Grimaldi's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Austin

My friend and I walked up to the hostess and said, “2 for dine-in”. She said there will be a 15-20 min wait. I looked around and there were empty seats and tables everywhere.. so I replied, “May I ask what the wait is for?” She kindly responded, “We only have about 3 servers right now and this is all the customers we can serve at the moment.” I said, “No problem, we can wait.” So she took our number and name and my friend and I walked around the domain a little before they were ready for us. I have no issues with this at all. I’m very easy-going. Plus she was super nice.

When they were ready for us, she sat us in the very back right corner of the restaurant, right in front of the chefs throwing dough and ovens. Extremely warm back there and it felt like the a/c was completely off. My friend was sweating and I was perspiring. I was just thinking.. of all the open seats and tables, ….why place us here?? It’s been unbelievably humid here in Austin. We were catching a movie after dinner so we didn’t care to even move tables… but we were both uncomfortable. We should have moved, I admit that. Or maybe asked to sit on the patio where there was at least a breeze.. but I’m still baffled why she sat us here.

When the nice waiter came over and took our drink order, my friend and I just wanted water (I don’t drink anyway).. so two waters came out. When it came to ordering our pizza, I noticed it was up there in price… all I wanted was a 12” personal size pizza with a gluten-free crust, normal sauce and cheese, with two toppings — ham and jalapeños. That’s it. My friend got a 12” personal size pizza without the gluten-free crust, with a white sauce and the normal cheese, and maybe just 1 topping (artichoke). This order was so soo basic. And literally with two waters lol.

We finished pretty quickly, so I asked for the check. Check read $58 and some change. I just couldn’t even believe the prices they were charging here..

And now, damn, I gotta tip the waiter at least $15 bc the order was so ridiculously expensive… or else I’d look like an ass… (and it’s our culture here)…. for two personal size pizzas and two waters 🤦🏻‍♂️ …If my friend and I had added 5+ toppings to each of our pizzas, then ok, I get that.. bc pizza places usually charge between $1 and $2.50 for certain toppings and/or gluten-free crusts. But sheeeeeeeesssshhhh guys. My friend had just one topping, I had two with a gf crust, and two waters… for almost $60 bucks???? I know these ingredients aren’t 100% organic and farm-to-table…. so what in the heck is the deal with these prices, y’all. Pizza was good… but not amazing.. Will...

It's hard to put in word how awful of an experience my family and I had at this establishment. I brought my family to Grimaldi's because I had a decent experience before, but I thoroughly regret ever bringing my family here. To start out, we were seated and had asked the waitress about the BOIL NOTICE that was broadcasted in Austin, Tx that day. Our waitress proceeded to tell us that there was no boil notice in the area and served us and the rest of their costumers water and fountain drinks. On top of this we were served our salads which had be rinsed in the contaminated water (hopefully they were cleaned). We later found out from another restaurant next door that they weren't serving produce, fountain drinks, or tap water due to the boil notice for the entirety of Austin. This nightmare doesn't stop here, our waitress took our order at about 9pm and came back to us throughout our time to pick up plates and ask us if we needed anything. At about 10:30pm, 30 minutes before closing, she came up to us and proceeded to inform us that she forgot to put in our order and that the order was just then put in. My family and I were starving at that point just exhausted from our long and hunger-filled wait. Our waitress then commented that "Since everyone else had already finished eating there wouldn't be a wait and the cook was working on our pizza." At that point I was astonished and completely disappointed with the treatment my family and I received. We tried to find our waitress after she left our table to let her know that we just wanted to leave and have the check, but she was no where to be found for a while. I had to then get another waiter to get the manager to finally help us be able to just leave. The manager handled the situation decently, she gave us a $15 gift card (Our pizza being $28), she comped one of our salads, and gave us the pizza free. To add insult to injury, our waitress got our order wrong. My family's religious practices don't allow us to eat pork but we were served a pepperoni pizza with half chicken sausage. My family and I ended up just giving the pizza away to some of the employees at another establishment. If you value your health and want to have an at least decent dining experience, go anywhere else. I am completely disappointed with my experience here and I will never be coming, nor bringing anyone back to this...

I wanted to be a regular. I've been here multiple times, and every single time I have postponed to write a review hoping the next time it will be better. I like to like this place, I'm staying nearby and I love pizza. But it's gotten to a point where I'm joking with my partner that if we want to have our day ruined we should go to Grimaldi's to get pizza. The list of things that have gone wrong in this place is endless, but today was the last straw.

With all due respect, when we ordered margarita with the specified toppings, why would you interpret that as half margarita with no toppings and half bland pizza with the toppings? And why did I feel gaslighted when we were surprised by the sight of that pizza? I'm not the one who'll ask you to make a new pizza, especially with all the waiting and how understaffed you are. If I wanted half margarita and half bland with toppings I would've said that.

Other perks at this restaurant (based on my multiple experiences of coming here): -20-45min wait times to get seated even when the restaurant is nearly empty because it's understaffed ridiculous wait times to get the pizza you ordered, so much you'll wish you can just leave. The romantic dinner or fun outing you were going to have is converted into mutually expressing your frustrations coming into the check-in area to get seated, no one being there, and no one coming to get you for a long long time wrong orders. If you're vegetarian or follow other special diet, or just want to eat what you ordered, good luck high prices for a hit or miss food embarrassment and awkwardness when you bring in your friends or family here and have a horrible experience.

The reason I give 2 stars and not 1 is because the waiters are kind and polite. Unfortunately that's not enough for me to accept horrible dining experiences for which I have...