Circolo Woodfired

Update: Circolo closed without warning in early July.

The food was delicious and service was great. Looking forward to returning.

We got to Circle around 6:30 on a Saturday night and were seated right away. The place filled up as we ate. Unfortunately, they were out of practically everything we wanted: Arsenal Cider (one of the reasons we went there!), two beers my husband wanted, and steak for the steak pizza he ordered. We couldn’t help but roll our eyes and laugh when our waitress brought the check to our table and the one next to us, apologizing for being out of paper.
We ordered the wings with balsamic and caramelized onions. They were just ok — we’re Buffalonians, and had to cut the wings in half to eat them like we’re used to. I ordered the white mushroom balsamic pizza, and my husband got the chicken with goat cheese and balsamic. His was better; it had more taste. Mine was bland. We thought both were just middle of the road. Cucina Bella’s pizza is much better, though we did like being able to order drinks here.
Bar service was slow initially, but our waitress was great. I don’t think we’ll be back.

Service is what this post is all about; my car broke down on East Carson St., and I came in here for a drink and to start a barrage of reparative phone calls. The bartender, Ross, was super attentive and friendly, and provided great service. (When they were out of a favorite beer, he rattled off a list of comparables quickly!) terrific service. Will be back.

As a South Side resident, I’m always excited for a new pizza place. What sets this place apart? 1) It has three floors — not only pizza but a piano bar and a cigar bar. 2) Wood fired pizza with a variety of choices for toppings. 3) Great beer selection. My husband and I ordered the stuffed mushrooms and the BBQ chicken pizza. The pizza making process here is quick and is almost always done before the appetizer. The mushrooms were delicious and the pizza was not what I expected, but in a good way. It’s a vinegar based bbq as opposed to tomato based (think Carolina style, not Texas). It was delicious and I’ve found myself craving it since. They have many specials if you check their website including Lasagna night and discounted Margherita Pizzas. This is a nice place for a date, causal get together with friends or a special event. I look forward to going back!

Came back a second time on a rainy Monday night. Great service, great drink specials, and $ 7 pizza. Can’t beat that.

A co-​worker and I decided to try this place out during our lunch break. I would give this place 5 stars for the food. Got the «firecracker» meatball appetizer and it was very good. I thought the the meatballs and sauce was very savory. We also split a red sauce pizza with pepperoni and banana peppers. That was also very good. The size was big enough for 2 of us to split. The service like in other reviews is on the money for how slow it is. We were only the 3^rd table in the place and it took us between 45 min to a hour to get out of there (we put the food down pretty fast so we could get back to work). Don’t know if it’s because of the meatball app took long to cook. I know brick oven pizza doesn’t take long to bake. But it took way to long to get the food. I recommend people to try out the food, but make sure you have no where to be when you go there. It will take awhile!

I went here because I am a huge fan of wood fire pizza… and it did not disappoint. My friend and I started with the calamari and the house made chips.(It was happy hour, so $ 2 off apps). The calamari was average but the chips were awesome. They came with balsamic reduction and were a great start.
We tried one red and one white pizza. The red had meatballs, peppers and mushrooms. It was crispy and had a ton of flavor. The white pizza was a five cheese artisan blend and came with the great balsamic reduction drizzled. It was hard to pick which one was better… but I would go with the white.
When I first got there, service was great and I talked with the bartenders a bit. As the crowd increased, there was a slight decline in service but nothing unforgivable.

