Carbone's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Oak Park Heights

Ordered online from the Stillwater location. Got a text that said order was received at 544pm.The pickup time on my confirmation said 603pm (doesn't say estimated, says ready for pickup at). Got there about 607pm, told the guy my name, he asked again what it is, then asked if it was an online order. I said yes and he shouted my name to the MANY people in the kitchen (although only looked like a few were actually doing anything). The one guy says it's not quite ready, will be a few minutes. 4 more people walked in for their pickup orders, one guy asked if they had bottled water- guy at the desk says idk,the bar might. Then a few mins later says we have it we just don't know where it is. Then a few mins later, comes out with 2 cold bottles of water...very odd. I waited as those 4 people, along with 3 more after them, received their food and left. At 20 mins, the guy says, it's almost up, just a couple mins, sorry for the wait (yes he apologized, no it was not sincere- more of a formality). A different guy calls my name and says have a good night. I was missing half of my order, which I said to him. He looked at me confused and the guy making the food says it's in the bag over there. Get to my car to double check everything is there, and the "meatball dinner" I ordered is leaking sauce out all over the bag and 2 other boxes of food. It's meatballs in red sauce, baked with cheese on top. They literally dumped the sauce into the Styrofoam container, put the meatballs in and put the cheese on. It was slightly melted, more so like the hot sauce had melted it, rather than actually putting it in the oven before boxing it up. I did end up putting it in the oven at home, however, it was absolutely disgusting tasting and I ended up throwing it out. The cheese bread had 2 cups of sauce,since I ordered extra- but looked like they put the sauce cups in the box, Then the hot cheese bread around/on the bottom cup, which then melted the lid on the bottom cup. The pizza was mediocre- def doesn't taste like Carbones from back in the day. I sent the company as a whole a message on fb, to see how I can message that location, as there is not an email or contact us page on the site,only a.phone number. Judging by the way they acted in person, I don't think I'll get far with calling. Also after reading alot of these reviews, doesn't look like I'll get far either way. Such a bummer, terrible service, bad food but speedy. Really sucks that they don't think customer service and decent food...

Oct 4, 2025 UPDATE: Well today we tried our normal order again. The poorly prepared pizza which actually should be advertised as a One Layer Lasagna was awful. Couldn’t pick up a piece without ingredients sliding off. Enough red sauce on it that we should have ordered garlic bread to dip.

When we mentioned it to our server she brought it to the kitchen and the line cooks all whined that they’re either told too much sauce or not enough.

Making a pizza is not rocket science. But clearly the Owner does not care that the line cooks can continue providing a poorly made product that we used to crave all the time.

We came here hungry and having been here many times before the remodel, we were so disappointed with our pizza. We always order 2 side salads with tomatoes on the side and a small House Special. It’s the third time since the remodel that the pizza failed the expectations. Here’s what’s wrong.

My husband was starving and ate it in its entirety, but I could not get past the soggy lasagna-like crust to eat the crust. It was so doused with red sauce that you couldn’t see the crust. Then it’s heavily doused with too much cheese which made it feel like the soggy pasta lasagna noodles I mentioned in the beginning.

Now here’s why “I” said my pizza was okay to our waitress. The flavors were definitely spot on so I ate the toppings, but the construction of the pizza failed miserably. Before the remodel we got perfect pizzas. Extra crusty thin crust with the perfect amount of red sauce and cheese for a small pizza.

We thought the new remodel affected things, but on the third visit the Grade is still an F for a pizza that is well-known as ...

Carbone's has been a staple in the Twin Cities since before I was born. My mom has an unrequited love for the place and so it was my privilege to stop in and try it again after a bunch of years.

...and it was every bit as good as I remembered.

Now let's be straight about it...it's a pretty typical tavern pie, but that's what I liked so much about it. They didn't try to reinvent the wheel here and I appreciate them sticking to tradition. Thin, crispy crust, loads of toppings, cooked perfectly and square cut, wasted edge triangles and all. 😁

The laughable bit was the cheese bread that came with our pizza. There were only two of us but a full order was basically a loaf of Italian bread, sliced, buttered and covered in delicious cheese! Don't get me wrong, we definitely enjoyed it...the serving size was just ridiculous! 😂

We showed up near the end of normal serving hours so, while the bar was open the restaurant itself was closed. That was perfect for us though; there was plenty of room to spread out and it wasn't too terribly loud or obnoxious. The fact that it's also a neighborhood bar (complete with passed out drunk at the bar that everyone seemed to know) made it that much more charming.

If we're ever in the area again, we'll definitely...