Reviews of A & A Pagliai's Pizza (Restaurant)

Zachary Johannes

I always go here when I'm feeling the best pizzas around. The crust on their pizza is amazing with a crunch, but not burnt. If you want pizza and are willing to spend a little extra for it, I would go here hands down.

Jeff Conrad

All the way from Montana for this pizza

Johnny Taylor

No, it's not deep dish. No, it's not New York-style. It's delicious, crispy thin crust, with fresh toppings and classic flavors! If you come to Pagliai's you're getting one thing, and one thing only: pizza. Maybe you'll have a Coke or a glass of wine with it. You'll enjoy watching the crew of paper-hatted pizza-makers work in a tiny space at the front window, just as generations of them have done since the restaurant opened decades ago.

Aaron McNally

Friendly, Fast, and Flavorful! Classic scene, timeless taste. HIGHLY recommended.

Meghan Shannon

The pizza was really yummy and the staff was very quick considering it was very busy.

Erich Rebenstorf

Very friendly and helpful staff even though the place was packed on a Friday night. Pizza style is a little different from I like but still very good.

David Brown

The best pizza around.

Matt fowler

Best Pizza around!

Jon Lubke

This is now our favorite pizza place when we visit Iowa City.

dj nxtraf

its not horrible, but I wasn't a fan. props to them for having good clientele tho

j reh

Welcome to me in thanking me for my purchase pizza was fantastic off early water while I waited

Jennifer Hill

I love their pizza!

Stephanie Musser

Great pizza, but is a super crowded building.

Zach D.

Pizza that is baked to perfection. Always crispy crust and cheese melted to perfection. Minimal grease.

Scott Dolash

Friendly staff, good pizza, clean and spacious dining area! Will go back

Naseem Salem

Best pizza in town was well worth a visit

Mark Jackson

One of the best local pizzas you can get. Great neighborhood location.

Ivy Stein

Wasn't a fan of the pizza, the crust was impossible with braces because it was so hard. We ordered a cheese pizza. I've had better. I don't think there is free refills either. I do like the feel tho it's kinda like a small town diner with the open kitchen thing going on.

David Ancelet

Pagliai's is a fantastic local pizza place near the University of Iowa campus and a favorite of mine to visit on trips. It's always consistent, and the service has never been disappointing.

Alicia Keiller

Family owned. Good pizza.

Dante Nava

The pizza is very good the atmosphere looks cool. I picked up pizza to take back to the hospital after one of my kids was born. They're open till 11, which is great considering not much else around there is, but they are not open for lunch. It's thin crust pizza, tasty, and limited menu. It almost tastes like its been wood fired.

6 Crazy Morrisons

Pizza was superb, but I feel it is a bit over priced.

Mattklein3@gmail.com 3Drahthaar

I've been eating this fabulous pizza ever since I can remember (30+ yrs). Great anytime!

Philip Huang

Wow! They are super busy (on a Sunday afternoon). Pizza was solid, although the lack of combinations was interesting... And I know my pizza having worked as a server at a certified neapolitan pizzeria for 9 months. Not always my favorite style of pizza, but I respect them for what they do. Keep up the good work!

Philipp DeGood

The best pizza joint in town! I highly recommend this place!

Candace Noble

Fab pizza, great service. Wonderful homemade sausage!

Louis Harvey

With all the pizza places around Iowa City this is best! Classic old school pizza shop vibes and you can see the pizza makers at work. Best thing on the menu is the Palace Special! Come here everytime Im in Iowa City!

Bobby Wade

Always great pizza in a never changing atmosphere.

Patrick Frasher

Fantastic little place for you and the kids you and the wife it's a great little pizza joint

N M

Best pizza in the United States? Maybe. Best in Iowa? Undoubtedly.

