Davanni's Pizza & Hot Hoagies — Restaurant in Arden Hills

By far, Davanni's is the best deep dish pizza in the Twin Cities! I have been a loyal customer ever since I went to their U of St. Thomas location back in '91. For the best deep dish experience, you must eat this pizza in the restaurant. It's served in s deep pan but they also add a metal rack between the pizza and the pan, allowing the pizza to stay crispy! Any form of carryout or delivery will compromise the flavors and crispiness, trust me.

One tradition we have as a family is we love to get a large container of the deep dish pizza sauce and dipping our crust in it as we're eating it... it's so good! My wife rarely eats crusts and with Davanni's it's never even a question. The crust has a buttery/garlic hint that makes it perfect.

We've also really enjoyed the hoagies, especially the Turkey, Turkey Bacon Chipotle, and the Club (w/double meat). I'm sure the others are great but the above three are so good that we never want anything different.

The one area of criticism is their salad/desserts. The St Thomas location used to have a salad bar. I'm not sure if they still do but the one in Arden Hills doesn't. The salads are premade and I'm not sure who makes them. The chicken in the salads was unimpressive, and I've had their salad more than one. The brownies and desserts are in the same pool as the salads because again, they appear manufactured and taste like they've been sitting on a shelf for a while. I could be wrong but that's just my experience. I would love to see Davanni's do a made to order cookie skillet with a side of ice cream. Or something else made in house or made to order.

Finally, this is the best deep dish in the Twin Cities, thankfully the nearest one is only 2 miles away! If you live here or you're visiting, this needs to be on your list of things to eat. The restaurants are usually bland/boring but with some good company and great food, that's not going to matter.

PRO TIP: Go to Costco and get their gift cards. You pay ~$75 and are given $100...

Good food, family board games, but multiple staff inconveniences.

After I already placed my order for a family size pasta and 2 hoagies, a staff came to inconvenience us when my family had already set down at a table and waiting for our food. They said it would take an hour more to make the family size pasta so they asked if I'd like to change my order to 3 small pastas so that I can get my food in 15 minutes instead. I said that's fine but I have no idea why they didn't tell me this when I first placed my order or what they were doing when we were waiting for our food. (My family had already been waiting a while for our food.) After I said I'm okay with changing my order and resumed waiting for my food, they bothered me again and said that their manager said that it costs more to make 3 small pastas and asked me to pay the difference. It felt weird to have the staff bother me two times after I already paid and for them to ask me to pay more. I wish they would have told me all this when I was first placing my order or even when they bothered me the first time. It seems like the cashiers and the cooks do not have very good communication...

Delivery food would have been 5 star but they did not bring the blue cheese for the wings. The guy was like here is your stuff I did not notice until after he forgot the blue cheese. Ordinarily when I hand someone a tip that size they either start digging for change or ask if change is required. JS the good experience had opportunity for greatness.

2/4/2024 Wow updating as I have ordered 2 times since I first posted. Today will be the last time I get delivery from this Davanni's. 70 minutes after placing the order and being told 20-40 for delivery she even asked if I wanted to tip the driver. .then I call in they say oops it is for pickup... she then says oops we will get it out right away. I ask if it will be hot, just short of 2 hours after placing the order my food arrives presumably at least reheated but no, Luke warm pizza and wings but at least I didn't pay full price as last time they dropped the ball and gave me a coupon. Sorry guys I have never had service like this from Riverside, cliff lake, grand Ave, or any other Davanni's we used to take our out of town guest's as it's a...