Piccante Pizza

Reminiscent of bowling alley pizza.

Dissappointing. Should have just gotten a typical jumbo slice — not worth the money.

They delivered pizza to us for almost 3 years, once every 1 or 2 weeks. Very kind people, timely delivery and super delicious pizza. Thank you guys, I wish you delivered to MD too :(

Believe it or not I actually know what you’re thinking right now. Something along the lines of:
«Hey, this place can’t be as bad as all of these reviews make it out to be!»
It is.
I made the mistake of giving this place a try (mostly because they were the only place that still delivered that late at night in my area) and it was probably the worst pizza that I’ve ever had. I ordered fries as well (undercooked and cold) and the food was roughly half an hour late. I’m usually not above giving an establishment a second chance after a poor experience, but I will *never* patron this business again

My wife and I split a medium pizza with pepperoni, sausage and green peppers and it was delicious! The crust was fantastic and it was sausage slices not ground sausage. I just happened to pick this place because it was close to where I was walking in Adams Morgan. They said the pizza would be ready in 10 minutes and it was right on time.

Hooked up with a great livingsocial deal and ate some wings and fries. Wings get a no. Fries get a resounding yes. Place could use some scrubing.

I had the pepperoni slice on the way to the Metro and it was as expected. The flavor was OK and did what any $ 3 slice would do at that time of night and that was get me home. Next slide please…

I’m sorry, this place freaking sucks. I tried it for the second time last night. I’ve read the horror stories about delivery, so I walk in and order and do takeout. But let me tell you, they have no concept of time!
«10 minutes!» Ok that sounds reasonable for them to reheat a calzone. It’s 9:45 and I have a 10pm sunday night show to watch. So I say I’ll be back in 10. I come back at 9:57, giving them ample time over 10 minutes. 2 – 3 minutes they say. Ok, now it’s 10:02. «1 more minute» — honestly just tell me when the goddarn thing will be done. If you told me 19 minutes, I would’ve rethought the process.
But that’s not the most egregious offense. What offended me was that I chose to buy a calzone listed at $ 9.55 on the menu. «$ 11» he quoted me… wait a minute, I’m not a math wiz, but the 10% dc tax would put that closer to $ 10.55.
«How is that $ 11?»
«Tax,» he said.
Yes I know but tax is not 15%. And you, sir, are arbitrarily quoting me a price, and this is not the first time — and both times just happened to be higher than the actual price.
And lets go back a minute: $ 10.55 for a calzone? Was it warm after that 19-​minute wait? No. Was it fresh? No. Was it filling? Yes. But in a very disgusting way.
So the two times I’ve been here I’ve been quoted a time that was probably half of what it actually took and a price that was higher than it should have been. Needless to say, I will not be going back, despite the .1 mile walk. And I don’t think you should go, either.

My husband and I have ordered from here several times. Generally they are quick and the pizza is decent. Today we ordered pizza and due to a communication error (
) our pizza still wasn’t here 1hr 15min later. We called them and they sent the delivery guy back (insisting that he had knocked at both the front and back door??) He was here in a few minutes and when we opened the pizza box it looked like it was dropped on the ground, upside, and thrown around the car. The occasional cheese slip happens from hitting the brakes too hard, I get that, but add the fact it is freezing cold it just isn’t edible. 30 minutes ago we called to complain and we were told they would call us right back. Still nothing and now no answer when we call them! This is ridiculous. We’re done with Picante.

When I order a pizza and am advised that it will take 45min — 1hr… I wait that long…
If it takes half an hour longer… I call… WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE WAS NO ORDER?
Starved. Annoyed. Ridiculous.

Literally, just waited over an hour for the pizza, when I opened the box, it was cold, hardly any sauce or cheese and tasted terrible. I called back and explained the situation and the woman was very rude and defensive. I will say (after arguing for about 2 minutes) they did send out a second pizza free of charge and it was very good. However, I will not be ordering from here again.