Jerry Jones

Placed an order to go. I was told it would be thirty minutes for the pizza to be ready. I showed up at thirty minutes. She girl at the register was looking for my ticket so I could pay, and she found it at the assembly line. The pizza had not even gone into the oven yet. It was not even finished being prepared. She told me it would be about thirty more minutes, and that they got busy. The way she talked, she was trying to make me believe that the time from when she finished taking my order until the time she turned it in, they were hammered with orders, doubling my time. I was not overly happy, but I placed my card on the counter to pay, but explaining that the service was unacceptable. Honestly, why else do I call in a to go order? If I had all the time to wait, I would just show up, and place the order in person.One of the guys on the assembly line turns around, and in quite a bitchy tone explains that 'they cannot make the pizzas cook any faster!' I do not tolerate being argued with in obvious cases of the business screwing up. I asked to speak with the manager. He could not be pulled away from what he was doing next to the guy that was arguing with me. Now it is quite obvious that the place suffers from ineffective management. I looked at the manager, and I said "Now your employees are arguing with customers?" All he did was tell the cashier that I could pay for the pizza, or they could cancel the order. He was less than ten feet away, and he could not take a moment to deal with a customer complaint on their service, or even deal with his employees arguing with customers.I understand they are busy, and upsetting one person means little, but if this is the trend, the owner may want to look into it. Otherwise, he may find more and more customers unwilling to deal with a poorly managed restaurant.

Wade Prasil

Good pizza and service

Joseph Martinez

Best pizza in the world

Maria Houser Conzemius

The pizza is good but expensive. The service is excellent. They serve wine and beer, probably pop, but no salads. If everyone at your table orders a different kind of pizza, it can add up to a tidy sum. The pizza is good but the crust is tasteless. I prefer my husband's hand-made pizza crust, which is half whole-wheat bread flour with garlic.

Julia Klunenberg

The service was speedy, however, the pizza was merely average for an above average price. The crust was undercooked and the overall flavor of the pizza was kind of bland. The menu is pretty limited as well. Overall, a decent place if you are looking for pizza in a hurry.

Michael Overstreet

For the price ($16 for 12in-1 topping) I was very regretful to have chosen Pagliai's. Besides the inexperienced kids behind the counter making "Iowa's best pizza", the crust, what some people claim to be a "cracker crust", is just a bland, dry, board. Why must some pizzerias neglect the crust! You well and truly would do better to buy a Red Baron frozen pizza than pay $16 for a topping-focused dry, hard pie whose crust they must bulk order from afar. Will not go again.

Carol Cross

Good pizza. Good folk

Stephanie Timm

An iconic place and iconic pizza. We get the veggie pizza and add sausage, it's so good! The waitress was so nice and really made the whole dinner. Since I was a child it was such a cool place watching them make the pizza in the window. Best place in Iowa City for Pizza

Aaron Campbell

Great place. Great pizza. Needs a bigger menu in my opinion!

Diane Stastny

Great pizza, great service and great atmosphere

Robbie Wheeler

Great pizza

Andy O'Brien

The only experience I've ever had with outright drug addiction comes is my relationship with Pagliai's Pizza. I have an inability to consume or be near Pagliai's with any amount of relative moderation. The pizza is so good I want to be near it all the time. I sweat when I think about it. I have burned my tongue on Pagliai's an incalculable amount of times because of a failure simply being patient enough to wait until the pizza was of temperature amount not to injure me. I can't help it. I need that delicious in my head immediately. I should wear a muzzle when I leave that place for at least ten minutes. I have a difficult time walking through that part of the neighborhood without smelling the greatest thing on planet earth, grabbing a pizza and eating it at a pace that my mother once called "upsetting." I'm not sure what they are putting in there, but if its crack I'm still getting it. It would make far more sense. They could charge me 2,000 dollars for a palace special and I'm still going once a month. The pizza is so good that Pagliai's opens at four o'clock and after thinking about it this long I'm definitely having it for dinner. My complaint about Pagliai's is that my mouth isn't big enough to shove more of it into my head like a gluttonous Roman ruler with no concept of what overindulgence is. I urge all of you to walk in there with caution. This amount of taste bud excitement may turn you into the Pagliai's junkie I clearly have become. I need a nap.

