Pizzeria Bocce — Restaurant in Cottonwood

While on vacation we decided to pop in for an early dinner.

We were promptly greeted by a smiling hostess and shown to our table. Our server, Edyta, immediately took our drink orders and went over the specials with us.

Drinks came extremely quick (which was amazing due to the heat we just came in from)

We placed our appetizer order and it came quickly. Artichoke and spinach bruschetta. - it was ok. The bruschetta was lightly toasted around the edge with a generous amount of the artichoke dip on top with melted mozzarella. The bread should have been toasted / grilled separately with a bit of char on them, then, place the topping on it. It would have given it the crunch needed. It was fine, nothing special about it.

Taking the suggestion from Edyta, my daughter opted for the rigatoni with meatballs. Wow did she love it. Edyta even brought her some extra cheese. That just put her on cloud 9. Perfect.

I got the margherita pizza since it's a good way to test a place on how good their Neapolitan pizza is... It needed more leopard spotting on the crust since it was very pale with minimal crisp and a dence chew The dough it's self was under hydrated and barely had lift for the crust, definitely chewy. Waaayyyyy too much cheese on the pizza. I know they pride themselves on the in house mozzarella but less would have been better. Like 1/3 the amount.

The last entree ordered was the ravioli salad. This was a solid entree and big. Lettuce was fresh, plenty of toppings, pistachios were amazing. Again, solid entree and zero complaints about it.

The entire meal our lovely waitress, Edyta, would touch table and check in with us and take care of my daughters cheese needs.

All in all good food, (nothing stellar or great on my side of things) exceptional service from Edyta and nice vibe of the restaurant.

I would go back and give them...

My wife and I have eaten at Bocce's many times in the last 6 months, and the pizza experience has always been fantastic. Yesterday however, my pizza was less than stellar. The gluten free crust was extremely doughy, soft and mushy. I'm not sure what happened, as the crust consistency has always been spot on. I was so hungry that I ate it anyway.

Does this happen when you don't keep it in the oven long enough? Maybe you're now using gluten free crust from a different company? I don't know, but the pie is still sitting in my stomach 17 hours later and is making me feel really uncomfortable!

PS I tried reaching them through their website, but their contact form wasn't working properly. This after trying it using 3 different browsers and 2 different computers. I even tried using the e-mail address listed on their Facebook page, but it was returned citing delivery problems. I guess they don't want to be contacted for some reason. As other reviews have mentioned, it's also worth noting that the acoustics in the dining room are horrendous. When the room is full you can't even hear yourself think, it's so loud. My wife ended up covering her ears at one point.

I am very disappointed and will not...

This place is heavy on the atmosphere/ambience and light on the food. It's set up in an interesting way with lots of outdoor exposure and seating. The food, if the menu is to be believed, seems like it would be great. Guess again. Take pizzas, its marquee dish. If we are being honest, it's no better than Red Baron pizza from the grocery store and about four times the price. Ours had a distinct soupy aspect to it, on a thin crust, with little cheese/meat. All of the pizzas at our table of six looked exactly alike but were different orders. The appetizers are sparse and uninspired. It's expensive but what's not today. I'd go back I guess but if you go, go for the atmosphere and ambience not the food. Maybe order something besides pizza at this "pizzeria." It's fresh food and served well but it's just not what it's cracked up to be. Our server was attentive and polite. Too bad.

Finally (and this explains the two stars) when the bill came it stated there was a 3.5% "surcharge" on credit card transactions. I presented my debit card only to be told with no air of regret that actually, the surcharge applied to all bill payments by card, credit or debit. I did not appreciate this at all. A bit presumptuous...