Grimaldi's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Hoover

We came in and dined on a Sunday night around 5:30 PM or so and were seated right away. At the time we were seated, the restaurant didn’t seem very busy at all. The atmosphere itself was actually quite nice. We ordered drinks, and my father tried ordering a Limoncello Lemon Drop, to which he was told the restaurant ran completely out of vodka. Then, he ordered a Manhattan, but after almost 10 minutes of waiting for it, he was only then told they were out of the Sweet Vermouth to make the drink. He settled for an Old Fashioned.

For the food, we ordered a Barbecue Chicken pizza, and we asked for the chicken on one half of the pizza to be substituted with Italian Sausage since one of our party members doesn’t eat chicken, but clarified that we wanted bacon on the entire pizza. When the pizza finally came out after roughly 30 minutes, the first thing we noticed was that there was no bacon on half of it and there was maybe a teaspoon full of barbecue on the entire 16” pizza. This itself wasn’t a huge deal, we’re all human, but when brought to our server’s attention, we were not given any sort of apology, and instead, we were just asked if we wanted a side of barbecue and a side of bacon and were told that they could make a new pizza. We accepted the new pizza, but were so hungry after waiting for the first pizza that we also ate the one we already had. The side of barbecue never came and the side of bacon only came to the table after we had finished the pizza already. We were offered no apology from the server for this either. We were finally given the new pizza after a while, and still, no apology was offered for the situation. As someone that also works in food service, I totally get that we’re all human and this is a new restaurant, but my biggest issue is just that the situation was treated with no real...

Checked out the Grimaldi’s franchise in Hoover. We got there in a Saturday afternoon around 4 pm.

Moderately busy but we were seated immediately. We were greeted by friend staff who went over the menu with us and took our drink orders.

I had done my research so I downloaded the Grimaldi’s app and got a free starter for signing up for the rewards program.

We chose the Tomato and basil bruschetta. It came out quickly with a generous portion of tomato, nicely toasted bread. Could have used a little more Parmesan and basil. But it had a fresh garlic/tomato taste, pretty close to home made. Very good!

We had never tried coal brick oven pizza before so we were intrigued. We have always loved wood brick oven pizza so we were hoping it was just as good.

We then chose our pizzas. My wife chose the 12 in white with garlic and I got the 12 in traditional and added pepperoni.

Pizza came out piping hot! Crust was thin and crispy. Had almost zero flop. The undercarriage was crispy and charred. My traditional tomato sauce had a great flavor with a nice acidic bite. Pepperoni were bite sized but cut slightly thinker than normal. Overall 8/10 pizza!

Of course I had to try my wife’s white with garlic. Nice olive oil base with hint of garlic. Same crispy crust with nice crunch. Cheese was a nice mix of fresh flavors. Overall 7.5/10!

Staff were attentive, knowledgeable and kind. Restaurant was clean and relatively quiet for a Saturday night. I appreciated the fact that there was only one TV in the main dining room. It made for a more pleasant meal with my wife.

And the Diet Coke was on point! I might have found my new favorite pizza...

I’ll say we’ve been 3 times, 2 times they messed up our order. They made it right every time though. They are typically kind & generous. The food is also amazing, but the service is top notch.

Edit: eve came quite a few times since I left this review. The time before last my pizza was cold. I asked him to pop it back in the oven, he said he couldn’t do that but he’d remake it. In an attempt to back up the fact that I wasn’t being difficult, my partner mentioned hers was cold too. He offered her an additional slice. We declined, but he made it anyways.

This last time we came in, I redeemed my bday pizza. I wanted ricotta on my side, my fiancée didn’t; however, ricotta came on both sides. Still, we didn’t complain. My fiancée gave a thumbs down on their service pad on accident.

The manager came out and asked “was everything ok? We saw your thumbs down.” Which is great, but we said “no” as to not be seen as difficult. He then dug his heels in & said “you sure about that? Because last time you were here you had issues too”

I remember the very first time they messed up our pizza, they remade it and we literally gave it to the staff. We aren’t looking for comps or freebies. We’re simply trying to enjoy the one cheat meal a week we allow ourselves to be worth it.

Maybe, bud, just maybe… you could be the problem. We kept coming back despite the mistakes. Paid full price every time and smiled graciously through it all. God forbid we want to get exactly what we’re paying for. We no longer feel welcome here. Which sucks cus the pizza was pretty good. I guess we’ll go to Huntsville when we...