Redeemer Pizza — Restaurant in Denver

Restaurant reviews are tough, so many people have so many different palates and cultural tastes that are vast and varied. I've known cultures and tastes from nearly a dozen forms growing up. I've had amazing Jewish Deli food, Chinese, Mexican, Puerto Rican, and a vast amount of samplings of European, classic Italian and varieties of Indian, American Indian, etc. etc... So when I hear of a place that is the "best pizza I've had in Denver" that's a place I have to check out. We arrived at Redeemer Pizza on a Thursday evening around 6pm, we were seated immediately. The bar is unusual with small batch and family distillery libations, definitely a plus with me.. Within 3 minutes a server came over and filled our water glasses and placed a menu on the table. We decided to see what the pizza's were like since that's their claim to fame. My wife ordered a basic cheese with spinach and kalamata olives; I ordered a sausage and peppers pizza to see how well those flavours blend. After about 20 minutes of prep time the pizza's arrived, on the table there was parm and red pepper flake and the server then brought over their dill ranch for dipping the crusts. We dug in, the pizza's were cooked but the crusts were just a little over done with black areas contrasted with perfected brown. Usually this is indicative of an oven that is too hot, 800 deg or more, and it's a bit of a fad lately to "quick cook" pizza's in ovens of this type somewhere around 3 minutes or less. Traditional New York style pizza ovens run about 600 deg and cook time is about 4-6 minutes, this temp and time gives a very even cook with little chance of the charring that was apparent on these pies. The cheese was quite good, and had just the right amount of flavours of each of the 4 cheeses. The crust was exquisite and I had pretty much expected that since these dough's were slow risen in a chamber with a sour dough "mother". The crust was flavourful, light and had the right amount of crunch on the bottom with a very beautiful bread chew above the crust line. Definitely one of the finest crusts I've had on a pizza since leaving New York City 30 years ago. The sausage on my pizza was quite good, high quality, and had the Italian spices in just enough subtlety to give it the right amount of Neopolitano feel. When I tasted the peppers I was a bit surprised, I had basically expected a yellow pepper that had been either long term pickled or at least given an extensive vinegar bath, what it turned out to be was classic Greek pepperoncini. In all honesty I was a little disappointed that it wasn't really spelled out as Greek Pepperoncini on the menu, it almost seems a little disingenuous to give it such a name when it's really just basic pepperoncini. They seemed to be good quality though. On my wife's pizza was the kalamata olives and spinach, the spinach presented itself as fairly fresh but the olives were strange, I couldn't put finger on it at first when my wife said, "these are NOT kalamatas" and indeed she was right. The olives had all the taste of a good quality black olive but they were certainly NOT kalamatas. Another disappointment and to be honest really took away from our experience. The best flavour besides the crust was the dill ranch, it was delightful and would make an amazing dressing for any good classic salad. Our meal for two pizza's and a glass of wine for my wife came to about $75.00, overall I have to say I was fairly disappointed in the experience despite the positives of the good service, the dough/crust and the amazing dill ranch. While the crust was amazing, the cheese was good and the sausage was excellent the rest of the toppings were quite a bit less than expected. I honestly can't really recommend this place for a good pizza. Updated August of 2025. I've noticed that there are a lot of answers from the owner on some of these reviews. I've also noticed that the items on the menu that weren't as suggested on the menu have changed. It would be nice to see the owners...

Response to Manager:

I appreciate the detailed feedback and recognize your ability to run the business as you see fit. From a consumer standpoint, I think you have implemented policies that detract from the experience, and more importantly, are counter to fair expectations when dining in most similar businesses (approaching an open bar and requesting a drink).

I'll also note, the back window has no greater ability to police consumption and prevent abuse than the front bar as it is in a confined space and they are busy serving a long line of people. If your genuine concern is liability, implement wristbands and employ a bouncer as most other establishments with similar concerns.

I appreciate the offer, but I think I am best served at businesses less concerned with enforcement and more focused on enjoyment.

Original Review:

Unfortunately, I can not speak to the pizza, but as others have mentioned, the service needs work.

Met some friends who were eating, and I just wanted a beer. Went to the front bar and was quickly met with many reasons why they didn't want my business: Unless you're sitting at the bar, you need to order at the back window (had a long line for people ordering food). He'd make an exception, but if they were busy, it wouldn't be possible (it's always great using hypotheticals to justify bad service). He's busy, so tells another staff member to "give him a beer and close it out" because ordering from the bar was very troublesome. Knowing the significance of his sacrifice, I requested two beers to save future trouble, but was met with "then we need two IDs"

I decided to not beg him to take my money and apologized for the trouble.

It was more important to enforce the "rules" regardless of how applicable they were to the reality of the situation...

If you’re looking for an entirely mediocre NY slice/pizza, this is it. Don’t take that as me saying it’s bad, it’s not. I am being a curmudgeon after having it be massively hyped by many because I specifically go around trying pizza. So that said, on a Portnoy scale, this would be a 7.5.

The good: their crust is superb. It was light and airy with a nice crunch on the crust. Its flavor was pleasant but a little light on fermentation. Likely a 24-48 hour cold fermentation process with no preferment added. Their sauce did the job but was nothing remarkable. This is both a good and bad thing. A distinguishing sauce can make an entire pizza, this one was good but nothing stood out about it. Their pepps and cheese choice were good and high quality.

The bad: holy grease trap. I know I got a pepperoni but good lord. This is likely due to the INSANE amount of cheese they put on it. Some might like that, I don’t. It was center loaded BADLY and cheese grease was pooling up. When you removed a slice you would get an instant flop and half the cheese would slide off the front. I also got it fresh out of the oven so it’s not like it sat in the box and steamed either. Oh, speaking of, very clearly deck oven pizza. Mediocre under crust that had not crispy strength to it.

If you live, or happen to be, in RINO this is a good option. You likely will be satisfied if you’re not a pizza snob like me. I personally wouldn’t go out of my way (again) to...