Boludo — Restaurant in Minneapolis

Honest & non biased review (and i've been to argentina 5+ times). Pizza was good. And should be for $17, for a pepperoni. A little smaller than I'd imagined from the photos. It's sized between a Small & Medium. So basically a smedium. ---It Comes out in a weird shape & doesn't fill the box they give you. --- I'd give it a 4.5 for flavor. -- Oddly, I called to ask if they deliver, but they could not hear me well. I thought I was having phone issues. I called from a friends phone. Same thing. Now I know why. I walked into a lobby and saw the guy pick up the phone "hello, hello?" and hangs up. The music was absolutely blaring. The lobby full of people waiting with the same annoyance, and it seems like they brought the customary culture with them... which is well known to not care so much about the customer wait time or experience, at all. Why do I say that? It takes 2 seconds to realize no one was enjoying the giant speaker that was placed right next to the waiting couches. It wasn't in the kitchen or near the staff. A giant speaker plopped right near where you need to wait. When it's time to call your name, they have to shout it out loud, and yet you can barely understand them. I wasn't the only one. Thats how loud the music was. No body seemed thrilled to have their ears pierced with argentinian rap - everyone just wanted their pizza and it seems like everyone had to wait 15+ minutes longer than their pick up time. There was a 70 yr old lady with her grandchild ordering pizza and everything in between. Just felt the mutual respect was non-existent. But it did feel like i was back in BS AS for 20 minutes. Consider moving the speaker to the kitchen if the workers are trying to feel that vibe.. It'd still be loud but at least would be at a distance & sound level that makes sense if it were in there. So the rating is based off of flavor, price & experience. Theres no doubt music this loud can permanently ruin cells and hairs in the cochlea of the ears-- so thats why I'm wasting my time to review it. Poor 70 yr old lady took her grandchild back outside to wait in the heat. While she waited she requested to use the bathroom. No bathrooms for customers even though it was a former restaurant with public bathrooms. Additionally: No restroom access to wash hands which is fine, but wet wipes or sanitizing wipes were not available to eat your pizza using the tables offered outside. Just plastic forks, knife and napkins. (lots a of people ate outside on the 3 tables they offered.. It's a nice view of the park and stadium.) It was good pizza. If you're hungry you could easily down the $20 worth of pizza by yourself, The outside crust makes it look big but it is pretty thin beyond that. I'd order it again but delivery only.

Fun side info: "Boludo" is unique name/word and instantly tells you it's Argentinian. In Argentina (specifically in Buenos Aires), they swear A LOT, and use a ton of slang. Boludo can be used in many instances but is most common as a friendly or negative insult..Interchangeable with the english words "idiot" or "dummy". Basically if you use it with your friends, it's more of " dummy". Used with strangers "Che boludo", it's more of "hey moron!" or "hey idiot". Therefore it's only appropriate to say: "Che Boludos, either move your speaker or turn your music down."

Quick Update: Their initial response before changing it was that I must be deaf and cant handle good music. Literally couldn't hear you on the phone twice or in person. Cant handle simple honest feedback without insults I guess. Still, really good...

We have been a patron of Boludo's since they opened the counter only service on Nicollet next to NightHawk's restaurant. Pizza and service were always excellent. We have also gone to the new location on 38th - service with Oscar was always wonderful - pizza and empanadas were great. In the past couple years, we've had not so great service and food experiences at the Uptown, Dinkytown and even on 38th when Oscar was no longer at that location - the orders were often incorrect, the pizzas were sometimes burnt and the service was not what it was so we hadn't been back in nearly 2 years. Tonight we decided to try the location on S 4th Street Downtown. There were 2 problems - We arrived a little after 8pm and were told by the person taking orders that we could only order take out despite the fact that they didn't close until 9pm and it was lovely outside on the patio. We said that was fine and placed our order. After we ordered and were waiting for our food, a gentleman came in, placed an order with a different counter person at the counter and was given a number to sit on the patio. We then watched the person at the counter take 2 salads and a tray of empanadas to the gentleman and his companion on the patio to eat there at the restaurant. Next, the same counter person took two pizzas outside to the patio to another lady, who had ordered just before us. So I approached her and asked why we were told we could only order takeout. She didn't have a good answer or explanation and told us we could sit on the patio if we wanted. I asked my partner if he wanted to sit outside and he said at this point he didn't want to stay - so I told her we would just take our food to go. The second issue was with our order. We got a small order tonight - just the De La Casa Salad and the Margarita Pizza with extra sauce - which I stated to the person taking our order 2x - once when I placed the order and then checked again when we paid. When we got home, the pizza had NO SAUCE and tons of Cheese! Getting our order wrong has also happened several times before at other locations. Even when we ate regularly at 38th Street, would go into the restaurant to place our order as it was often wrong if we placed online or in person. Had to toss tonight's pizza. We also started ordering the gluten free crust about 2 1/2 years ago, right before we stopped coming the 1st time. The initial gluten free crust tasted a lot like the empanada dough and wasn't very good. We were also anxious to see if the gluten free crust had improved - it looked like it had but we couldn't eat the pizza with no sauce.

We used to eat at Boludo's at least 2x a month when it opened until a couple years ago, but the poor service, inconsistency with the food and inability to get the orders correct are not worth the time or $$ - too many other...

Money seems more important to this restaurant than customer service.

We went here for dinner before a concert. You order and pay at the counter, and they were very busy, but the line moved relatively quickly. We ordered 2 beers a pizza and an empanada. After 45 minutes of waiting for our food we saw others who came in after us get served, so we went up and asked someone to check on our order. Another 30 minutes passed without update, so we asked a server if they could check on us. 15 minutes later the server noticed we were still sitting there without food and went back to check. They returned and said our ticket was lost, so clearly no one ever checked in on our order when we asked before. He said he could put our order in and the empanadas only take 5 minutes to make. We asked if we could have some beers while we wait, and the server said they could give us two beers ($6 each so a $12 value) INSTEAD of the Pizza we ordered ($19). At that point we decided to opt for a refund instead. When we asked for a refund the server seemed confused about the process, and said they had to use an older machine to do it and it might take a couple of days. We had to leave for the concert at this point, so I took him at his word and we left. They eventually did give us a partial refund, but they did NOT refund the 20% tip I gave them at time of ordering, or the $12 for the two beers that we did have. Considering we waited 2 hours and ultimately got no food, it would have been a classy move to refund those as a show of good faith and a hope to retain our business.

Overall the food looked good and I hope they are able to better organize. Until then I have no interest in going back here, and would encourage folks that do to leave tips at the table after they get their meal instead of...