Rovente Pizzeria - Hawthorne — Restaurant in Portland

I moved to the Hawthorne neighborhood about a year ago. I had never been to a Rovantes location proir to this last year, which is when I moved to Portland. I tried it on one of my first days after moving in, as they have pizza by the slice. I live alone and haven't met too many people since i've moved here, but I frequent it passing by because it's on the walk to/from my apartment to the hawthorne shopping stretch.

If this review was strictly about the pizza I would give it 5 stars easy, But it's not. After going in regularly, about every week or two, I began to notice that the staff, almost every time, was unpleasent in your interaction with them. I honestly never really cared that much, but after a while, it was noticable, that after going in often I coulnd't recall a time I was greeted with a smile, or a "How are you today?". It was always just a blank look of "What do you want". It was noticable but never something to complain about because it never really affected me, and I was consistently happy with my food.

Weed before last, I had a friend in town, and we were talking about getting food before things started closing and we didn't want to cook. We started thinking about this at about 9:15. I mentioned Roventes, telling him how good it was. I had ordered there one other time (whole pie, not just a slice) and was saying we should check out the menu and what to get, try something different then what the do by the slice for the sake of getting something new. We quickly decided and I started my online order at about 9:25, being sure to hurry because I know they closed and 10 and I didn't want to put in the order too late. After finishing the order, I entered my debit card information and clicked order. A pop-up came up saying "Error - Please contact restaurant -" and their phone number. I tried calling immediatly, and it only rang. called back two more times and still only ringing. It occered to me that I had sent the order through at about 9:31 and thought maybe it had something to do with the timing being under 30 minuites before closing and thats what was up, and I checked my bank statement and I had been charged - charged $47 which was odd because I had ordered a $33 pizza and left a $5 tip so I didn't understand why I was charged significatly more then what I should have. But because I was charged I figured the order had gone though, because why would their system charge me for my order if they didn't receive it right?

Wrong. my friend and I walked down to the store at 9:50 and doors were locked, lights were off, no sign in the window, but it was obvious that they were closed before I had even ordered. Utterly confused on why I was charged almost $50 from a closed restaurant, I couldn't ask my friend for his half of the pizza cost for a pizza that didn't exist. We ended up getting something from safeway, because by the time we learned about in early restaurant closure everywhere else around was closed.

When I went into the store after a couple days. A guy working approached me once I came in, I went through everything that happened, and he seemed very confused. I asked him if that was a normal response for that type of situation, to just tell the customer that too bad they decided to close early, and I have no way to expedite getting you a refund for something that you never even paid for. He immediatly got defensive and bitterly told me this was the first he was hearing about it and what did I expect him to do. I told him an apology and maybe some kind of complimentary slice or a gift card would have been nice, but not when I have to ask for it. I was pissed, and left. I was contacted later that day, and told my card would eventurally be refunded and that was that. I tried getting in contact with a owner or higher up and got nothing. All I wanted was to have someone say they were sorry about being closed when they were supposed to be opened, and for charging my card at all. I wont be returning unless the owners actually make an effort to...

In the wake of COVID, customer service (for me at least) has been a bit of a hit and miss. I can’t even begin to elaborate about the excess of rudeness I’ve dealt with from employees, whether at the Subway off B street or the Por Que No downtown. A blanket of sourness seems to have lamented the town of Portland after the smoke cleared and the sun finally came back out to play, but today, I was met with a friendliness that simply swept me off my feet. The employee at Revente, Troy, was so incredible patient when I asked just the same repetition of questions I’m sure he’s asked on a regular basis (and he had a sexy voice on the phone). I am so impressed with the length he went to let me know my pizza had arrived by knocking and calling me when I didn’t immediately answer ( I have 3 dogs and more children than I’d like to admit). His silly wit made my night and I truly will be a customer for life after my experience. Shout out to Troy!! Give this...

Used to be the best pizza in PDX. Reasonable prices with good topping selection and super tasty. Been eating it for years now. However, the last two pizzas we have gotten had pepperoni that tasted like soap or something like that and the pizzas were very floppy. The pepperonis tasted disgusting and like nothing I have tasted before nor my friend.

I called and let them know a few weeks ago after the first one, just because it tasted so bizarre and I was mildly concerned. They said to give them another chance but that they weren't aware of any issues with the meat. I tried again, and it seems like they haven't looked into it or noticed the problem themselves, as the pepperonis again taste weird, soapy/rancid, with a floppy dough underneath.

I don't know if it matters, but the pizza we got both times was double mozzarella, artichoke hearts, and pepperoni. Best of luck to the business, but...