This is what a carry out pizza should be. Flavorful. Cheesy. But not greasy.
One complaint though was that I ordered the spicy sauce, and it wasn’t spicy all, not in the least. It’s also too expensive. $ 15 for a large that really isn’t that large, meh.
On the side, I got an order of buffalo wings. Note to self: do not order the buffalo wings. Whatever sauce the wings were dipped in was no longer on the wings by the time I ate them. Instead the wings were sitting in a greasy red puddle at the bottom of the takeout container, and it didn’t taste like buffalo sauce either.

I recently went to this place for the first time to get a pizza for take-​out. Ordered the chicken pesto pizza. It tasted awesome, very tasty. My only concern was that there didn’t seem to be any pesto on it. But it was so yummy it didn’t bother me. Next time I order it though, I will ask for the pesto to be there.

Feeling like cooking or putting on pants was just too much for lunch today, we ordered some delivery from Piccante’s. Delivery was pretty fast. Probably less than 40 minutes (we’re about 0.5 miles away from this place).
My husband ordered a gyro, which he inhaled. I heard it was really good. He got cheese fries on the side, and those were only «meh.» I ordered the eggplant panini sans feta cheese (sometimes 2 types of cheese is just too much). It was great. Lots of eggplant, kalamata olives, and not greasy at all. We also got a slice of yummy, rich, well-​balanced tiramisu.

Piccante has good pizza, unfortunately. Why unfortunately? Because you’ll have to wait an exorbitant amount of time for it. I recently ordered a pizza for delivery and was quoted the usual DC delivery wait time of about 45 minutes. An hour later, with no pizza at my door, I called to find out where it was. «Oh, it will be there shortly,» I was told. Another half hour passes, another phone call made. «I’ll look into it and call you back in 5 minutes.» 10 minutes passes, no phone call received, still no pizza. I call back a third time, and amidst profuse apologies, am told that the pizza is on its way.
Long story short, it took 2 hours to receive one freakin pizza. Amazingly, it was actually hot when we finally received it, which indicated it was clearly not on its way when we were told, after an hour, that it would be here shortly. What did we get for our troubles? A refund perhaps? No, a slice of cake. Gee, thanks.

This place keeps me coming back. I ordered a pizza at lunch today. The downside, it was an hour late. I was pretty angry. However, when it got here, the pizza was delivered by a manager with profuse apologies, and a ten dollar refund.
The pizza was delicious as always, and the apology/​refund went a long way toward restoring my impression of this place.

This place has come to rescue several times at 3 a.m. now and each time they’ve been quick, delicious and oh so needed.
You might think I’m just jaded because they deliver so late into the night, but that’s not true. I’ve also ordered their sandwiches and salads during normal hours AND LIKED IT.
Sorry to hear Courtney R. got a soggy pizza, but that might have been a fluke, because our’s has always been the perfect mix of gooey cheese and chewy crust with a nice little bite. Disclaimer though: I hate thin crust pizza, so the thicker and chewier the better. They even deliver pizza BY THE SLICE.
I live near here, so it’s not like we’re desperate for places that deliver, and we still order from here at least 2 times a month.

It looks really nice and their pizza is so delicious.
When you go there, you feel you’re in aeroplane.
It’s really exotic.
Just try it.

