Cilluffo's Pizza & Pasta — Restaurant in Florida

Cliffalo pizza. Located in a small nondescript shopping center on SW 18th street in Boca Raton Florida. Boca raton! Yeah, that fancy town with all the fancy rich folks.

This place is hard to review. It’s NOT a typical boca fancy place at all. In some ways it’s your friendly local pizza shop from up north-but minus the friendly part ( I’ll get to that). The kind of place you WANT near your home. Nothing special really, it could use a fresh coat of paint etc . Just a typical small takeout place. But the food comes out fresh —-and hot ——and fits the bill.

I think they have been in business a long time —-so they are doing something right. Right?

And the prices are great. Seriously- chicken parm with a side of spaghetti , a salad and hot fresh garlic bread is $13-14. You can’t beat that. Especially in the expensive inflationary world we live in. And it tastes good!

However it’s weird because whenever I go there it’s not a friendly place at all. My home is very close. I’ve been there 1/2 a dozen times now. It’s actually sort of uncomfortable. Like I’m in the way, if that makes any sense. No eye contact. No smile. No “ hey thanks for coming in today” None of that stuff. Just a couple guys doing their job. They give you the food and take the payment. Done deal. The funny thing is I’m not sure there is anything actually wrong with that —-but it’s definitely unusual. And it’s not a good route if the employees are looking for tips right? But I digress.

Look —if you’re not looking to make friends and you just want a decent, hot meal with all the trimmings for a great price. This is your place. I’ll definitely come back again. I just wish it was a bit more...

Not really sure how to chalk up my experience tonight, but it was clearly induced by prejudice.

I walked in with my daughter (4 year old) to get a slice of pizza for her dinner. When we got there, the woman behind the counter said, "We have no slices." After she told me it would be a 15 minute wait for a slice, I said we would wait.

It was immediately followed up with, "There's no slices for you." Shocked and amazed, I told her I understand we would need to wait 15 minutes for another pie and she repeated, "There's no slices for you."

The man making the pizzas (the owner) standing behind her just repeated, "There's no slices."

Needless to say, we left after a completely demoralizing experience. Keep in mind that I was casually dressed and driving an extremely expensive car. I was clean-cut and my daughter who is only 4 was well-dressed. The only thing I could come up with is there was some sort of prejudice.

I'm going to stop short of calling it racism, but it had nothing to do with anything we did or appeared as. Asian dad with his asian daughter getting a slice of pizza!?!!

We quietly left and went across the street where we were treated like a person should be treated.. with dignity. I'll be sure to tell all of my neighbors and friends of the experience. It's saddening to think that this type of behavior is prevalent in this society, but then again, I don't blame them.. I blame...

Possibly the best Pizza in the USA. No joke. I used to live 50 steps away from Cilluffo's. It was our local Pizza place. Whenever family would come to visit we would grab a pizza from Cilluffo's and it always got the same response: "Wow"!. After moving back to Canada, I still had friends texting me asking for the name of the awesome Pizza parlor I took them to whenever they visited Florida. I've been all over NY and the USA and it only occurred to me after I moved away from Florida how amazing Cilluffo's pizza was. Every year, we make it a point to stop at Cilluffo's, without fail, whenever we visit Florida. Nearly 20 years later Rick and his family still make the same great thin crust pizza with the same consistency and perfection. Screw the bad reviews. If you want a great...