Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana — Restaurant in Alexandria

Ok so going to be fully transparent and honest with the review, which is how they should be. I went here today with a buddy based on a recommendation from his friend. I ordered a large pizza (18”) 1/2 tomato and cheese and 1/2 pesto, pepperoni, cheese, and onion. I have been making a lot of homemade pesto pizzas recently and like them so I wanted to try theirs. The pesto was in the toppings section disclosed as a topping. However I explained what was my interpretation and explained I would take just the pesto sauce and no tomato sauce as I thought it would be a pesto sauce on the pizza. Nobody explained it to me that it wasn’t a pesto sauce I was adding. It says pesto as an option for toppings. Here is where the problem started. Maybe I should have known it wasn’t a sauce because it was listed under the toppings section? Had the waitress explained it isn’t a sauce, I would have changed my order but maybe she didn’t know either. What I got was a plain bread w cheese, pepperoni, sausage, and onion. Apparently they drizzled some pesto (oil maybe?) but there was zero pesto as far as taste. There definitely wasn’t any recognizable pesto as a topping. There was zero as far as I could tell. They said it is a drizzle, which I guess means an oil? I was pretty disappointed and explained that there wasn’t pesto on the pizza. The waitress was starting to offer to cook another so I thought that was fair and reasonable. Then a manager (?) came over and said I heard the pizza wasn’t to your liking. I told it wasn’t that it wasn’t to my liking it was that it wasn’t what I ordered. He said he would take the $2 charge off the pizza as a topping. He didn’t try to hear what I was saying. I was communicating clearly but the dismissal of it or lack of effort to remedy the situation is entirely why I am giving this 3 stars. Had he made any bit of effort to understand I would have been satisfied. I communicated as I was leaving who cares about $2 off a $40 pizza? Maybe the pizza was $35 but the point is the same. With that being said had it been a pesto pizza I think it would have been excellent. The bread is excellent and was cooked perfectly. I did take the leftovers home, heated it up with a proper pesto sauce and it was great. I would recommend this pizza place, although expensive, but the pizza if you get what you order is very good. I also ordered a $8 Cesar salad and it was ok. Way too little for $8, but it was ok…nothing great so I would stick w just...

This was my first experience. I had been wanting to try and finally did today. I ordered take out, large sausage and peppers. When the lady told me $38 dollars, I was like "what?". Then she told me if I joined the rewards program, I could get $10 off. Of course I hurried up and joined. $38 is a lot for a large pizza. I'm from Jersey shore and we eat pizza frequently. I smelled the sausage in the car and thought it was a little porky smell. Got home, opened the box and it looked good. I was thrown off by the uneven cutting of the slices. Some were wide like normal and others thinner slices. First thoughts, maybe somebody didn't know how to cut pizza. Then I thought maybe it was done so people could pick regular slice or smaller slice. The sausage tasted pretty good, looked like curls of sausage. I would have preferred a little more fennel for that Italian taste. The sauce was scarce. A good sauce and the right amount helps make the pizza. My crust was a little tough and not fully cooked which made for a lot of chewing. The best part of the crust was the rim, it was crunchy. The bottom of the crust was a little burnt and you could taste it. My recommendation is to develop a good crust, make a tasty sauce and put enough on so the person says, "this sauce was delicious!" I will try again, since there is a rewards program and overall it was not bad and better than some of the other so called pizza establishments. I look for consistency when eating out. The customer service was excellent. I was greeted when I entered and directed to take out counter. The pizza was prepared and came out quickly. The cooks acknowledged me coming in and out. My order...

I have excommunicated all other pizza joints after my first bite of Pepe’s. Gone are the days of sauceless bites, raw dough, bland slices or worse.. over compensating with overbearing seasoning. This is my only pizza now. The crust the crisp in the first cheesy bite, the sauce is simple and rich. My whole table went silent until we finished two pies. This is the single greatest bite of pizza in my life and I have been looking forever for a REAL pizza spot in Nova. And out of NO WHERE I get a Google notification that this place just opened up (big brother was lookin out for me 🔎😂). We tried the original with the mozz and the margarita. I liked the og and the other two voted margarita. The char is PERFECT! The waiter was trying to explain what a New Haven pizza is supposed to be like with the char because they barely opened yet and some of these Northern Virginia yuppies kept calling the pizza burnt, it’s not, it’s charred and it’s necessary. The cheese is simple, unlike the artificially over bearing cheese aroma from chain stores. The dough is thin, crisp, and perfectly baked. The sauce is the perfect amount for the crispness of the dough, it’s balanced with seasoning and not too runny.

Will try the white clam next time.

Note: unfortunately before this place was even open for business some ppl left fake reviews, and some left reviews saying they just fed based off pictures. So ignore them.

Also HUGE thank you to the staff, they were packed and and you’d assume exhausted as anyone would be, but had excellent energy for their guests and made us feel home. Our server Amir...