Had dinner there on Sat. We were seated in the piano room at 3 inch diameter lounge tables (only used for drinks) pushed together. We could barely fit dinner plates on them. I even made reservations for that too. OMG, do Not sit there if you want to have a dinner conversation. It is a 15×15 ft room with maybe 10 tables and the piano and speakers and singer are loud enough for a concert hall. You can’t hear a thing. We shouted and lip read our whole dinner.
The sauce was good for the meat balls and stuffed banana peppers but the green mile pizza was small and had no pesto leaving it dry with absolutely no sauce. We ended up dipping it into the appetizers sauces. The drinks were really weak.
We then went up to the cigar bar which had only 8 or so cigars to pick from. There was No ventilation system at all. Not even a fan or a smoke eater, not even a cracked window. The only plus was the bar tender was nice and our drinks were strong compared to downstairs. Maybe try the bottom part but I don’t know if I’d risk it. There’s way too many other options in pittsburgh that are better

I visited circolo on sat evening around 8 o clock. parking was tricky just like any olace in southside but they do have a valet service close by. my main goal going there was to try the cigar bar in the 3^rd floor. Going into the place it was set up easy to make my way to the stairwell to head up stairs. I also enjoy how you have to cut through the piano bar to get totl the cigar bar. it gave me a chance to check out the whole venue. cigar bar had an excellent ventilation system. no getting smoked out by about 15 to 20 cigar smokers. as for the service it was very good. got a decent selection of cigars and as far as food goes the menu looked awesome. i wasnt terribly hungry so i tried a meat and cheese tray. beautiful presentation and was delicious… definetly going back again

I chose to try out Circolo because I had some picky eaters with me and a pizza/​pasta place just seemed like the answer. The place was pretty empty but it was a Monday night. We ordered the fried mozzarella and meatballs to start. The fried cheese was pretty standard and the meatballs were tasty and a perfect size for sharing. My parents ordered a pepperoni pizza and they were overall pretty happy with it. I started with a blood orange old fashioned that was made well without too much bitters in it. For my entre, I ordered the fettuccine. While the sauce was good, my peas and mushrooms were cooked beyond recognition. The chicken was also overcooked. My boyfriend got the ravioli and that was the saving grace of the meal. The pasta was clearly homemade and the tomato cream sauce was awesome. I gave it three stars because the service was good and everyone else’s food seemed spot on.

Don’t come thirsty…
I don’t know if the bartender was having a bad day or what but it took us 5 minutes for her to come over to us and she only had maybe 6 other customers sitting at the bar. She was very slow to offer us another round and we even watched another couple sharing the last sips of beer in one of their glasses because the other had been sitting empty for a while. AND THE PLACE WASN’T BUSY… I’d hate to see it on a Friday or Saturday night if she’s the bartender. But maybe she isn’t, maybe she was training… I certainly hope so…
Also– if you make your own chips (for the spinach artichoke dip) why are they stale??? The couple next to us said they taste like they were sitting out an the tray overnight and when they informed the bartender– she said ‘Maybe the bag was left open’… Say what???

Nice and worth a try
Nice 3 story business with 3 very different businesses on each floor
The ground floor is where the restaurant resides. Good service, fair food and very fair prices (minus the pizza).
Not a huge draw to return but maybe a loyal following will evolve. I hope they make it, but there are lots and lots of choices within 1 square mile so I’m just not sure.
Wine choices are ok but not great or different.
Beer list is good but no different than 10 other local options.
Pizza is ok, but not truly wood fired Classic Italian pizza. A bit sloppy, but better than some of the local pizzerias, but not for the price. Undercooked and overall very poor soggy dough. None of the three people making pizza have been properly trained nor has the person responsible for their dough or ingredients.
Not sure of their business plan, but it seems to be lacking.
Hope they make it, but the odds don’t seem wonderful.

My husband and I went here this past Saturday at around 6. We were seated right by the pizza oven area and could watch as the staff made pizzas and apps. We also got to hear the chef yell «I need a runner» more times than I care to count. It wasn’t really busy and other tables were available that weren’t so much «in the action», which was really the only down side to our visit. Well, that and it seemed like there was way too many staff members just standing around, but again that was partially due to our location.
The food we had was great and I would definitely want to go back and try the pizza. Both my husband and I ordered meatball dishes. I got the traditional meatball and he got the «firecracker» version. Both came with the house salad and a side of spaghetti. The salad features garbanzo beans which I’ve never had on a typical house salad and the homemade dressing was excellent. The meatballs were amazing, very rich and savory. My husband would have liked a bit more pasta to go with his. My portion of pasta was on the light side and it wasn’t properly drained, but not enough of a problem to send back.
We will definitely go back again and try the pizzas, but will ask not to be seated right next to the brick oven, it was awkward.

