Alfano's Pizza — Restaurant in Rock Island

I was in the area for a high school football game and wanted a little dose of nostalgia and eat at one of my favorite restaurants from when I went to Augustana two decades ago, but when I looked them up, they were either closed or “under new management.” I did a search for Rock Island restaurants and Alfano’s was the first one to catch my eye. There were a few different Alfano’s near where I grew up but my favorite was Joe’s (Alfano) in Ladd. This was the place where I fell in love with pizza. Even though I moved away two decades ago, and Joe’s has been closed almost as long, it’s always been my gold standard as far as pizza was concerned. When I was in college, I was completely unaware of the existence of the Alfano’s of Rock Island, maybe because it was on the other side of town. I decided to give it a try on the possibility that the owners might be related to the ones I grew up with and the pizza would be similar. When I got there I was a little wary because clearly the neighborhood had seen better days. I didn’t know where to park but I pulled into a lot in front of an abandoned something or other building. However, as soon as I opened my car door, I could smell the pizza cooking (the same smell I had forgotten that I remembered outside of Joe’s) and I knew I would not regret my choice. I asked the friendly cashier inside if the owners were related to the Alfanos in Ladd and Spring Valley, and she said they were cousins. Upon asking this, several in the back busy with the pizzas looked up at me for a moment and then returned to work, dedicated to their craft. I might have imagined it, but a few held a faint resemblance to the Alfanos I had known. There are some decent pizza places where I’ve moved, but the toppings on their popular pizzas tend to be as pretentious as the decor in their restaurants and as pretentious as their clientele. However, there was nothing pretentious about the simple, perfectly crafted pizza that came out. When I bit into it, I had a “critic in the movie Ratatouille” moment, being transported to my childhood in Joe’s cozy Main Street restaurant, hanging out with my Ladd Elementary friends, eating pizza off a paper plate, ice cold Coke in hand, listening to the jukebox and the old folks speaking Italian with Joe behind the counter. The pizza I got last night wasn’t fancy, but in the moment it was as perfect as a pizza can ever be. They say you can’t go home again, and for me that’s true, but for a moment Alfano’s in Rock Island gave a little slice of...

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED PIZZA JOINT!!

New to the quad city's area from MSP and was looking for a new pizza joint to enjoy. Our neighbors highly recommended Alfonso's Pizza and glad that we took her up on her recommendation.

We decided to order one regular style pizza and one deep dish pizza just too try the two different styles. The regular pizza was good but nothing amazing. We ordered a medium onion and green pepper that was tasty but again just good average Pizza.

The second pizza that we ordered was a small deep dish pizza. This was a sausage and mushroom pizza that was INCREDIBLE! Maybe one of the top three best deep dish pizzas I've ever had and that includes all the pizza joints that I've had in Chicago.

Overall experience was fantastic even with the struggle to place an order over the phone because the phone lines ARE ALWAYS BUSY which is a good sign I suppose 🤷‍♂️ Service was great, staff were super helpful and super friendly. Pizza was amazing and overall could not have asked for a better customer service experience. You now have a NEW CUSTOMER FOR LIFE. 5 ⭐ 🍕

The only negative that (does not) take away from their five star rating is that it's in a bad neighborhood so a word to the wise if you're parking and dining in. Lock up...

I come back to the Quad Cities quite often, and one of the things I HAVE to have is Alfanos pizza. I’ve been eating this pizza for over 40 years! If you’ve ever had one you know. It’s a taste you get NOWHERE else. I went on 2/18/2021 and got a medium sausage and pepperoni pizza. The smell was exactly the same! I couldn’t wait to get it home to eat.. My son 1st said, ‘this pizza doesn’t taste the same’. I was thinking the same thing, but hadn’t said anything because I was still trying to figure it out. After my 3rd sqare, is when I finally accepted that this was NOT the pizza my taste buds was craving. The pizza sauce and sausage was BLAND.. I mean absolutely no flavor. My mother had mentioned this to me a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t really pay it any attention because I couldn’t imagine that being true. But it definitely was true and a huge disappointment. I’m not sure if they changed the recipe or unable to get the usual ingredients, but I was completely unsatisfied. I can’t imagine never eating another Alfanos pizza, but if this is how it’s going to continue to be,...