We visisted on a recent overnight visit to Alexandria for a soccer tournament. And nothing says "soccer tournament" like eating out for 8 consecutive meals, so here we are.
The only pictures I took were of my kid, who lost a tooth while eating a slice of pizza. This in itself was a minor miracle, as just 1 night before, my wife and I had to fight through 45 minutes of tears and terror to extract another loose tooth from this same child.
There were a couple of blunders--I ordered 3 bottles of water but there were only 2 in the self-serve cooler. And the wings I ordered never came out. The staff was very apologetic and helpful but we didn't have time to stay while they attempted to rush a replacement order of wings. I didn't mind either of those too much because it was a massively busy Saturday night and these things happen.
But all was forgiven with the pizza. It was great--impressive. My favorite types of pizza come from stone / brick ovens--not so hot as to create a floppy Neopolitan pizza, but hot enough to get a reasonably crispy crust and a few char spots. The problem with these ovens, in my opinion, is that when pizza shops get busy they have a tendency to pull pizzas out of the oven too early. I don't like that.
The oven at Andy's was something I had never seen before (despite being in the professional food service business for 25 years)--a stone pizza conveyor. I had to look this up online to confirm it existed. You get 2 benefits here--the crispy crust from the stone, as well as a consistent cook time on every pizza becuase the conveyor stays at a constant speed. I loved the pizza. And having a conveyor oven is the only way this place could have kept up with how many pizza orders they were getting.
Unlike the bottled water cooler, the self-serve beer cooler was fully stocked and I took advantage of this. There is a small seating area where my kids ate their slices and watched tv while I ate my slice and drank the beer, and this felt like parental nirvana.
I tried to get the soccer team to go back to this place the next day but the powers that be selected Panera Bread. That was sad. But 5 stars for Andy's and I look forward...
Read moreI have to say the best thing about this place was the staff’s upbeat and positive attitudes. Our pizza was much to be desired, same with our Caesar salad, especially the soggy stale croutons. The dressing, however, was extremely flavorful. Our pizzas barely had anything on it, they were so rubbery and chewy; I had a hard time, chewing it, and yes, I have all my teeth. Our cryst had a rubber like texture and was extremely dry underneath, but then had a little crunchy spot in the very center…
I had better pizza all over Hawaii, than this highly rated pizza shop. My margherita pizza only had one basil leaf on it, no tomatoes, barely any cheese, and virtually no flavor. My daughters, mushroom and onion pizza did not have any white sauce on it, or at least we could not find it during the duration of eating her slice. My husband said his slices tasted like cardboard. The ground chili flakes however, was extremely flavorful, and helped out a lot.
One major thing that was a huge problem was the music. Our family decided to dine in and the whole duration of the time the music was explicit R&B. This is extremely distasteful, especially in a pizza spot, in the middle of the afternoon. We grinched as we our awful pizza. There was also a lot of cussing in the music too; which typically would’ve been OK had we been out at a club, and...
Read moreLet me start by saying this is my second review about my visit to Andys. The first was on Yelp. But I thought since this place was so amazing I would leave a review on here as well! I absolutely love this place! You cant beat it. I came in over this past weekend for my second visit. It was equally pleasurable to the first visit. I was very lucky to be helped by the same young woman, Allison again. She remembered me from my first visit. I couldn't believe it. Talk about great service!! She even remembered helping me to decide on the house special pepperoni pizza last time. And can I just say... that was out of this world!!! She helped my wife and I decide that we should try something else this time around...and what a great idea that was because we tried THE CARNIVORE PIE!! Everything was perfect about this one too! Toppings were perfectly proportioned and even though there was a ton of meat on the pie, it was STILL CRISPY! I couldn't believe it. We also tried the lemonade. SO REFRESHING! And from what Allison told us, I believe it is made fresh and you can even add alcohol to it if you'd like!! SWEET! We will definitely be coming back again and again. The food here is AMAZING and the service is just as amazing! Thank you to Andy for another amazing meal and to Allison for making us feel at home while...
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