Calogero's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Lake Alfred

Unexpected Taste of Sicily and Italy in small town Auburndale, FL. My review is based on gastronomy, traveling and writing for renowned agencies, so, taste, feel, savor and see for yourself before finalizing your decision. If you do like what you read or revive your senses, please "like" my post.

Owner, Charlie, with interesting history and roots, Sicilian descent, born in New York and later returned to Sicily to experience the true roots and flavor of Italian cooking. Strangely, while in Sicily, he stayed at the same hotel room where his father once lodged while waiting for embarkation of his life and journey to the US as a young man -remarkable yet ironic story. Charlie did just that, experiencing and tasting the flavors and textures, learning the preparation and the love in Italian cuisine. Charlie decided to own Acunto from Italy and painstakingly, he assembled Acunto piece by piece to make sure he brought Italian flavors and textures to Auburndale.

San Manzano pomodoro (tomato) sauce imported directly from Italy is the base for all Calogero's pizza. No doubt it tastes different from US Hunts or other brand tomato sauces. The flour are imported from Italy mixed in the right portion with US flour to create the magical texture for the pizza dough. The rest are pizza ingredients from the US. The next big secret for an excellent pizza is the cooking oven. With Italian-made Acunto, the oven on a slow day runs over 600 degrees Fahrenheit, cooking every items evenly and beautifully. The position of the food items, pizza, wings, meatballs, are quintessential in the making of great dishes. The wings are kept to the side avoiding the splattering of the natural oil from the wings, the pizzas are placed towards the middle, mid-front of the oven allows quick yet evenly cooked pizzas. The meatballs combined with secret ingredients are cooked to perfection inside Acunto- moist and tender. One who looks for butter on the crust, dripping and oozing cheeses and oils from the slices of pizza or burnt or thick crusts, are not savoring Italian pizza or Italian cooking. We've ordered various pizzas, meat lovers, L'Inferno and build our own. We also ordered the wings as appetizer along with double shots of expresso, cannoli and gelato for dessert to complete our Italian savory experience here in small town Auburndale. The pizza crust is extremely thin in the center due to the weight of the ingredients and light and airy on the outside crust. Calogero's pizza was so light and airy that I ate the crust! The San Manzano sauce is lightly spread around the pizza pie, with light sprinkles of cheeses and arrangement of the pizza condiments before being pushed into the Acunto to finalize the cooking process which is rapidly done with the high temperature of Acunto. The harmonious marriage of the entire pizza pie and the ingredients inside the inferno Acunto presented patrons with the memorable Italian flavors and textures. The wings are superbly incredible on size, wings and drummettes, the incredible savory sauce and the unforgettable textures are an enigma to patrons which is hard to forget and may named Calogero's Pizzeria as the best wing place in FL. The wings are cooked on the side of Acunto, encapsulating the heat cooking the big size wings evenly and fast. These jumbo wings have slight sweetness and spiciness, yet, made without sugar but from natural ingredients. When biting into each wing, one experienced the crispiness of the skin, tender and juiciness of the wings along with the savory sauce to complete the wings experience. The cannoli tubes are direct import from Italy while the ricotta fillings are made in the US. Nevertheless, the bite into the cannoli, brings joy and memories of Sicily and Italy. Gelato are made in the US and it is still excellent. Do try the pistachios for a more genuine Italian taste.

I highly recommend this restaurant for true Italian and Sicilian pizza experience and definitely, going back for the meatballs...

Where do we even start. From the moment we walked in, we were never even greeted or even welcomed.We expected for there yo have been a server to seat us, a d there was no one, finally a man, came from behind curtain, a curtain, to the register, and not friendly at all. He handed us a menu and said to order from it and pay, before sitting down, so we asked him about the meatball entree, and said that was all they had left for the day, and that they ran out of all entrees. We looked it over really quick, and knew what we wanted to order, and were prepared to do so, while staying in front of this man, to place our order, to be pushed aside, with his hand gesture which was so very rude, another customer walked up in our place, and he rudely started taking his order, while we stood there, looking at each other in shock, wondering what in the world happened, as if we didn't matter at all. Meanwhile, we are standing aside, while other customers are walking up, even though he knew we were standing in line, waiting for him to take our order. Finally, after he taking 3 customers orders, that walked up after we did, we stood at the counter to place our order, we started to order 2 of the meatball entress, and he said they ran out of it, that the customers that had just placed their order, had order some, so they ran out of it. Again, we looked at each other as if "Is he kidding "????? So when we were ready to place our order, which he said they still had this meatball entree available, because he chose to scoot us aside, as if we were dogs, he sold the entrees that we would have purchased, if he would have taken our order 1st, when we were ready. We finally placed our order for some pizzas and wings, and some drinks. Not a thank you, or that our food would be brought to the table, as if we had to assume. Why would any owner, care to have such a rude, uncaring and unprofessional person, working for his business?, because he doesn't care, how this man, treats his customers. We sat at a table, around 15 minutes later, a young guy was out loud to everyone, what the ticket number was, instead of walking up to tables, and verifying with receipts, which the rude cashier, never mentioned this or even where to find the ticket number. We finally were served our order, but never our drinks, even though we paid in full for our order. Pizza's were quite dry and wings, as well. My husband walked up to ask for our paid drinks, and the ride Spanish speaking cashier, said oh here, with no ice and bottles at rooms temperature, we we had to drink, our beverages cold, and silver, cheap plastic forks and knives that bent and broke. Not even for a special occasion as today's, for mother's Day, they neglected to offer regular silverware and offer all entrees, for the full day, which was extremely tacky and cheap. The owner walked by us, not even a smile or how was everything, he really cares for his customers and the reputation for his restaurant?? Not!!!! We see the owner, and shows, the owner doesn't care to answer any reviews, which shows what type of person he is. So from the beginning to the end it was a poor experience. Such a disappointment. His worker and he" the owner" need to be tought customer service etiquette, because they have none!!! We will Not be...

We’ve been here before, and have had a great experience in the past. However, not so much this time around - so much so that I felt compelled to leave a review, as it was that disappointing. We came here for a date night, and kept the order simple - salad, wings, and a pizza - no extra add-ons. We got the salad and wings right away, but 40 minutes later, and still no pizza. When we finally asked if we can take it to go as we had a movie to make it to, the cashier seemed to be confused and asked if we had already eaten our pizza. Once we told him we never got it, he offered to fire one up, but we just asked for a refund due to us needing to stick the timeline for our movie. This is the part where we became disenchanted with this place…once the manager came out, it seemed like there was some confusion with how to give a refund, and were instead offered a gift certificate for the amount of the pizza. The manager, seemingly annoyed at this point, made the comment “Why didn’t you say anything? I made like 10 pizzas after you ordered!”. Well, we didn’t have an opportunity to say anything, because no one came to check on us after the waiter dropped off appetizers, and we still had a number on our table, which I thought would indicate we were still waiting on our meal. Despite a clear error on their end, the manager seemed to lack any real care or empathy, didn’t seem to make much effort to go out of his way to make things right or make us feel appreciated as customers, and if anything, he seemed like he felt like it was more our fault then theirs. He missed an opportunity to keep what used to be returning customers. We’re pretty disappointed, and we won’t...