Kristi

Yummy and has a hometown feel.

Rod Siebert

IMHO, this place is the bomb!! There are many factors that go into a pizza such as crust, sauce, ingredient quality, etc. Every individual has there likes and dislikes. I eat pizza in Iowa City on average of 3 times per week. This place is by far my favorite!! Its a little more expensive than your run of the mill fast food pizza but you get what you pay for here. Pagliai's is managed and operated with very high standards and its obvious from the appearance of the place, quality of the product and training of the staff. Paglia's has been in business for many, many years. Their longevity and success should speak for itself. Simply put, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this establishment.

Hillary Mack

Awesome food and friendly atmosphere. A bit expensive.

Sam Notz

Best pizza I've ever had, nothing comes close!

C B

Good pizza, good service

Blue Angel

Speedway gas station pizza is better.

Sue Hahn

Great pizza, great service

Brandon Stalzer

Great pizza and old school atmosphere.

Henry Eicher

A down to earth pizza place in the middle of downtown Iowa City. Indoor seating. 3 different sizes. I ordered the 10". More than one person can eat. But I ate it all anyway. Made fresh by a five man crew in the front of the store. Well staffed. Clean. A place to bring the family or go alone, as I did. Priced reasonably. Recommend!

Katie Fiegen

An Iowa City favorite!

Tom Foraker

Best pizza ever.

Andrea Compton

Excellent thin crust pizza! Have enjoyed eating here many times. Old, small town charm!

Jeff Lowe

Simply, the best pizza I have ever had. Somehow, the delicious thin crust holds up well underneath their incredible sauce and fresh ingredients. Their sausage is truly amazing. Try the "Palace Special," my favorite pizza on the planet.

Niq Clark

The pizza here is better than average but the reason anyone comes is because the place is so quintessentially, reassuringly, timelessly Iowa City

Melanie Louise Kirk

They have delicious old fashioned pizza and are open late. I will definitely be back.

Katie Schlitter

Great pizza and atmosphere for a family

Jeremy Decker

best pizza in town little pricey but worth it

Ray L

Been eating here for almost 40 years. Never been disappointed. Cleanest restaurant there is.

John Ostrem

Great thin crust pizza that's tasted the same for more than 50 years

Brian Rutherford

Awesome pizza. Great service.

Howard Vernon

Take out order on 12/27. Pagliais always on time. If they say 15 minutes, the pizza will be ready in 15 minutes. Customer service is stellar.

Supersonic Man

great service and quality. only place I can get my favorite kind of pizza

Brian S. Anderson

Great pizza, friendly staff, great service.

Billy Harding

Very nice wait staff pizza was great

Johnny McDonald

Got the Palace Special...it was perfect. Was pretty quiet on the Tuesday night I was there. Staff was greatly attentive. Beer was cold, pizza was VERY good and filling so no complaints.

AMY PETERSON

Simply... THE BEST

Ashley Connett

The food was excellent, service was okay, but I more felt bad for the waitress for having to squeeze around every over-loaded table to get to anyone else. Very small dining area with only booths that seat 4, so large groups should carry out. When it comes to the food though, believe the hype.. Pagliai's is the best pizza place in town.

Timothy Fuhrman

Dinner and a show, watching pizza being made and then eating it is wonderful. It's a definite place to eat if you come to town.

Stephen Smith

Nice atmosphere, good service, great food.

Thomas Wilcox

Iconic, awesome pizza. Love it

Rakatan Lord

Mama Mia it's a good pizza alright.

SirCowboy Duke

local favorite

Bo Kapatsila

A good family pizza place. Parking is abundant nearby and the neighborhood is just great for a night out.

Nancy Dugan

Am Iowa City tradition. Paglia is a thin crust pizza with lots of toppings. Make sure you order more to take home ... no regrets! Delicioso!

