Rodolfo Restaurant & Pizzeria — Restaurant in South Plainfield

Tried this place on a whim while visiting family in the area. Given how competitive the pizza market is in a place like New Jersey, I was honestly a bit disappointed in the quality of the product. The crust was overly chewy and hard, and not in the endearing way jersey pizza usually is. This happens when the dough is slapped out ahead of time to keep up with the rush, and has been sitting out for a while. This isn't a problem if the dough is used promptly, but after about 20 minutes it becomes an issue. The tomato sauce, cheese, and toppings were all very tasty and well balanced so kudos there, but the crust really brought the whole thing down.

Another problem, more on the business side, was the cost. When I ordered I asked if they had any specials or deals. They told me they didn't. This is the first pizza place I've ever visited that did not offer a single special and forced you to pay full menu price for everything. Given how inflated the menu prices are at pizza places in general, I expected to be totally blown away by the pizza considering what I was paying for it. This, along with the crust, is what led me to give this place a low rating. It's a bit frustrating, because the ingredient quality is clearly there. If this place was a little better about their dough management and offered at least a couple specials I could see them being much more memorable. As it currently stands, they're just another jersey pizza joint.

EDIT: As can be viewed below, I got a prompt response from the owner of this place. After the first sentence, a single word of "Apologies", I got a bunch of sarcasm and condescending. I'm always willing to come back and try a place again after a lukewarm experience, especially if the management seems open to critique. I'll allow you readers to read his response below and judge for yourself, but somehow I don't get the feeling they're interested in hearing criticism. I know how the pizza business works and how stressful it can be to manage an establishment with a reputation like this, but insulting the intelligence of your customers just because you're too proud to admit you're not perfect is not a great way to do things. I will not be...

We had a pretty good experience the first time we ordered so we decided to give them another shot. I don't know if the beta crew was on tonight or what happened but, man, what a disappointment. My pizza was definitely not as good as last time - all the toppings were localized to the center of the pizza and the last third of the slice was just cheese.

This is nothing compared to my husband's pizza. All of his cheese and toppings had completely slid to one side, presumably during delivery. Then when he went to pick up a slice, everything slid right off. Not sure whether there was too much sauce or what exactly happened (because I'm not a professional pizza maker, go figure), but whoever made his pizza needs to relearn how to make pizzas that actually stay together. What a disappointment. We'll be trying a new place next time.

EDIT: In response to the reply from the owner, the pizzas having "left the store too quick" - even though I don't think that really explains the cheese and everything just falling off when it was picked up - that is still something your restaurant should be controlling. Saying "I could have called" does nothing for me now. We were hungry and we knew your location was busy based on the late delivery, so we dealt with it at the time. This was me giving you the opportunity to fix this. Instead you placed blame and more or less said "oh well, it'll happen again, your fault for not calling".

Having read some of your other replies, I'm not all that surprised. Maybe in the future, offer for a customer to call you to set up something to make up for it and just APOLOGIZE. Try and recognize critical reviews for what they really are - valuable insight into how you can improve your location. It's not a personal attack, it's feedback. We would have considered giving your location another shot if you hadn't shifted blame and made excuses. "I LEAD", ever hear of it? Removing a star just for this poor...

I find it funny how the owner (or whoever is responding on here) claims they have not had gluten free items (specifically chicken) for YEARS. I went here a week ago and got boneless wings with no sauce and wondered why I felt sick the following days. The staff is also rude, and are all over the place if you inquire about what’s on the menu & they’re condescending. I will upload a picture of the menu they literally still have outside the restaurant- yet somehow “we haven’t done that in years.” It blatantly says gluten free boneless wings. So when I asked and was told yes & served the food last week- was your staff lying to me despite my emphasis on allergies? Doesn’t sound like good business practices. Do not trust this business one bit especially if you have food allergies or other illnesses that affect your dietary needs.

Edit since response from “owner”: it’s crazy how you cannot hold yourself accountable for the sheer fact the menu item described is POSTED OUTSIDE YOUR RESTAURANT. There’s two bad reviews because these were two separate occasions. Your responses are so unprofessional yet you think people who are onto your horrible business practices are in need of help. I did end up needing help because of your FALSE CLAIMS of having gluten free items that aren’t gluten free apparently and I ingested! Is this you willingly admitting you intentionally falsely advertise food products on your menu that...