Emilio's Brick Oven Pizza — Restaurant in Sterling

First, I want to preface this review and mention that I have eaten at Emilio's on countless occasions (50+) as I used to work nearby. Emilio's is in my personal top 20 eats in NOVA. However, with all that said, I have had my first negative experience which has left me questioning whether or not I want to return.

I write this review out of concern for customer health and safety and to bring this to owner attention. I love this place and would like to see it stay in business.

On my visit today:

The person making pizzas was eating at the station while stretching dough and making pizza. I let this one slide as I know things can get busy. Can't stay whether gloves were worn or if hands were washed between eating and continuing with dough stretching. However, this is a sanitation no-no and should never occur. Eat in a designated area, away from all prep areas.

The Pizza was fantastic as always. Perfectly cooked bubbly golden brown crust and a firm center which held up well on the lift. As always, the cheese was thick and plentiful (one of my favorite things about Emilio's pies) and the sauce is primo. Ordered a pepperoni and was surprised by the small number of pepperoni which were placed on my pizza. Usually, the pepperoni on their pies are well distributed so that each bite gets at least part pepperoni, today's large pie had no more than 15 pepperoni leaving some slices as plain cheese.

We each had an order of cannolis for dessert (three plates total). Each order comes with one regular and one petite/mini sized cannoli shell. I've had Emilio's cannolis before and, aside from the occasional lack of filling, they've always been the perfect end to a meal.

Today, the shells had the perfect crisp and snap. They might be handmade, but could also be sourced from a well known distributor. The shells were filled less than 1/2 way on each side, leaving a gap in the middle.

The filling consistency was similar to softened butter and not firm or stiff. Upon taking my first bite, I immediately understood why. The ricotta had gone bad. The flavor was a mix of day old Greek yogurt that sat out for far too long mixed with warm aged sour cream, egg whites, and powdered sugar.

When I quietly brought it to the attention of the person who seemed to be running things (all my English conversation was directed to this guy) the response was "thanks for letting me know, sorry."

The funny thing is, someone else ordered cannolis just before I pulled him aside. I hope the problem was resolved.

All in all, I seriously hope this was a one off and that it's not a sign we're about to lose another...

This might actually be the worst pizza I've ever had.

The dough was severely undercooked and made for a soft, floppy, disgusting pizza. The "Tre Formaggio" in particular was so unbelievable doughy that one of my co-workers actually gagged when it turned into a cheesy, gluten ball of chewing gum in his mouth. But the "Marco" was pretty bad too. Two doughy, undercooked pizzas aren't a mistake; It's a failure. Making pizza like this in America is frankly borderline treasonous. What's going on here Emilio? Is your "brick oven" unable to get above 150°F?

And the sauce and toppings. Fresh? Yeah, I believe so. It tasted okay and I liked the options and combinations you offer. But are you allergic to putting the toppings on the pizza? Or do you think a tablespoon of cheese is enough to cover a whole large pizza? When you make pizza that has crust the size of your forearm, maybe it's time to re-examine your business strategy and go into something else, like stand-up comedy so you can tell your jokes using words instead of food.

You also made zero attempt to cut the pizza in any kind of reasonable way, leaving some slices pencil thin, and others a full quarter of the pizza. Do I have to break out the Pythagorean theorem to share this pie with my co-workers? But that wouldn't really be much of an issue if the pizza was cut at all. It seems like they were content with lazily rolling a dull knife over our pie to draw a couple lines. It's totally possible that Emilio likes to do right by the community and only hire blind artists that weigh 70lbs to cut the pizzas, but I think it's far more likely that they don't care.

I'd even like to give you more leeway on the price, but $25 per pie?! For these pies?! Honestly, I feel robbed. I'd rather eat a week-old pizza from Pizza Hut off of one of their toilet seats than ever go near your restaurant again. I'd probably save some money too.

Buyer beware: there's a crook in town that say's they're selling pizza, but in reality, they peddle room-temperature Frisbees made of soft garbage. Their food causes suffering and regret, and their...

Unacceptable.

Still waiting for the Manager to return my call

Ordered takeout Saturday Nov 12 and my husband returns home from the restaurant only to find out the salad is missing. He calls back, they answer the phone "hello", he asks "is this emilios", they respond with hello, and he asks again, they reply yes. He TRY'S to explain what's missing and they said "come pick up" he said no because of the 20 min one way drive there. So he asked for a credit and the man responded "umm, no english" and HANGS UP on him. He was livid. So he calls back, everything noted above happened AGAIN and he asks for the 'Manager, the lady at the front who i paid" they say "no Manager" and he is hung up on again!! I wait 15 mins and call back, same "hello" and I immediately asked for the Manager. "No Manager" I'm told. In the meantime, my husband calls them from his mobile phone, typical answer of hello, but this time they added 'hold". My husband is hearing the whole conversation i am having w the guy, on his phone! I kept pressing for the Manager, and he finally says "back in 15 mins". Guess what, I called 25 mins later and now the Manager isn't returning tonight. I left my phone # and asked for a call back. 5 days later no call, so here I just called again....hello? Yes is this Emilios? Yes. May I speak to the Manager? No Manager. Okay what time will she be there? The response I received is Okay and CLICK, they HANG UP.

I called again, on a random day during the week, and no Manager is there. So almost a month later, I still don't have a salad, which by the way who charges $.99 for salad dressing....doesn't dressing come on a salad?? It was balsamic dressing, nothing special!!

I'm still waiting for the Manager to call me back and Ill never hear from them. I never had an opportunity to have them credit me for a salad AND dressing which I never received, or to TRY to make any of this right. What's sad is that about 5 years ago this use to be a good place. Now, this is such a poorly...