DaVinci's Brick Oven Pizza — Restaurant in Montclair

Boy, has this place gone downhill. I hadn't been here for several years (not for any particular reason, just never in the area when I was hungry), but I had a positive opinion of it as an above average by the slice pizza joint. A bit overpriced for sure - I think each slice was about $4, which is almost twice as much as a Sicilian slice in Clifton - but decent margarita for what it was. Not anymore, which is really a shame.

I stopped by here for a quick lunch yesterday on an unseasonably toasty February afternoon. It was probably about 12:45pm and completely deserted. To be fair, they only had one table open for sit-down service, so it's entirely possible that the carry-out business was booming. I ordered two margarita slices to stay, which were reheated and provided within a minute or so. Perfectly decent service in that regard.

The slices themselves were just not very good. The attached picture shows a surprisingly photogenic slice, in my opinion. You can tell though that the cheese is kind of hard and rubbery toward the top, and both slices managed to be both greasy (I had to mop them down with a napkin beforehand) and dry, likely because of the reheating. Have I had worse slices? Yes, but it doesn't happen very often.

Beyond the actual pizza, there were a few things that just rubbed me the wrong way - and your mileage may vary on this. My understanding is that Montclair presently has a COVID mask mandate in place for all businesses. I'm pretty ambivalent about the masks; if a business requires it, I'll respect their wishes and put one on, but if they don't require it, I don't wear it. I rarely get riled up about how businesses handle COVID, but when I approached the door to Da Vinci's, there was not one, not two, but THREE signs stating that masks were required. Fair enough, point made, and I put my mask on before heading in. When I got into the restaurant though, none of the employees were wearing them, not even as chin straps. Given the sheer number of mask required signs, it came off as really hypocritical and just a bad look.

The other issue was the negativity coming from the guy behind the counter. He was perfectly friendly to me, but in the 90 seconds i was up there to get my slices, he managed to belittle a carry-out customer's chicken parm order (rolling his eyes and commenting that the person didn't want actual sauce on it) and criticizing the kids/teenagers that he expected to come by later in the afternoon after school (he said the reason that most of their tables weren't open for sit-down was because those kids didn't understand how to be responsible vis-a-vis social distancing). Both criticisms are valid in their own right, but I don't think it's a good look to badmouth your paying customers to other patrons.

I'm genuinely mystified that a place like this can stay open with so much competition in the immediate area. Needless to say, I'll be going somewhere else next time I have a...

I have been a Slice customer for quite awhile. I try new places often and also have my fave's. So tonight I tried Davinci's in Montclair. I will not be ordering from them again. I received a call about 20 minutes after the order was placed. They ran out of ham and couldn't make an Italian sub. I asked if they could substitute Prosciutto or Cappicola. They don't have that. So I asked him to just add extra salami and pepperoni. Ok he said. Then another call that they no longer have Paninis. I was told that Slice hadn't updated the menu to reflect that. So I said ok can you just make it a sandwich then. Sure he said. And then, oh we also don't have the dessert you want. So I chose something else. Well, finally after an hour and 15 minutes the food came. My sub had 3 pieces of salami and one piece of cheese. No oil & vinegar. It was basically bread & veggies. The penne vodka with chicken was undercooked pasta with 4 strips of grilled chicken. The mozzarella sticks weren't even cooked through. I paid $85!! And I paid for a chicken panini & got a sandwich. And the Italian sub I got was ridiculous. I've NEVER had any problems with any other pizzeria on your site. I just wanted...

Horrible customer service. The owner is also dishonest. When I posted a negative review about horrific customer service, she responded by saying that I was aggressive and rude. Definitely not the case! She also stated that they offered to deliver the dressing working half hour. Not true at all- I was told by her that the delivery guy was out and would deliver the dressing within an hour and a half. In addition, she states that I failed to choose the dressing when I ordered the salad from grub hub drop down menu. I ordered an arugula salad and it States on the menu the dressing comes with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Perhaps the business needs to update their menu if they don’t want people to be disappointed when the right dressing is not delivered. Lastly, they did not provide us with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing as the owner calima that they did. In fact, they sent plain olive oil for the dressing. One only needs to read her response to my review to see that my review was exactly accurate about the business owner’s rudeness and complete disregard to her customers. Not only rude, but...