Pastoli's Pizza, Pasta & Paisans — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

My family had never tried Pastoli's before, even though we live nearby, since their prices always seemed weirdly expensive. $20 for a dozen wings with blue cheese? $30 for an extra-large pepperoni pizza? But based on their glowing write-up in the City Paper and their high rating here on Google, we decided to give them a go to see if we'd been overlooking a "hidden gem" in our neighborhood.

Judging by the crowd when I picked up the order, Pastoli's has figured out a winning formula with their combination of special-diet food and a hip, coffee-shop atmosphere with couches and live music. And looking back on the City Paper write-up and the many five-star reviews, those are the things that have earned them a lot of fans. If eating vegan, gluten-free pizza and "wings" while listening to a local musician perform sounds like fun, Pastoli's is probably for you. If you're looking for a decent regular old pizza joint, it would be difficult to recommend the place.

Where to start? Their ordering website is very strange. I try not to judge small businesses by their online presence, but Pastoli's is exceptionally weird. When ordering a pizza, presumably the most important thing on the menu, you first have to choose between "Cheese Pizza" and "WToppings", both of which seem to give you an identical choice of customization options. The list of sides is accompanied not by descriptions of the items, but by instructions for the kitchen staff on how to make each one. The only item available under "Catering" is, inexplicably, "Pan Of Cinapuffs" for $36.

But anyway, how was the food? Promising...but in every dish, a fatal flaw. The french fries were warm and crispy but so salty they were inedible, and went in the trash almost immediately. The wings were enormous and aggressively sauced, but their size meant they had to be cooked so gently it was like eating oven-baked chicken, with no crispiness to the skin. The pizza had an overwhelming amount of cheese, drowning out the flavor of the red sauce and the generously-apportioned toppings. The "gy-roni" rolls were exactly what you'd expect—filled with both gyro meat and pepperoni—but in our opinion, those two great tastes did not taste great together. And the whole experience was soured by the kitchen ignoring every one of our special requests (e.g. "sauce on the side").

They are clearly trying to provide a premium product befitting their pricing, but their execution leaves much to be desired. Perhaps in the future we'll give them another go; for now we'll leave Pastoli's to those who appreciate...

I have been to this place in the past but it has gone DOWNHILL. I ordered a Gyro and fries this evening. The fries came out before the Gyro and looked greasy and dark, not golden and fluffy. They had a bad odor to them as well. The Gyro came out next, and had very little meat on it and smelled TERRIBLE. After taking a bite, I noticed there was some kind of cheese on it as well (I think it was FETA). This place claims to be allergen friendly. I am lactose intolerant, and the menu NEVER said that the Gyro "Wedge" (so they call it) comes with anything on it. It just says "Gyro". I assumed that since the cashier asked me what I wanted on the Gyro initially, there wouldn't be any cheese on it. But you know what happens when you assume. . .

It didn't stop there though! I told the server that I had an issue with there being cheese on it and she kept asking me if I had an allergy to dairy. I told her I did not, and proceeded to explain to her that I would like another one without cheese, the one that I initially ordered. After about 5 minutes the Cook came out and asked me what was wrong. I told him that I have NEVER had a Gyro with cheese on it. He told me that the Gyro "Wedge" had cheese on it - but he could NOT prove that based on the menu. I used to work in food service and one thing I learned is that the CUSTOMER is ALWAYS correct. I understand that it was the end of the day and that we are living in tough times, but I simply wanted what I ordered and not what I was wrongly given. The cook then told me that I could order again FOR HALF THE PRICE AFTER I ALREADY PAID!!!!!!

There is a SERIOUS customer service issue here and their overpriced food is not worth the quality. Next time I am hungry, I will be crossing the street to Giant Eagle and making food myself. I will not be going back to...

Everytime we go back to Pittsburgh to visit we try to locate and try as many vegan or vegan friendly restaurants as we can. The last time we were in town we tried another pizza place in Lawrenceville called spak bros. and we agreed that was very good. This time we tried this place the day we were leaving town and it happened to be on our way. We expected it to be not as good as spak brothers, but hoped it would still taste good. We were wrong.....it was better than the other pizza, in fact this may be the best vegan pizza we have ever had and we live in Northern New Jersey and frequently go into NYC and this is better or at least on par with the best vegan pizza from there. We ordered the bbq "chikin" pizza, and a buffalo "chikin" wedgie. We bit into the wedgie when we were still there and my fiancee spit it out and said that "they gave us the wrong thing, this is chicken they messed up take it up to him". I checked the pizza to and there it was a white piece of chicken breast distributed all over the pizza. I went up to the register holding the wedgie and said to the guy that I think he may have given us the wrong thing and with a smirk on his face he said "nope that's the seitan, looks and taste like chicken doesn't it?" My jaw dropped. We have been vegan for over 1.5 yrs now and have not experienced seitan that resembled chicken this much. At this point even though our order was placed to go, the guy brought over plates to us since he could see that we were going to have to enjoy this right then and there lol. He also told us the process on how they prepare the seitan. This place is great, awesome food and even better customer service. I will definitely be back. If their regular pizza taste as good as the vegan one, I am sure my meat eating friends will...