Kristen Miller

Top 5 best pizza ever!

Tom Teresi

Great service!

Paul Clowser

Always great pizza and friendly staff. Just pizza, though - no salads or sides.

Larry Herring

Best pizza on the planet. Palace special is awesome

Derek Barnard

The best pizza in Iowa City. Laidback atmosphere and pop or draft beer.

Daneel Olivaw

My Daughter was right. Best pizza in Iowa City. Great, friendly staff. Will definitely be back.

Max Goetz

Been going here since I was a kid in the 80's. One of my favorite pizza places in the corridor. Friendly staff. Pizzas made fresh right in the front window for everyone to see. Love the Pepperoni.

Al Smith

This place is AWESOME! In town from St. Louis, headed downtown Iowa City for dinner. Found this place, excellant pizza, service and the cleanest place I have seen in a very long time. Keep up the good work!

Chris Ball

Great pizza

Peeps in Space

Best pizza place in town! Great pizza ingredient combinations, reasonable prices, awesome service.

Ray Stone

This is a well known local place. Everything was good, but the pizza isn't great. I'd still go back.

Matt Pyscher

Excellent pizza and staff

Chris Moore

Always the best pizza in town. Try the Palace Special.

Stephon Berry

The service was great, the pizza itself was thin-crust which being from Chicago was sub par for me. I like a hardy softer crust. Overall would eat here again though.

Dillon Schmidt

Best pizza in Iowa. I have never been the disappointed in the slightest and I've been going there for over 10 years.

Crystal Landreth

Best pizza in Iowa City!

Brady Lanham

It's almost better when they are extremely busy, the oven on a busy night gives the pizza crust a lot more flavor.

Karla M

Best pizza in town

Casey Oztel

Quick service, reasonable prices. Food is good, but nothing super exciting.

troy tietge

Fresh taste, slightly overpriced.

Ann Condon

Greatest pizza ever

Jonathan

Sausage pepperoni pizza, the usual for me. Pagliai's is, in my opinion, the best pizza place in town. The atmosphere is nice, quiet, friendly. The pizza is delicious and I highly recommend it to anybody that likes a solid pizza. Their take home frozen pizzas are pretty tasty, too.

Bobby Merrival

Very over rated and over priced .

Mark & Amy Smellie

Simply the best pizza in town... unless you hate thin crust pizza. But still, the family run open kitchen and the great service will count for a lot.

John Malenfant

Superb pizza for more than 40 years.

PGHS

Real pizza here

Taryn Dlouhy

An Iowa City Staple! Must have, while in town! Even to watch the cooks work in their classic window and such an OG touch!

Tom Townsend

Best IC pizza. Thin crust deliciousness

Kim Hertel

Always great pizza. Love to get my pags fix

Lee Lenton

I consider it the best pizza in i.c. Also a great staff.

Linda

Always a treat

Alyssa Henscheid

Great thin crust pizza - an Iowa City staple.

Ben Cool

A little on the pricey side, but well worth it. Menu is simple, but effective. You can buy frozen pizzas as well. They could use the help of a longer beer and wine list. Your pizza will come to you at approximately the same temperature as the oven, so let it sit for a minute or six before eating more than you should have eaten. I always get canadian bacon and sausage on my pizza.

Jeremy Bruce

Great place

David Thomas

Interesting place. Old style vibe, solid pizza. Friendly staff. It all works, though nothing stands out.

Peg Becicka

Love this place. Best Pizza around. Visit as much as we can.

mark van handel

Excellent pizza. The best in town!

Sadjad Anzabi Zadeh

Pizza was good, staff were kind and polite.

Bill Crowley

The pizza here is ALWAYS fantastic. Fun to go to a place with such a strong tie to my childhood. Friday night Pagliai's. Ok, I know it's Wednesday. Still great pizza.

