Pizza Romano — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

Awful food at a terrible price with atrocious service and wait times.

I’m just a normal college kid here at Pitt that is often forced to buy from Pizza Romano when Antoon’s and Sorrento’s are both closed. I didn’t just have a one-time bad experience and now I decided to post a negative review. This is a culmination of frequent visits and every time being an awful experience.

First, the food quality: You know, you would think after years of being open, that Pizza Romano has maybe changed their recipe, edited their ingredients, etc. in order to perfect their pizza in response to the myriad of negative reviews. But nope. Not at all. The pizza is just horrible. Their pizza is just 70% goo. I cannot believe the FDA approved their “cheese” as cheese because it simply is not. Keep in mind: I’m a hungry broke college kid. I’ll eat anything. Really. But this pizza is just atrocious. It’s a joke really. I genuinely do not enjoy eating it because there is incredibly too much cheese, of which tastes horribly. On top of that, there is so little sauce that you just taste the horrible cheese. The texture and firmness of the pizza is just as awful. The pizza never holds when eaten and the cheese always just oozes off of it, which is a sign of awful pizza.

Finally, the service: I truly believe Pizza Romano is secretly conducting a psychological study on the patience of college kids. EVERY SINGLE TIME I HAVE GONE THERE, (and I’ve gone there during the day when it is completely dead, and when it is busy and production should be high), I have waited at the VERY LEAST 15 minutes for a large pie. 15 minutes is on the conservative end. It is just unacceptable that a PIZZA place takes such an incredible amount of time just to make ONE large normal plain pizza, ESPECIALLY when their competition 500ft down the road PUMPS pizzas out every second. At Antoon’s and Sorrento’s, 5 minutes waiting for a large pie would be considered unacceptable. The owners here MUST do a better job of production management and time management because it’s just atrocious here. And you would think after years of being in that location and tons of people from all the foot traffic ordering pizza that maybe, maybe they would decide “Hey, maybe we can do better and improve ourselves, our pizza, and our service?” But nope. Not one bit. These people are terrible business people and the ONLY reason they stay in business is simply because of the location. If they were in any other place, they would be out of business in a weeks time.

Pizza Romano owners if you’re reading this: 1.) Improve your pizza with better ingredients. Yes we actually can taste the food we eat and we ALL think it is terrible quality food. Do better. Get a different cheese/supplier and change your recipe 2.) Improve the efficiency of your production line. Maybe hire more workers, get new machinery, etc. I can reasonably guess that demand and profits have not fallen because of COVID because I see just as many, if not more, people going to Pizza Romano all the time when I...

Tried a few flavors of their new gelato and shared it with my office. It's very good! the creaminess is just right, and though still sweet, the flavor comes through stronger just like a gelato should be focused on. In comparing it to ice cream, the only suggestion I would have to making it more "authentic-like" would be adding some solidness/icy-ness? Even after putting it in the freezer (while I ate my pizza!) the consistency is something more like soft serve instead of smooth and almost custard-y (though, personally, I like it better that way anyway).

Flavor specifics! Milky - assuming this is like a standard vanilla. From a co-worker who has never had gelato before - "This is like the GOOD kind of stuff you get at a restaurant. The creamy kind. It would be good in a milkshake or with cherries on top."

Chocolate - "Not bad. It melted quickly, but not TOO quickly."

Banana - "Smooth and creamy, not too sweet. Very, very good. Strong flavor in a good way."

Oreo - at first, it almost looked disappointing because there weren't very many cookie crumbles in it. But it doesn't matter. Every bite tasted like cookies and cream all blended together. It doesn't taste like chocolate with cookies in it; it tastes like oreo. It was a bit... gummy(?) in comparison to the others, like it had too much thickening agent/gelatin, which also seemed to cancel out some of the sweetness. I think it could be REALLY delicious if the recipe gets balanced out.

Lemon - This was tasty. It was more like an italian ice than a gelato, but maybe that's what it's going for? It was a tiny bit on the bitter side, like a lemon zest more than a citrus tang. Probably leave flavor as-is but go for creamier if trying at a mousse-y gelato taste, or add a little bit more sweet to cancel out the bitter if keeping it as more of an ice.

Columbian organic - by the name, I was guessing this as either a coffee or a vanilla bean? I'm still not sure. It was good though. Creamy and rich, almost savory. It had a buttery flavor to it. It would make a really good base for a maple or cake flavor?

Hope that helps. Everyone's favorite was hands down the Banana flavor (and it goes well mixed in a little with...

This place used to be above average but Covid19 apparently took it's toll on their business? I ordered Garlic wings twice in a week for pickup. First time I went to pick up the order they told me the price was $25.00. I have ordered from here many times and the order is always $23.49 with tax. I told them that the price was 21.95 in the menu and the counter person disagreed with me. I picked up a menu and showed her the price. She then said the tax made it 25 dollars. I added it up for her and she grudgingly took my 23.49. The second order, later in the week, I ordered the garlic wings again. This time the same counter girl told me 26.00 when I went to pay. I again went through the same conversation and then she seemed to recognize me and took 23.49 for the order. I then checked my order before leaving and observed that they gave me breaded wings and not the regular Buffalo "Jumbo" wings. I told the girl that the order was wrong and I didn't order breaded wings. She then tells me that that's the only type of wings that they have. I tell her that's nonsense that I always order and receive unbreaded wings. She yells something in Turkish to a guy in the back and he comes storming out yelling that's the only type of wings they have, probably assuming I'm some young college kid he can intimidate, and yells that there is no refund. When he sees an older, bigger, more muscular man then him he tells the girl to give me my money back and skulked back into the cooking area. I'm done...