My husband & I anxiously awaited the opening of this place! We love woodfired pizza and have been missing it since Pi closed. We were here a couple days after they opened and Chef William and Troy (owner) spent a lot of time talking to us. Great people, good food. Highly recommend. One of these days, we’ll make it up to the piano bar!

We have been to Circolo twice. The first time it was just me and my husband. We sat at the downstairs bar. Bartender was attentive and knowledgeable. They have a nice draft selection, we chose the Lancaster Milk Stout. For starters we had the Sherry Crab Bisque — creamy, spicy and spot on. We then shared the Broke Da Mout pizza, it had San Marzano tomatoes, homemade meatballs, ricotta, hand-​pulled mozzarella, caramelized onions, mushrooms, roasted peppers — it was delicious and the crust was perfect.
On our next visit — there were twelve of us! I think we ordered just about everything on the menu and shared. Standouts: Sherry Bisque, house salad — they should bottle and sell their dressing — it’s that good, Rhode Island calamari, zucchini, Pear and Brie pizza, Salumist pizza, Margherita pizza and the Proscutto pizza. Great wood fired taste, with delicious crusts. Servers were friendly, attentive, and fun. Waiting on a table of twelve people seemed to be no problem for them at all, they seem to really enjoy working there! The owner came over a couple of times to make sure everything was okay. Very nice.
We all then moved upstairs to the piano bar. We sang, danced, and laughed for two hours straight. Again, great service — the piano player was great and played all of our requests. It was just too much fun. Thanks to all. We will be back again (and again).

The pizza was very good and I love the atmosphere. Can’t wait to go back and try out the stogie lounge.

Honestly wish I could give this 3 ½ stars. I thought the meal was very good, just that there are other pizza places that outdo it in the area.
I had the Salumist. Crust and sauce was awesome. However my pizza was warm not hot by the time it made it to my table. The meat was good not great. I was disappointed in the Soppreseta after having Proper Brickoven’s.
My father in law had a create your own with peperoni, mushrooms and fresh red peppers. Again his pizza was warm not hot, but he commented on the freshness of the mushrooms and peppers but felt the pepperoni was nothing memorable.
This was on on a busy Friday night around 630 in about the second week of business, so I will give the temperature of the pizza pass.
I liked the selection of beer, I would say they could eliminate some stuff we always see on tap (Blue Moon) and add some local microbrews. Can’t comment on the the mixed drinks.
Overrall would recommend, I’d like to try again at not so prime time. For comparison I would still recommend Proper Brickoven, Wingharts, and il pizzaiolo over this place.

Like that there’s 3 stories, something for everyone, dining, piano bar, cigar lounge. Food was good, had a tasty little strawberry shortcake drink.

Nice and new! The woodfired oven and prep area are in the window on Carson.
Stopped by after a meeting with someone that wanted to try the woodfired pizza.
There is a long list of beers and beers on tap to go along with a short libation menu.
Our service was very good.
We split a couple of pizza that were a little larger than we expected since my experience is that most woodfired pizza is on the smaller side. Our waitress stated that the pizza is about medium in size and was correct. The crust and San Marzano tomato with the pancetta, sopressata, and hand-​pulled mozzarella was good. There was suppose to be some basil on top, but it has forgotten. The crust was cooked well and the pizza was soft to chew and tasty. All in all, a pretty good pizza.
There is the 88 Piano Lounge on the second floor. The music starts at 5. Sounds like fun!
Stogies cigar bar is on the third floor.