Mr. Pickup

Pagliais has always been a family regimen when visiting Iowa City. The pizza is great, service is excellent and we’ve always admired the welcoming and clean atmosphere. However, our last visit was less than satisfactory due to a strange incident we had to witness while dining in. One of the waitresses in particular, Annie is what we were told her name was, was quite openly mouthy and threatening to other employees throughout our entire visit. She would make rude and strange comments to the younger girls doing their jobs, some of which were obviously unwelcome. All in all, we will return but hope that this situation is different, both for our experience as guests and the wellbeing of the other employees.

Brian Porter

Love the sausage pizza

bobbi halstead

This place is the best ever! Always great food.

Rhonda Pudil

nice staff and best pizza in town

Rachel Klein

Pizza was good, but it had been hyped up so much I found it was over rated. It was totally fine, no speciality pizzas

Nancy Piersol

Pagliai's has the BEST thin crust pizza. Top quality ingredients. It still remains our favorite through all our travels.

Dereck Capper

Best pizza in Iowa City period. I eat there every couple weeks.

Sarah Smull

Love this place

Christine Bock

Best pizza in the universe. Bar none.

M Bre

I have had pizza in a lot of places and this place ranks well. I like thin crust sothat you can taste the ingredients and not be stuffed with the bread. I tried two types, the palace special which has meats and the veggies special which doesn't. The veggies tasted fresh, the meats were plentiful, the pepperoni want even too greasy. The crust had a light char and the pizzas were served right from the oven. They were actually too hot to eat for a few minutes. There are likely better but I know for a fact there are much worse. Go try it. Expect pizza and you will likely be pleased.

Danny Schroeder

Really good pizza, amazing staff, and a super shiney oven. What's not to like?

Paul Seufferlein

Always great pizza!

ashley tyler

Our server was amazing and the pizza was good. It was crisp but there is an option for thicker crust. It's a great place to build your own pizza!

Todd Groth

Other than the name, I'm not sure I would go as far as calling it a traditional Italian pizza........ but the pizza ain't bad! It is certainly fresh & certainly beats any of the chain pizza joints.

Greg Langkau

Wonderfully old style feel with great pizza and service.

Ryan Pedrick

Terrible service. I've had better frozen pizzas than this place.

Shawn Selch

Great thin crust pizza. An Iowa City tradition

Patricia Fuehring

Service was horrible, pizza was not the best. I expected more from reviews, but was very disappointed.

Russ Vander pol

Great thin crust pizza was awesome . My family and friends loved it.

M Schulzy

If you're in Iowa City this is a must-stop place. Probably the best pizza I've ever had. I would highly recommend it. We got a large sausage and mushroom, green olive and shrimp, And the pepperoni was excellent. I would recommend this place and eat here again.

Marissa Reed

Been coming here for years! Excellent!!

Jake Bales

Awesome as usual

J Richard Fikuart

Best pizza ive had recently,so much so, that my party of four ordered a second one. Beer selection is very good as well

Tyler Naumowicz

I've eaten a lot of pizza in my day, and this pizza ranks at the top of my pizza chart no matter how hard I try to de-throne it. There's something about the simplicity of it that makes it so dang tasty. The "Palace Special" is the pie of choice if you want to get the full experience of Pagliai's. I tell ya, there's no place that beats this place.

Scott Murray

Been going here for 30 years. Love it!!!

Felicia Morris

The pizza was decent, but very over priced. I could also see the wait staff looking at their phones behind the counter.

Evan Maifeld

Best Pizza around thin crust great sauce, multi generation family owned and opened.

Pia Kate Jakobsson

Good pizza, friendly service, basic diner interior.,

Connie Smith

Love the Palace Special but my favorite is Shrimp & Onion.

Monique Holtkamp

A local must try. What you'll find is hot, tasty pizza.

Liam McGillin

great

Dirk Teichman

What can I say, if you want pizza in Iowa City, this is the place to go. Great pizza, great service. So glad my daughter took us there. And a big plus in this crowded university town, lots of parking.