20th Street Pizza — Restaurant in Philadelphia

I want to start this negative review by making it very clear that I am trying to be fair, and at no point did I raise my voice or speak in anger to anybody. But I just had an experience that has me unwilling to order from 20th Street Pizza again.

Essentially, I've been a fan of 20th's pizza since they were Blackbird, since before I lived in Philadelphia. I'm a long-time vegan and appreciated (and continue to appreciate) their all-vegan menu.

But when I did move here, I moved almost two miles away. Still in the city proper, just not convenient for pickup.

So I've ordered delivery from them from time to time. Frankly, not very often for two reasons: first, it's expensive pizza. I'm inclined to say it's worth it (especially as a treat), but it's... it's just expensive. That is not a major part of my negative opinion, but it explains in part why I haven't ordered from them super often.

The more important part is that... it just always takes a really long time to arrive. I'm pretty willing to wait up to an hour for delivery without being irritated, but expecting a 20th order to arrive within an hour would have felt optimistic to me even before my latest experience.

My latest experience was as such:

I ordered pizza (as one would from a pizzeria). More than 90 minutes after I order (with the delivery ETA just getting pushed back and back and back), I decide--for the first time--to call 20th. Knowing that they do not do their own deliveries (standard, no worries), I just wanted to figure out when my order was actually ready so I could figure out where the delay came from.

I was told that my order was ready about 50 minutes after I placed it. This is on a Wednesday evening. I'm not stoked about this, but... I have not complained or acted upset at all to this point, on the phone. I literally said I was calling to figure out where the delay had come from, and that was true. I was not calling to complain or yell at anyone.

The woman on the phone with me was very apologetic and understanding, and she said she'd contact UberEats and call me back when she figured out what was going on.

We get off the phone, and I'm refreshing my delivery update page and the ETA has been pushed back basically half an hour from the original estimate. I'm standing at my front door, when I see who must be (and was) the delivery driver pulling up. I get a phone call from 20th. It's the same woman.

She's once again apologetic and she says she hasn't been able to get in touch with UberEats. She says she's going to process a refund, and I tell her that I appreciate that. I then--and I cannot stress enough to you how calm and civil I was about this--proceeded to tell her that even though I really like their pizza, this isn't the first time it's taken a long time for an order to arrive and that they should maybe reconsider their delivery partner.

She very reasonably explains to me that the delivery itself is out of their hands (which I understand completely), but I add that the predictable slowness of delivery orders is really discouraging and liable to cost them business.

She then very quickly interrupts me to say, "we're not losing any business" and curtly thanks me for my understanding. I then say "I appreciate the refund and your time", only to realize that I'm talking to myself because she hung up on me.

Did she not have time for me because they're too busy? Is that why every pizza takes so long to go from my online order to my house less than two miles away? It literally took almost two hours this time. That's ridiculous.

Even without this interaction, I would not have felt ENCOURAGED to do more business with 20th. But now, I'm 100% discouraged. They won't be getting any of my business ever again. Obviously they don't need it, according to the woman I talked to. I hope they do well without me.

Thanks for feeding this lovely city vegan pizza; I just won't be taking part...

A Love Letter to 20th Street Pizza – Food Made with Integrity:

Whether you’re a committed vegan or just someone who appreciates high-quality, flavorful food, 20th Street Pizza is a gem you shouldn’t miss. The freshness of the ingredients and the thoughtful balance of flavors in every slice is unmatched. My personal favorite is the Haymaker — I like to add cashew ricotta and fresh basil — but honestly, every pizza on the menu tastes like it was designed with love.

Located near 20th and Sansom, it’s my go-to spot whenever I’m craving something satisfying and elevated. Usually, I swing by to pick up my order, but one especially hot Philly day, I decided to try delivery for the first time. I left clear instructions asking the driver to call me three minutes before arriving. Simple enough, right?

Well, I got an alert that my order had been delivered, ran to the door… and no one was there. Confused, I checked my email again and saw a photo of my food—left on the ground. In Philadelphia. Not on a table, not even a knock on the door. Just sidewalk service. Needless to say, I was frustrated (and hangry). I filled out the post-delivery survey and shared exactly how I felt. I even told them I planned to dispute the charge.

But then, something unexpected happened. A few hours later, I received a kind message from someone acknowledging my frustration. They told me they had already refunded my order and were working with Uber to get reimbursed. I was genuinely touched. It turns out the person texting me was Mark — the owner.

Mark, thank you. Your gesture turned a sour moment into a beautiful reminder of why I support businesses like yours. Not only is the food consistently amazing, but the service — real service — matches the quality and integrity behind it. You’ve earned a loyal...

Our favorite vegan pizza place by far and today it just got better. I decided to order their Italian salad and we also ordered a fungi pizza. We have had each of their pizza offerings which are excellent, but this one happens to be our favorite. It is a mix of local mushrooms, cashew cheese and vegan. Parm served on their perfect crust. The salad is a local spring mix. Black cherry tomatoes, red onion, green olives, chopped pistachios, fresh herbs, sourdough croutons, and an in-house made roasted garlic vinaigrette. The tomatoes were fairly large sized so I recommend cutting them up. They give you an ample amount of dressing and for me I like to pour it on and then toss it inside the container which worked out perfectly this was a Really good salad, and we decided to be a little creative after eating one slice of the pizza each we put a little bit of the salad on top of the pizza and wow this is going to happen every time we come here it was so good. You’ll see in the pictures and videos from the blackbird days until now they’ve always had the best vegan pizza always consistent. We had a dessert vegan chocolate ice cream that was made out of cashews and chocolate sprinkles. We call them Jimmy’s in Philadelphia is also was made in house and was done perfectly not super sweet, but the chocolate was so good. What a treat. I may have went a little overboard with the pictures, but I loved it so much couldn’t...