Stuft Pizza Bar & Grill — Restaurant in La Quinta

Had an extremely rough experience here for dinner. Came here with the family, off of a friends recommendation, and ordered 4 simple pizzas and a cheesy bread appetizer. We waited 45 for the appetizer before asking our waiter what was up, and all he said was "it gets cooked like pizzas, so it takes awhile." There was no mention of this when we ordered, that it would take close to an hour. 10 minutes later it comes out, basically a thin crust pizza with cheese and no sauce, prob took 15 minutes to cook. OK, whatever. We eat it, then wait some more. Finally our waiter comes around...no apologies, no updates on our pizzas... so we order more drinks as we wait. He also asks if our dog wants a water dish, to which we say yes... but he never brings it. An hour and 15 minutes after we arrive, our pizzas come, and one has the wrong ingredients on it, so they take it back to remake it. I sit for another 35 minutes watching my family finsh all of their pizzas, before the corrected pizza comes out. During this period, our waiter came to our table just one time, to ask if everything was okay and we told him we were making waiting on a remake of a pizza. He said "oh yeah, the kitchen will often mistake green onions for green olives, they will remake it". We were never rude in our inquiries, but there was no offer to check on it or rush the order. When we've gone to other restaurants and things like this have happened, waiters and staff have bent over backwards to bring us food while we were waiting, comp our drinks, comp an appetizer while we wait, or comp the plate that was made wrong. None of that was offered to us. Not once was there an apology for the wait. I'm sure the waiter realized things were not going well, and rather than trying to do what he could to fix the situation or try to make things right, his reaction was avoidance. We literally saw him once, and then we had to flag him down to get the check once our food finally arrived. The pizza itself was good and the ambiance on the patio was nice, but the evening was ruined by the lack of acknowledgement for how adsurdly long we sat there waiting for basic pizzas, and overall terribly subpar service. We were here on a Wednesday night, it was busy on the patio, but not packed. We saw many tables arrive after us and leave before us. I hate leaving reviews like this, but the fact that there was no acknowledgement or even basic attempts to make things right, we felt compelled to share...

Here is the COVID update on Stuft Pizza. They are now open for patio dining with a much reduced number of tables and a beefed-up patio cooling system including more Misters and a couple of Swamp Coolers. It is hard to cool off the desert heat, but on a reasonably cool evening last week (103) at 4:30 it was not horrible. The menu is now on a paper place mat, and there is no salt or pepper or pepper flakes on the table, but generally it was a good experience. They have a good number of umbrellas on the patio to provide shade.

It is good to note that they have gone away from the buzzer handout for seating and are not using a text messaging app that notifies you on your own cell phone, so bring it along. As always, the take-out section is completely separated from the rest of the operation so you don't have that contact point to worry about. All in all, I would say they have done a nice job with their preparations. Of course it is up to you to keep separation and mask wearing hygiene.

It's hard to find a pizza place. It's hard to recommend one. I have lots of Chicago friends that think deep dish is the only pizza. Not me. The thing about Stuft Pizza in downtown LA Quinta is they have a wide variety of pizzas and styles and ingredients.

We like the small thin crust, it is done in a very hot oven so it is a little charred which gives it a good flavor. Ask for extra ingredients and you get them. They have a happy hour with half price wine. Large patio. Misters in the summer and heaters in the winter.

Want to sit in the bar? Get there early because it fills fast.

Not in the mood for pizza, their menu is extensive. They even have prime rib on Wednesdays. Parking is available in downtown not all that...

Oh my gosh. Our dinner was fabulous. We are visiting from Seattle and wanted to try a place that a friend of mine recommended and stuft was one of them. My friend by the way is whose house we are staying at. He comes down in the fall and then leaves in the spring. So he spends lots of nights at stuft. I had the filet Mignonne with the mushroom semi glacé. My steak was cooked to perfection. My friend had the veggie Pomodori. We didn’t even have appetizers and we were completely full so we had a good bunch of leftovers to bring home. The waitress was so nice. I didn’t like the non-alcoholic beverage I had ordered so she got me a different one and Did not charge for it. She was very accommodating. She, and another nice fellow who looked like he was overseeing the operations took pictures, at our request, of my friend and I together. It was a very enjoyable dinner and a night we needed. We had gone on the palm springs trram earlier that day so it was very nice of a way to end the day.. I really, really, really, did I say really enough, to get the recipe for the mushroom Demi-glacé. Did you want to send it to my private email address so it is not just out there for the world, I would be more than happy to send it to you. I really do Hope I can get the recipe. We will be back next year and will definitely go to stufted again. We may even go one more time before we leave. Great place. Great food. Great prices....