Dion's Pizza — Restaurant in Santa Fe

My family and I were driving through Santa Fe back to Albuquerque and stopped for what we thought would be a quick dinner. We love Dions and it is a staple in Albuquerque that we constantly go to. However, our experience at this one proved to be extremely disappointing. First, the wait. I couldn’t even keep track of how long it was. After a while I went to go check, but there was no one manning the counter where they put our orders. We noticed one of the guys making subs appear to be standing there, not knowing what he was doing, and was letting the toaster oven run without tending to it and letting them stack up against each other. And then the cleanliness. Looking at all the tables around us, including our own. All the napkin dispensers were completely empty. Tables were not cleaned. Trash receptacles were completely overflowing. People had to sit at tables that were not clean because no one bothered to clean them. Then we took our kids to the restroom and the lack of cleanliness there was just horrendous. There was literally puke on one of the toilets and it was just so unclean that you can tell it hadn’t been cleaned probably for hours. As we were leaving, we noticed other people getting angry and complaining about long wait times as well. This place is either run by incompetent people or as we noticed, the oldest person there was probably 16 years old. not bad in and of itself but in competent to say the least. won’t be going to a Dion’s in Santa Fe...

My mother and I are from out of state and decided to give Dions a try. All the locals highly recommended it. I’m not sure why! Food was decent and I was helped by a very kind young lady. My mother and I ordered their basic salad and two turkey subs. The subs looked disgusting! The lettuce was brown and the sandwich its self was messy!! When my mother asked for the manager he was very disrespectful and stated “That’s just how our lettuce is” I don’t think I have ever seen BROWN lettuce!!! Well Daniel, the manager rolled his eyes at my 70 year old mother when she made him aware of the brown lettuce. When my poor mother told me what had happened I immediately went to the counter and spoke to the young lady who helped us, she apologized and offered to make us a new sandwich. I thanked her and let her know about the manager and how rude he was…. She apologized and said Daniel is a relatively new manager. I don’t want to give out this young ladies name because I don’t want her to get in trouble,especially if that’s how Daniel treats customers I can’t imagine how he treats the staff! Those poor workers are most likely miserable with someone like him running the store!!! We got some newly made sandwiches curtsy of that amazing young lady, no brown lettuce and looked very nice! Maybe Dions should really have more customer service training for their managers!...

Alright, in my best Dave Portnoy impression: Dion’s—you’re good, not great, but definitely doing the Lord’s work when it’s 9:47pm and I’ve made a series of bad decisions that only pizza can fix.

Let’s get into it.

Crust? Solid. Not too floppy, not a cracker—somewhere in that sweet middle zone. Sauce? A touch sweet, decent balance, no complaints. Cheese? Respectable. It’s holding everything together like a pizza therapist. Toppings? Adequate. Nothing blew my socks off, but my socks weren’t offended either.

Here’s the deal: Dion’s is reliable. It’s the friend who may not help you move, but will absolutely pick you up from the airport. It’s not the best slice in the game, but it plays hard, doesn’t turn the ball over, and shows up in clutch time. Like, say… post-bar hunger panic.

Final score: 7.2. That’s a compliment. You don’t toss out a 7+ unless it holds its own. Dion’s? You’ve earned your place in the Pizza Hall of “Yeah I’d absolutely eat...