Dario’s Pizza & Calzones — Restaurant in Lubbock

Quick update, we ordered a carryout, and my wife said extra sauce and extra cheese. When you order from a chain store, you do this, or you get a cardboard circle with red and white speckles. When it was ready, the owner brought it out and said he wanted to show us. It was like Christmas jello! A small tear came to my eye. It might have been from the jalapeño, we may never know. It was the absolute best pizza we ever ate. It was like a Chicago style flipped upside down. The amazing part was that the crust was crisp and perfectly chewy like it should be. Only someone working real pizza ovens who know how to place and when to rotate the pizzas can do this. The man is a gifted pizza genius.

Great experience. They use old school ovens here. The kind you have to pay attention to. You have to know where the hotspots are, move the pizzas from back to front, and turn them while in the oven to keep them cooking even. The owner has this mastered. My pizza was cooked even. The bottom was crisp, and the rest was chewy in a very good way. The way pre-belt feed pizza was, when done right. The cheese is top quality. Good quality mozzarella retains texture when cooked. It shouldn't turn into a sheet of goo. This cheese retains its texture while still being molten. That's the sign of a top quality cheese. The sauce is great, and it's not a thin smathering like some places give you. The pizza was truly great. Last comment about the pizza, the pepperoni wasn't paper thin. When you bite into a pepperoni, you knew you were bitting into something. The atmosphere was pleasant. It's a small restaurant and we went during the supper rush so it was packed. It was family's enjoying themselves. So it was loud but not in a bad way. You heard people laughing and having fun. The owner made all the orders. He had plenty of help taking orders and running the orders out to the tables. If you go during a rush like we did, expect a small wait. It took about 20-25 minutes for our order to come out. But we ordered in the middle of the supper rush. Even with that, all the orders moved quickly. I greatly enjoyed my time here. It was old school. It was a pleasant throwback to the small, non corporate places you don't see very often anymore. It's just a guy doing what he enjoys, and it really shows. I am looking forward to many more visits and trying everything...

Dario! Dario! Dario! Y'ALL!! THE BEST PIZZA IN LUBBOCK IS BACK! Fun story -- when I was going to Tech, my mom (who worked at Tech) and I would walk over to One Guy's about once a week to split a calzone for lunch. Dario always greeted us and knew what we were going to order before we even walked up to the counter. He's regularly come to our table if he got a chance and make sure everything was great (which it always was) and ask how we were doing. Fast-forward 13 or so years...my mom and I walked into Dario's tonight and I'm not kidding, as soon as we walked in the door, I swear his face lit up and he said "hey guys!! Wow! It's so good to see you!" He came around from behind the counter to give us both a hug. He must've said 100 times "thank you, thank you so much" as we were ordering. We ordered the 13" Meat Lovers pizza to split. When the server brought out the pizza, it was the 18" pizza, and she said "he made you the bigger one and said it was made with a lot of love." We looked up to the counter and saw Dario with his hand over his heart; he said 'thank you' once again and my mom and I were both in tears! Such a sweet, genuine gesture. And y'all. That pizza is so so so good! That first bite was nostalgic -- tasted just like it used to at the original One Guy's. Run, don't walk,...

Edit: I have to add this edit because tipping is out of control. There is a prompt when you place your order to tip. This is a place that already takes quite a while to get your food due to freshness and so you feel compelled to tip even though there really not reason to tip. You walk up to order your food and then you do all your own refills and the dining experience is devoid of any reason to tip. (this is a great pizza shop who is getting a pointed out on an issue that is very common now but this has got to stop) We stopped at this place randomly for lunch and OMG my wife and I agree this is the best calzone we have ever eaten. I got the supreme and she got uh the meat one? Sorry I don't remember. Oh lord just thinking about it is making my mouth water. Yeah your going to have a to wait a bit for Dario to make them but it's totally worth it. We WILL be back!! The atmosphere is kind of sterile and I would suggest putting at least one of the central TVs on news instead of sports but hey, it's his place not mine and won't keep me from...