Venezia's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Mesa

This is a bipolar review. There will be elements of extreme positive and elements of extreme negative. 1 star means I wouldn't choose to go back. 5 stars means I like it and will return - even though nowhere near truly perfect.

We ate here several years ago. I barely remember it. Something about it made it a place we just didn't decide to continue to patronize.

Daughter recently had it at a friends house and really wanted to have it again. Cool.

Placed order 16" extra cheese order online - smooth. Showed up 3 minutes after claimed completion time. Told it would be 5 more minutes. Watched several folks arrive and leave with their orders. I assumed they just ordered online before me. 20 minutes later was told they "lost my pizza" with an apology. As a result, they voided my ticket, restarted the pie and made me a free large cheese as well. Two free pies! Cool!

The customer services response was exquisite. More than an apology... free + extra free food. I was already formulating my 5 star review in my head.

I've included pictures of the large and the extra large. These pizzas sat on my front seat stacked on each other for 1.5 miles/3 minutes. Worth noting that my seat has transported 100s of pizzas, and this has never happened. Nothing got dropped, the two boxes were in contact with each other 100% of the time. The XL was a runny mess.

Not a pizza pro, but this looks to me me that they rushed the bake. Not sure if you can see it, but there is standing liquid in the cheese void, and the thin crust was a little underdone in the center, but charred at the edges.

Both pies were cut by someone with a crazy dull cutter or the upper body strength of a chicken plucked clean of meat. Not a single cut made it all the way through the pie. Each piece had to be ripped unceremoniously from it's neighbor. The XL was completely unmanageable. Impossible to tell where most cuts were.

Good news? Pizza was decent. Unfortunately, it wasn't phenomenal, so the 1 star is going to stick at this time. Not sure what it was - maybe a little too much sauce and really greasy, but it didn't "wow" me. It's not bad. I was hoping for magic. Had the XL not been in this condition (it's a total nuisance to try and get a slice out of it without completely recutting it), it would have been a 5 star review.

Thanks to those working their butts off on Labor Day, and hats off to the manager that comped the order and gave a bonus. I'm really sorry I have to write this review.

From a customer service perspective, this place is phenomenal. From a quality perspective, this place is pretty...

They charge 89 cents for a small (3oz, i think) ranch cup, and then proceed to only fill it 3/4 full.

My family and I have been frequenting this place for 20 years now since they first opened. This has been my favorite pizza joint since, but today was my last visit. They are no longer the affordable place they used to be.

My go to was their pizza slice and wing meal deal when it was just me. You get a reheated slice, wings (5, used to be 6), and a drink. I used to get the bone in wings but then they started to upcharge, so i switched to boneless just to save. The boneless are something frozen you could buy at Walmart, but they make their own sauce so they were still tolerable. My point being this meal was a fast food delight at a good price. No more as i spent almost $12 today. Before covid i paid somewhere around $8, so I'm not sure what justifies a 50% price hike. I understand inflation and post covid pricing, but this seems more to me.

Finally, they usually have 10 plus employees behind the counter and yet the dining area is disgusting. Trash on the floor. Dirty tables and chairs. The bathroom trash overflowing from both cans onto the floor.

Sad to say i shant be back to what was once my favorite pizza...

Let me start by saying I really love Venezias, but this location is subpar.

Every time I go, the service seems to deteriorate more and more. Now, if you don't care about service and just want overpriced, lukewarm pizza and wings, this is your spot.

The employees are not friendly nor welcoming here. I'm not asking for Marry Poppins, but a smile and a warm welcome go a long way in guest retention. They definitely just want to take your order and get you out of their face even if it's not busy.

I always get the same thing, a #3, a slice, and half an order of boneless wings. The price has gone up over time, which I get. But I question the quality of the food for the price now.

This last visit took 30 minutes to get handed a cold slice of pizza, barely warm wings with a curt "sorry about that". There was no accountability or acknowledgment that it took way too long to reheat a slice and drop a few wings in the fryer. Very disappointing.

Definitely will not be back at this location, not that they care. And to anyone spending their hard earned money...