Bowie Pizza – Neapolitan Pizza in Gainesville — Restaurant in Gainesville

I was excited to see a new pizza place open in Gainesville that wasn’t downtown or across from the campus. Conveniently located on the corner of NW 13th St at NW 16th Ave.

When I arrived at 7:45, I found myself to be the only customer, not realizing at the time that the place closed at 8:00. I found the restaurant to be very clean, but it had absolutely no personality; quite sterile to be honest. Lots of seating with a large tv in easy view from nearly anywhere in the seating area.

I ordered a simple pepperoni and mushroom, which is one of my all time favorites. The crust was light in texture at the crust edge and crispy with just the right amount of char. The remainder of the crust was very thin with a bit of char on the bottom. Even with that, it it tasted a bit undercooked, and overall, the crust lacked flavor. I felt like the crust needed some salt perhaps. The toppings were plentiful for the sizes of the pizza, and when it was brought to the table, I thought it looked delicious. Sadly, it was mediocre at best. The marinara (red sauce) was bland with no recognizable seasoning which really surprised me in a disappointing way. This alone caused the toppings to be unable to carry the pizza to any level of yumminess.

Now to drink options. No fountain drinks in a sit down pizzeria. There were only bottled and I think canned sodas and water, but there was no beer or wine available that I saw. Again, I found this to be surprising in a college town with it is location bordering lots of residential area. Lack of alcoholic beverages and fountain drinks are a deal breaker for many people.

I hope Bowie Pizza can make some improvements to their crust, red sauce, and beverage options. With a name like Bowie, the decor could branch in all kinds of directions.

I believe this is a locally owned establishment, so I hate to give it a bad review, but I think it needs some serious attention if it plans to stay around for a while. I will give it another try perhaps later...

My friends and I stopped in after spending a few hours outside training in the hot Florida sun. None of us had ever been here and I hadn’t actually looked at reviews before coming here but I’m glad I didn’t. The reviews paint this place to be somewhere I wouldn’t have picked, but in this application of “we are tired, hot, hungry, and just want food fast” this was the place to go.

You walk in and order your personal sized pizza. I really liked that because nothing is worse than going to pizza with your friends and then no one can decide what we want on the pizza.

Since it’s personal thin crust pizza baked in the super hot oven, the pizza does come out rather quickly which was great for us. Con, no water unless you buy water. Perhaps set up one of those water containers and cups like they do at Public and General.

I ordered a weirdo pizza for myself because I don’t eat meat and I loved it. Dough was nice and chewy, loved that they had corn as an option, and the blobs of soft cheese were really good. Something with a C, strange name, can’t remember off the top of my head sorry.

Overall my take on this place is: If you’ve waited an hour past when your significant other should have eaten and you just need to get handmade, affordable, quality food in them quickly this is the place to go. Added bonus: they decide what they want on it (what a game changer, now you’re not getting yelled at for ordering the wrong thing). However, if you’re looking for a place with things to stare at on the wall while you’re on a first date trying to impress the person who will be your future screaming spouse, no this is not the place.

We need to start seeing local restaurants as individual places that fit different needs. You can’t have a reasonably priced restaurant with super expensive decor and high quality food that has everything you want and more. Give this place a try, it might fit into your week/needs somehow. I know I’ll...

This place is a bit of a gamble.

Service was great!

Atmosphere was awkward (seating arrangement seemed forced, felt a little uncomfortable), and I didn't like the lack of drink station (I understand this is a restaurant’s choice but for a pizza place?). They should try to have non bottled water situation or at least better kids water options. I also didn't like that there was a bottle ranch out and not refrigerated. Im sure it followed FDA guidelines, but any dairy left out freaks me out.

Food was not the worst, but we won’t go back unless out of necessity. We got a pesto, cheese, and BYO. The pesto was fine, but the mozzarella seems a little undercooked. If it had been done any longer, it would have been burnt. This was probably normal, but I didn’t like it. That’s on me. Compared to anyone else, I LOVED the crust, just didn’t dig the sauce, maybe if I had gotten a different pizza it would have been better. Kid got the cheese, said it was fine but was very upset that it was only cut into 4 slices. This is stupid but, to a kid, this is heart crushing. The BYO was just bad. Simultaneously soggy and burnt. We understand that neapolitan style pizza is slightly charred due to the cooking style, but this pizza was straight up burnt and dripping. Maybe there should be a limit to the toppings or something but it was bad. Seems like they are still trying to get their ducks in a row. Maybe we will try again some other time, but without the kid, and...