Giovanni's Pizza — Restaurant in Bemidji

What I expected I never received. Expectations can get in the way. I have spent some time thinking about that. This pizza joint is well respected in this town and known for good pizza. I had the wild rice pizza --never had that ingredient on a pizza.. I had the meat left off and just vegetables (love that the place was flexible like that). This was not the best choice for this pizza because the meat is the star and the flavor, you leave it off you have issues.The rice, mushrooms, and the onion (the substitution for the meat) were diced very small and spread out that my mouth did not have enough of each of those ingredients to taste or feel them. The tasty white sauce over powered these vegetables. I talked to who I believe was the owner but she distracted by other things. When I left I was disappointed. As I look back, I did have one great white sauce pizza and once in a while I tasted the wild rice.The moral of the story is if you are a vegetarian , you have to know which vegetables go best with this...

The pizza was the only thing we enjoyed. The hot and spicy chicken wing were lukewarm and had no spice to them, the sauce they were coated in was almost gel like, either too much starch or microwaved for too long, they were very obviously defrosted and heated up in a microwave, definitely not worth $5.50 for 4 pieces, considering that's how much a bag of similar quality chicken costs. The salad bar can be barely called a salad bar considering less than half of options are vegetables and only 4 of them are fresh, canned chopped tomatoes wilted cucumbers and a salad mix you get from a store, again not worth the price. We ordered ranch and blue cheese dipping sauces for our chicken and we got sachets of salad dressing, not even in a container, just a packet of salad dressing, that's where I lost hope for the place, at least make it presentable. This was painful to experience as a Chef. In my opinion, should have either bigger portions, cooked and not microwaved food or cheaper prices. At least the...

My daughter and I ordered a couple of pizzas from Giovanni’s at recommendation from others. They did not disappoint. Ordered two smalls, one pepperoni thin crust, one meat lovers deep dish for delivery. They showed up quick and hot. We had them the night of the severe storms/tornado/derecho/straight line winds. The smalls were big enough that we had plenty of leftovers to keep in the hotel room fridge. Unfortunately the weather came through knocking power out everywhere so we didn’t get to enjoy them the following day, because who are we kidding, leftover pizza always tastes best. I gave a 5/5 because 10/10 wasn’t an option. If you get to Bemidji this is a must try pizza. I hope they’re back up and running at full capacity to serve these great...