Cucinella's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Blue Ridge

My husband and I wanted to try this newer restaurant in the area. We were both very hungry at the time (My husband commented right before we arrived that I sounded like I was on the verge of HANGRY 🤭). He asked me to check googoo (aka Google) for a good restaurant. I found this place and seen it had 4.6 score on reviews. I didn't have time to read them, but how bad could it be with that kind of rating? 🤔 Well, let me give my honest, non-sugar coated opinion 🙄. The restaurant smelled amazing when we walked in. We decided to share one large salad and one large pizza since it is a thin crust (they do not have any other crust options). We opted for no drinks because neither of us drink sodas and they do not have fresh brewed tea. We walked out of this place $44 lighter in the wallet. The PROS were the salad had fresh vegetables, the pizza had fresh toppings and they did a good job spreading the toppings evenly across the whole pizza. The CONS were the pizza was very bland. Not much of a flavor. The crust was so tough and dried out that it was not eatable. My husband ate most of his crust because he refuses to waste any food, but the roof of his mouth is now scraped and sore. There's no way that anyone with dentures would be able to eat it. The bottom of the pizza was burnt to the point that it was so bitter and uneatable that I only ate the toppings and trashed the crust of my pizza (see pics). They claim the pizza is baked in a brick oven, but they only have a commercial size stainless steel oven that you see behind the checkout counter. Maybe they have some bricks inside of the oven 🤷‍♀️, but the brick oven taste was definitely not there. They also claim (posted on the front door) to be established in 1932 (if I remember correctly) which one would think the pizza would be perfected by now and I seriously doubt they would still be in business this many years later serving burnt pizza. If you see pics of the pizza at first glance, you think it must be delicious. Especially when you are HANGRY..lol. You will quickly decide differently when you begin to eat it. Needless to say, we were disappointed in this place and definitely won't be back. For $40+, this pizza should have been perfection.😕 I honestly don't know how they...

First time trying Cucinella's. I love the pizza. They were swamped today (all of us tourist in town). Altjouvh they were running 45 minutes to just over an hour to get a pizza out, they still made my pizza with half having no cheese with no issues. They were friendly when I called and placed the order and were trying hard to take care of the TONS of folks in town that clearly didn't look at all the other restaurants to see they had no openings for a couple of days, as they came in to the down town tourist part of Blue Ridge. They had all hands on deck, the kitchen staff were all doing their designated task (didn't look like chaos, didn't see staff running around not being productive). The two deaignated to take orders remained friendly and did a great job grabbing pizzas as they came up and kept the flow of customers placing orders handled. It looked like everyone knew their duty and stayed on it. The pizza was great. I love pizza and was worried that it may not be as good as the restaurant had smelled walking by this week. It did not disappoint. I will definitely eat here again when in Blue Ridge. For those grumbling about an hour wait for pizza, that came in and acted shocked while I waited to pick up my order, think about the fact that it's the day before New Years Eve and think about all the people you bumped into while walking through shops today. The pizza oven was huge and from what I could see they kept it full and steadily shifting pizzas around to cook properly. I was impressed, after being in retail for over 20 years, at how well the restaurant...

The pizza is baked to order. We simply ordered a large pepperoni. They provide you with a number card to display at your table while you wait. They will bring the pizza to you when it's ready. The interior is nothing to speak of but is efficient. I didn't care for the plastic utensils and paper plates. After a normal wait, our pizza was delivered to our table along with the garlic knots we ordered. The pizza crust is very thin. It can hardly be eaten by holding it in one hand. The front of the slice bends over. So, I opted to use their plastic knife and fork. It really doesn't work well because you are cutting it on a paper plate and sawing it with a plastic knife. The pizza is tasty though. The garlic knots were excellent. I don't like eating pizza with a fork so I ended up doubling it over and eating it like a calzone. I saw other people doing the same. That worked but again, I don't like eating pizza that way either. I just want to be able to pick it up with one hand and eat it. You can't do that with their pizzas. The dough is also a little tough to cut and chew even though it is thin. Weird. I found that after the pizza cooled a bit it no longer sagged and I was able to eat it with one hand. Again, the pizza tasted good and our family liked it. The staff was helpful and very pleasant. If we were in the area again, we would eat their...