The Tipsy Tomato — Restaurant in Rocky Mount

So the family and I ventured off to the Tipsy Tomato on Mother's Day. My better half wanted to try brick oven pizza and selected this location.

It was pretty easy to find and there was more than enough parking. The area seem busy and facilitated quite a few restaurants. I could hear what sounded like live music in the background. It was a nice atmosphere - and The Tipsy Tomato's outdoor tables were perfect for enjoying it all.

Two kids ordered personal pepperoni pizzas. The other ordered a personal cheese pizza and we ordered a large margarita pizza.

The personal cheese pizza was described as a really good bite! The pepperoni pizzas were devoured without manners. But the wife did not enjoy the margarita pizza.

The typical toppings on the margarita pizza is tomatoes, basil leaves and pockets of cheese atop. All together they make a pretty good bite. On ours, the basil leaves were extremely sparse and no tomatoes were found on top. As the wife tells it, It didn't make for a very tasty bite in comparison to other places, where we have ate this pizza. Nonetheless, the pizza was good, but the problem really arrived for her in the sauce. Simply put, it was just too spicy.

For me the sauce was not too spicy but I could recognize where it would be for her. The pizza was good but I could definitely see where the tomatoes and a proper compliment of basil leaves would enhance it.

With all being said, it is definitely a restaurant that we would go back to. The employees were super friendly and the service was quick, efficient and easy going. We just wouldn't order a Margarita Pizza. The other pizzas were raved about and the atmosphere definitely...

Not good. We really wanted to like it when we ordered a large pie on a Thursday night in April. This pizza is characteristically in the class of college-town pizza. It has, and I do not exaggerate, 4x too much salt and 10x (yes, 10x) too much grease. The last time I had pizza like this - in terms of grease - was 25 years ago as a 10 year old at Pizza Hut. Tons of grease so watch your clothes. I have never had pizza this salty.

There is an expectation that comes with brick oven -- the crust being front and center. Brick oven pizza and overnight slow-rise dough go hand in hand. It was evident that this was not the case at The Tipsy Tomato -- at least not at 8:30 PM when we went. Maybe they ran out of the overnight batch (assuming they do that; the photos seem to indicate that they do).

I work at the biggest university in NJ and know college pizza. I live near Princeton, NJ (an area known for premium eats) and know excellent brick oven pizza (Nomad Pizza; Liberty Hall Pizza). Maybe this is the best place in the area (that seems to be the case and thus three stars instead of two). I'd like to see that change (hence the review). The Tipsy Tomato is close to being pretty good it just needs to grow up if it is going to be a valid brick oven pizza spot worth the $20 for a pie. Otherwise, let this review simply informs those folks who are not interested in the heavy...

Cliffs Notes: Service was terrible and ridiculously slow, pizza was fine. TLDR: Rolled in around 5:25 on Saturday evening because we figured it would get busy later. Ordered pretty quickly and were told 25-30 minutes. We waited patiently as 30 minutes came and went, then 45. After 55 minutes, I noticed all the people that were ahead of us had come and gone, including one or two that came after. After an hour, I walked up to ask if they had any idea how much longer it might be. Cashier wandered off for a minute or two to check. I watched her walk to the kitchen and finally grab our two boxes off the top of the oven and bring them to me. I asked her how long they had been sitting there. She said only 15 minutes or so. I about lost it at that point. I told her we had been waiting over an hour after we were told 30 minutes. She said she would be happy to remake them for us, but I told her that was not the issue. Besides if we did that, we would be waiting another 30 minutes. She said sorry, no one told me the order was ready. No offer to discount the order, just a half-hearted sorry. Pizza was fine, but I would've eaten lil' caesers at that point so who knows really. Plus LC's wouldn't have cost nearly $40 for 2 personal...