owner of all 3 Gianfranco’s Pizza Rustica locations) and groupon user.
Last night I took my 5 year old for Pizza here using a $ 16 groupon (that I paid $ 8 for) and I must say it was so worth it. She had plain pizza — very, very good. I had an excellent chicken sandwich on fresh-​made bread (kinda pizza-​doughy but a bit denser) with sharp provolone and delcious chopped broccoli rabe and spinach with garlic.
It was so good.
Ambience? Don’t look for that here — it’s a local pizza joint.
Great service and good, solid pies.
Can’t wait to come back.
I also bought a gift card — they give you 10% more that you put on it and the don’t expire. So if you buy a $ 10 gift card you get $ 11 on it, $ 20 gets you $ 22 etc.
We’ll be coming again for sure.

Going to a place with the word «pizza» in its name should give a hint as to what you should order. I’m the weird one who ate instead the tuna salad and the lamb gyro. The salad was decent, the lettuce were fresh and crispy. The tuna was fine, nothing spectacular. The lamb gyro was tasty but again nothing that shine. A pretty decent joint to come for lunch. Maybe next time I will actually eat the pizza.