La Pizza Fresca Ristorante Review: Delicious Food but Mixed Dining Experience

I’m torn about this place. How to begin?

When we arrived, we stated we had reservations and were checked off on a list. That was it—we were checked off. I thought we were waiting for something, but after some time I realized we were still waiting. So I went over again and said, “We have reservations under so and so.” This was a different lady, and she said okay. I looked at her and asked, “May we be seated then? We have been standing here for some time.” She then asked another female to direct us to a seat.

We mentioned we had a cake and were informed there was a $35 cake fee. The cake cost $25, so the fee for plating and playing the birthday song on the speakers was higher than the cake price itself. That put a bit of a sour note on the evening for me.

We were seated and starving. Our friends arrived not long after we were seated. Quite a long time passed before we were given any bread. Did I mention we were very hungry? My son was starving and even got a headache. I would have expected bread to come out faster—it’s bread, after all.

The actual food was delicious. I had a grilled calamari appetizer and a margherita pizza. I felt the sauce, bread, and cheese were delicious. The only drawback was that the sauce made the pizza bread somewhat soggy, but I could manage that because the sauce was really good.

The pizza takes some time to prepare, so be sure to order it in advance. The appetizers, on the other hand, came really fast. The grilled calamari comes with a salad of sorts, which was pretty good. Although at one point, I think I ate some olive oil paste or something. That caught me off guard and was difficult for me to swallow, as I’m not a big fan of olives.

Regarding ordering, the staff were somewhat accommodating and patient, which was definitely a plus. Do order in advance due to the queue and everything being made to order.

At some point, they adjusted the fire in the fireplace cooking area, and the smoke became really strong. It was burning our eyes, and we all ended up coughing and tearing up. Most of us left at that point while the others paid the bill. They might want to work on that part since it caused discomfort.

I struggled with the grading for this place. I wanted to give them a 3, but little things I found annoying—and that might keep me from returning—forced the rating down a bit. If I give these guys a 3, then I’d have to give many other places a 4 to be fair.

On sheer food quality, they are definitely a 3 or 4—the food was really good. But the overall experience brought it down somewhat for me.