I went in for a late night slice and I thought the pizza was very good. Maybe it was my post-​alcohol state, but I thought «mmmm this is pretty good. I’ll grab a delivery menu.»
So fast forward a full 20 hours later. With my hangover fading, I was hungry for some pizza so I thought I’d order. Selection is good, prices are very good. I ordered. I was told 45 minutes and this is when the fun began.
An hour and a half later, no pizza.
I call. A very apologetic woman informs me their driver is new – first day on the job. Says he’ll be there in 15 minutes, again very sorry.
I’m okay with it. No rush. Yes, I’m starving, but I understand the situation and a heartfelt apology goes a long way.
20 minutes later, someone is trying to open my apartment door – turning the knob. Now I live in a complex with security. The delivery guy was supposed to call and I would walk to the main door to let him in (my buzzer isn’t hooked up). Occasionally the security guards will let the delivery guys in and they’ll knock on my inside door. That’s cool – saves me a walk up to the main door.
Anyway, so someone is trying to walk into my apartment – not knocking, but turning the knob. I open the door to a flustered delivery guy wearing a helmet.
Me: Uh… you can just knock. You don’t need to try to walk in. Just knock.
Him: Sorry sir. I’m late. I’m afraid I’m going to lose my job. yadda yadda yadda.
Me: Oooookkaaayyy.
Him: [hands me the red heat bag with the pizza and sandwich in it.
Me: Uh… why are you handing me this. Can you take the pizza out? Here – I’ll take the pizza, you take your heat bag thing.
Him: [takes the pizza box out, top is completely covered with grease and crushed inwards]
Him: Your phone number wasn’t working. Is this your number.
Me: Looks like my number.
Him: Well let me call it to check again.
Me: What does it matter at this point. You’re here. Your handing me – or trying to hand me – my pizza. Can I just pay?
Him: Did you call the pizza shop?
Me: Yes, I called when it was 40 minutes late.
Him: How many times did you call?
Me: Only once
Him: Only once?
Me: Can I just pay?
Him: Oh yes, sorry.
(He wasn’t rude during this transaction, but more flustered and confused. I was mildly amused and a bit perplexed. It was pretty sureal)
Pizza was stuck to the top of the box and fairly cold. Oh well. I was laughing at this point at the comedy of what just happened. My housemate was laughing that they guy was just trying to walk into my apartment. Most people knock. He planned on walking in, perhaps to hand the pizza (still in the warming bag) to me on my sofa. I’m not sure if that’s creepy or an example of true service!
Pizza was decent. Not as good as the by-​the-​slice slice I had the night before. However, I often find this to be the case for most pizza shops. Italian sandwich was okay. Nothing to write home about. Hummus was decent. As an aside I ordered enough for dinner and lunch and dinner the next night. I’m lazy.
Anyway, fast forward 30 minutes later. Knock on the door…
Open up the door. Its another delivery guy holding what looks to be an identical order.
Him: Hi you called about your order.
Me: Yeah, but I already got it.
Him: It was late and probably cold, so we made you another.
Me: Oh. Wow. Okay.
Him: The other delivery guy is lost.
Me: Lost?
Him: Yes, lost. We haven’t heard from him. He never came back to the shop. We have no idea where he is.
Me: He seemed pretty confused when he was here. He didn’t know what he was doing. But its all good.
Him: [hands me new order]. We’re really sorry.
Me: No, its okay. Don’t worry about it.
Him: Sounding relieved. Okay. Have a good night.
So now I have another large Greek pizza, Italian sandwich and hummus. AND they gave me two different types of cake/​dessert.
So I felt like I just HAD to write a review about this experience. Take from it what you will. I now have enough food to eat for a week.
Food: 3.5÷5 (Delivery was a 3, by the slice in person was a 4)
Delivery: I don’t even now how to rate this. Both a ⁰⁄₅ and ⁵⁄₅ at the same time.
Service: ⁵⁄₅ (Mistakes happen. The went above and beyond to correct things)
Bottom line: I’ll order from them again. I should also say that when I went to the shop in person after late night bar hopping, they were incredibly friendly to us. Friendly to the degree that I was made a mental note to order from them again. They have late hours and deliver very late as well.

2.5 stars. I hate to take Piccante’s Unilocal V like this, but the pizza was more than a stone’s throw away from delicious.
The crust was soggy, and was a bit reminiscent of Jerry’s cheese pizza. It does the trick, but it doesn’t make you do the Bonchon dance (that’s where you do a jig of yum upon first bite – I’ve only seen this happen at Bonchon, but I digress).
The customer service was excellent. The girl who took my order was kind, helpful, friendly, etc. I think it was the same girl who ended up delivering my pizza. A 14″ cheese will run you $ 10.95 – not bad. I ordered a garden salad – again average, but I got some veggies in me to offset the guilt of eating pizza.
Would eat here again if drunk, or if my only other option was Pete’s. Zing! Again! Yes.