900 New York Pizza (The Grove) — Restaurant in Florida

A friend told me about this place so I gave it a try. My friend had never been either, just said NYC Pizza, so I decided to go. I drove 41 miles to get there from St Pete. Yea, I regretted that decision. I started with just a slice of cheese pizza and a beer to get a feel of this NYC pizza. It took over 20 minutes to get a slice. The waiter never checked in me, no eye contact, nothing. The place wasn’t even busy. I saw people come in, order and get their food, while I still hadn’t gotten a slice. I was finally able to get my waiters attention. Even he said, wow you still haven’t gotten it. He checked, then eventually came back with the slice. It was super dry, over cooked and warm. Yea, I didn’t understand the warm part. As you can see in the pic, burnt cheese and dry crust. I saw other tables who had pizza, theirs seemed to look better. Nicely melted cheese and soft crust. Their cheese even slid off the slice because it was hot. I got nothing like that. Ok so I’m convinced it’s NOT NYC pizza. Then because I traveled so far, I didn’t want to end there. I talked to the same waiter who said the Calzones are good. Ok, I ordered one with pepperoni and sausage. Here we go again, I sat there for another over 25 minutes with nothing. My beer was warm from waiting, no eye contact from the waiter, no checking on the customer. Finally when I did get his attention again, again he was shocked it was taking soooo long. I just said cancel it, I really didn’t want to risk it again. He asked if I wanted him to check on it and he did, of course the person behind the counter claimed it had just finished cooking. I told her, first it was a long time on 1 burnt slice, then this. It takes too long to get service and food here. I was done with the aggravation that came with a simple road trip to a pizza spot. Again, it wasn’t even crowded. When I asked to cancel, they never even attempted to make anything right. Just, ok. Not even an apology. I left extremely disgusted. I believe the food was bad because the service was bad. I don’t know, I’ve got nothing good to score. When I looked at past reviews, it looks like it’s only good if you have an attentive server. At $4.50 per cheese slice, I...

Entire staff needs direction or a manager to tell them what to do. We ate in and it took an hour to get our large cheese pizza. While we were waiting, I witnessed a dozen people waiting on orders, complaining about how long they had to wait, being told that's "just how it is sometimes" by the rude worker at the register. This same worker (female with a nose piercing and wearing a red mushroom headband) would tell people who called that their pizza would be ready in 20-25 minutes perpetuating the problem. 😳She got into arguments with several customers, and never apologized. Our server, Joshua, was nice, but neither him, nor the 3 workers hanging out by the host stand (doing nothing but chatting) warned us about the long wait. Joshua was the only one I saw delivering pizzas. Another thing that bothered me was that although people were literally lined up waiting for food they ordered (over an hour ago according to them) nobody who worked there offered them a free coke or water or anything while they were waiting. When we did finally get our pizza, it was undercooked, but the cheese on top was gooey enough, so I didn't mind. The food at least made us happy. The atmosphere was slightly stressful, a perfect example of how not to run a restaurant. Also of note, the whole place smelled like sewer gas, so that was lovely too. It's a shame because the pizza is good, but this is our second experience like this at this location, so I don't think...

We finally found real NY pizza after searching for the 3+ years that we’ve lived in Florida! From the parking right in front by the cute outside tables, to the smell of NY pizza as soon as you step out of your vehicle, the cleanliness, the tv screens, the seasoning shakers and decor, the service and the atmosphere all made our dining experience pleasant and reminded us of our old hometown back when we lived in NY! The calamari appetizer was fresh, crispy, and delicious served with a side of the best sauce we’ve had since our Italian friends’ mom used to make for us! We held our breath as we were about to try the large NY style pizza (half sausage and half cheese) because we have been disappointed by so many so called NY pizzas out here in Florida. They must use filtered water in their dough or something, because from the first bite we tasted NY! The crisp of the crust, the sauce, the cheese (even the grease on top of the cheese), made us imagine we were eating at one of our favorite pizza spots back in NY! It was delicious and we are so happy to have found this gem! We know where we will be coming every time we crave pizza...