Famoso Italian Pizzeria - Waterloo — Restaurant in Waterloo

TL;DR famoso is not safe for celiac/gluten allergies

I went to Famoso for the first time with a friend a little over a week ago. I’d heard good things and wanted to try it out.

I got the Siciliana meat lovers pizza 7” gluten free crust combo with the Napoli salad. My meal and my friend’s was delicious, however I have celiac disease and though I told them about it at multiple steps and confirmed their cross contamination protocols, I still had a horrible reaction from the meal.

I’m not sure if it was from the pizza or what, it did have flour on it but I assumed that because I confirmed so many times, that it was part of the gluten free cooking process.

Though the food was good, I cannot recommend that anyone with allergies go here until they address their protocols. If anyone has more severe allergies like anaphylaxis, this could’ve been much worse.

I contacted the manager of the store the next day and told them what happened. They were kind, however offered a complimentary meal or gift card. I definitely won’t be coming back, so this seemed like a poor way to handle it. They mentioned their system doesn’t allow for credit card refunds, but eventually I was able to convince them to give me a cash refund for the meal.

After I experienced this, other celiacs shared that they had similar reactions, so I wanted to share this here for others who look at reviews to understand what is safe and what isn’t. I went because I saw many reviews specifically for gluten free, but unfortunately it’s...

Lots to say about this place, both the good and not so good. tldr: The staff here are very friendly, I don’t recommend the cavoletti pizza, and this space may not be suitable for large groups (10+)

The staff here are amazingly nice and understanding. They helped us with celebrating a surprise birthday and even helped light the candles on the cake. They also helped throw out the lid later on. Even when I ordered later than the rest of the group, they were apologetic and did their best to get my food out asap.

We were a pretty big group, so perhaps some of this is understandable. We ran out of cutlery at our table twice, first as the food was coming out and second as we had the cake. We also never seemed to have enough water at the table. It felt like we were rationing and had to leave the table to find someone to ask for water refills. The water was also strangely warm? Not sure what that was about.

I ordered the Cavoletti, never had it before but definitely was not expecting what I got. That’s probably on me, but it tasted like salty Brie rind. I don’t like Brie rinds. Unfortunately, I just ate the crust and some of the dates on top. Not sure what I will do with the leftovers… this pizza was definitely not my cup of tea, I don’t think I’ve ever lost my appetite while eating until I had this. I ordered a hawaiian to go, so hopefully that...

I visited this place yesterday looking at the reviews but I was totally disappointed with the food and service. Pizza was overcooked and definitely it's not the Italian Italian place but that didn't spoil our evening. Waiting staff 1 & 2 was nice and friendly helped with the seating and food order. Staff 3 asked if we ordered 2 drinks and kept them on the table and left saying "whatever" when I'm trying to ask what is what, yes we were trying something new. Staff 4 removed our dumplings plate with 3 - 4 dumplings left in it, it's not matter of how many, but the courtesy of asking if she can remove, same with pizza plate, she already grabbed the plate while we are serving then she asked if she can remove when the plate is already off the table. We didn't have a plate to leave the crust on so we just left it in a tissue. I don't know if we overstayed, we got a table around 8.30 PM and asked for check at 9.40ish, we ordered a drink each, a plate of dumplings and a pizza. I would have considered leaving early if there were people waiting to be seated but I looked around there are few empty tables or could be it only happened to us. I'm not writing this hoping they might improve because I don't really care, there are plenty of other options and I'm not going there anyway, but hoping it will help someone to decide if this is...