Mary Angela's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Richmond

Some of the most aggressively mediocre food I've had every time I have it. For some reason (I think lack of taste buds) my co-workers like to order from here once a month or so and every time I try a different dish hoping it is actually good and every single time the dish is mediocre or just bad. I'll focus on the pizza because it is a pizzeria: You would think the pizza would be quite good, but as a pizza lover I can say every version of pizza they've delivered to me (I've tried all of their crusts with various toppings ranging from black olives to pepperoni to ham to peppers) has been some of the worst pizza I've personally had in my life. Both the cheese they use and the tomato sauce is bland and unappealing after a bite or two and the toppings seem to lack much flavor as well. I probably wouldn't leave a review at all if I'd only had their food once and it wasn't great, but when it is every time I feel like I should at least warn other super-tasters that this food is very bland and mediocre across the board. For normal or limited tasters this food is probably okay (as judging by my co-workers insisting on ordering from this place so often) which is why I gave this place 2 stars rather than 1.

Edit: Can't believe I forgot to mention this, but it is a common occurence that after eating food from this place (2 slices of pizza, or about a quarter of any other dish, usually is all I can manage if I'm very hungry) I can almost guarantee a stomachache later in the day. I have no idea what that's about, if it's the quality of the ingredients, poor hygiene practices, or what but I've just stopped bothering to try eating this food and go elsewhere when it is brought...

This place has been around since I was in my late teens, or at least that's when I discovered it, and now let's just say I'm quite a bit older; a place in this part of town does not stay open that long without good reason.

I'm from Manhattan. I love carbs. And I have a special affinity for carbs delivered in the form of a nice hot wide slice of decent non-chain made pizza; there's a place and a time for the chain stuff, though I'm likely not ever giving it five stars, but I digress. I believe this qualifies me to be a reliable witness in this case.

Mary Angela's is still the closest thing I've had in RVA to the type of pizza I grew up with in NYC. Its crust is crispy on the outside and still tender and slightly chewy on the inside, and if you ask for it well done the bottom of your slices should still have a little crunch as opposed to going all limp and soggy all the way through consumption of a pie.

The sauce is flavorful, the cheese and toppings are always nicely spread out and generously applied, and they use quality ingredients.

I've never had a bad slice from this place. The gentleman who owns it has owned it the entire time I've been coming, and as we've already established it's been a while now. You will often find him working the evening shift there.

My friends have worked for him over the years and have always said nice things about him as a boss, which is a cool thing to know.

Anyway, go there and get a slice, it won't let you down and, it's genuine Richmond institution at this point so you really...

Angela Barron, the cashier, was so rude and nasty to me that I cancelled my lunch order. I’m a dairy and vegetable farmer, so I understand and appreciate service workers and all that they do. I also like to support local food spots, and moving here from NY, I was very excited to try this pizza! When I placed my order at the register, the cashier Angela yelled at me, telling me she was on the phone and I was going to have to wait until she got off to “talk to her”. I was understanding of that, but got asked to repeat my order twice when she got off the phone because she got distracted talking to Josh, the regular who had entered the store after me. He got a hello, and I got multiple eye rolls from her each time I repeated my order, which was just 3 slices of pizza and a bottle of ginger ale. After the regular was served and I was still waiting for this to-go order about 10 mins in, I saw that there were only two slices prepped to go in the oven and I asked for a refund. I got told that I “wasted their time” as I was shooed out the store, and have never felt more unwelcome in a place in my life. I really admired the connection to Sicilia that the store had as my grandmother is from there, so the experience I had here was disappointing. As a dairy and vegetable farmer I’m going to choose to support a different local establishment moving forward. I hope this was helpful, and everyone has the year...