Autostrada Pizza & Panini — Restaurant in Carrboro

I have never written a review before as I have never had an experience so bad that I wasted my time with one, but this is unfortunately the exception...

My boyfriend and I decided to give this place a try after grabbing some gifts nearby while on the way to see family in Raleigh. Upon first glance at the menu, we were shocked - none of the pizza "options" came with ANY toppings included! There was no supreme, meat lovers, veggie delight, anything... we had been craving a supreme pizza, but we just could not justify the whopping $15 price tag on top of the base price of the pie... would have been over $45 dollars for a pie and 2 sodas if we did. Instead, my boyfriend settled for just two slices, which still ended up being over $10 after tax!!! Crazy considering how small the slices were.

I decided to grab the Romano sandwich so we could share some fries, but of course this place doesn't serve fries with their sandwiches. I was genuinely so shocked but after asking one of the cashiers they confirmed that they do not even have a side of fries we could order. Absolutely unheard of for a place serving SANDWICHES to not include any sides at all...

With drinks included, we spent about $35 for a sandwich, two slices of pizza, and 2 sodas... completely ridiculous, especially for the quality. The pizza was bland, just was OK enough to eat, but my sandwich was completely flavorless and tasted like it had absolutely no seasoning on it at all. Pretty terrible start to our long weekend, but hopefully we will experience some better places...

Third time trying this place and this was by far one of the worst pizzas we have ever had. We tried two variations of the normal round pizza previously and it was OK. First time was a Margherita, which was the best and service was great even though it was during soft opening. 2nd was the pesto pizza which was OK but it felt like it was lacking in actual basil flavor and service was a bit unwelcoming. The pesto was OK it was just a bit more oily than expected but still passable.

Third time we tried the La Nonna and it was one of the worst pizzas we have ever had. The dough had not risen at all as it seemed like old dough that was past its use by date that wouldn't rise. It was thin, hard, translucent and yet soggy at the same time. It was nothing like a true sicilian nor a grandma's pie like we have had at many other places. The cheese was burned and dry and there was not enough sauce or toppings. Its almost like they gave us an old square pizza since it was barely luke warm in the box when we left. Very disappointing.

We have also tried salads and gelato next store both of which were OK. I am not sure we will give this place another shot at some point since there are so many other good pizza options, so if we do it may be a while. Its unfortunate since we are so close and we were hoping for a decent casual but solid pizza option nearby.

Hopefully the owners will rethink the approach to the la Nonna pizza or simply remove it. We threw away most of it since it was really not...

Fantastic pizza and paninis! We had a pie with blistered tomatoes and roasted garlic that was utterly perfect. The crust has an incredible chew and you can taste that they take their time with raising the dough. It has so much flavor. Slight char on the bottom, bubbly toppings and perfectly melty cheese. The panini we had was on OMG focaccia with arugula, prosciutto, balsamic glaze, the most luscious ripe tomato and straciatella (spelling?) cheese. I was mad I had to share with my husband. 😉 Bottom line: simple food made with top notch ingredients and an obvious attention to detail. We will be back. And to the person who was hoping for a meat lovers pizza, you are cordially invited to visit a Pizza Hut near you. More Autistrada for...