Tampa Pizza Company Downtown — Restaurant in Tampa

This place has turned into a dumpster fire ever since the new owners took over. You would think with new ownership they would’ve refreshed the menu with some new items or flavors…. Welp let me save you some heartache it’s the same exact menu from the last owners with bottom shelf products. I used to go there for many years and never had an issue and the food was fabulous and flavorful.

First time back since COVID and I tell you I should’ve just went to Sam’s club and got a pre-made pizza and pre- made Caesar salad for my money.

I ordered a Large Chicken Bruschetta Salad and my wife ordered the Chicken Bruschetta Pizza. The salad came out in less than 3 minutes with bland chicken and NO BRUSCHETTA BREAD!!!!! I asked the waiter where’s the Bruschetta bread and he pointed at the croutons on the salad and told me that’s the bruschetta…🤦🏽‍♂️: I almost pissed my pants but I knew it wasn’t the waiters fault. I told the waiter can I please get the bruschetta bread just like the menu says I supposed to have. 5 mins later he comes back with chopped up pieces of bread from who knows where. Looks like the were smashed up pieces of wonder 🍞 bread sprinkled with oregano 🌿. The “balsamic sauce” tasted like soy sauce with Italian dressing mixed in. The arugula looked and tasted like it was picked back out of the dumpster from yesterday.

5 mins later the pizza came out looking like a microwave pizza from 7-11. The pizza had the same chicken that the salad had so clearly they have been cutting corners. My wife bit into the pizza and said it tasted like cardboard and that the chicken was cold. Mind you that my wife has only been in the US for one month, first time eating pizza in the US. I took a bite of the pizza and the sauce tasted like canned ragú sauce and the cheese tasted like government block cheese we used to get back in the day.

I told the waiter about the food and he told me that it was not the first time people complained about the food since the new owners took over.

I feel bad for the employees at this place, they did seem like good people and they treated us nice but the owner/manager on duty failed to take care of the issues. Instead he made things worse buy blatantly putting out garbage food with no quality control I promise I will never go back to this run down place. Neither will any of my friends or family members ever get recommended to this place.

Btw I still tipped the waiter 20% because I ain’t no dooshbag and I appreciate my hard working wait staff and restaurant workers.

I also included a picture of the lovely bruschetta for all my peeps to judge themselves.

Next time I will go to my for sure never ever eva let me down spot, Eddie and Sam’s,...

The gluten-free pizza was absolutely AMAZING! The crust was so buttery and delicious. Definitely the best gluten free crust I've ever had that wasn't homemade. The pesto bread was delicious, and we had the large Ricky Bobby and it was incredible! The gluten-free chicken tenders were really good. My husband said they were the best he's ever had, though I found the breading to be a bit too hard for my liking. The gelato was divine! We had both the chocolate and the vanilla. It tasted like Talenti gelato. The gluten-free brownies were a bit too tacky (gooey but not like regular gooey brownies) and not quite flavorful enough. I think they use too much starch in their recipe. If you've had Dunkin Donuts gluten-free brownies, it tastes a lot like them. The Nutella dessert pizza was really good, though a bit hard to chew. Definitely best when fresh.

You seat yourself and they bring you menus and utensils. It's pretty crowded. The tables are very close together and there's no possible way the bar could be fully seated if the table behind it is too. It took only a few minutes for the server to take our order. We waited about 20 minutes between ordering and getting our food. I had asked for dessert to be brought out after dinner, but they brought it out less than 5 minutes after bringing the pizzas and chicken tenders. Still giving 5 stars though because the food more than made up for it.

Spent about $95 with tip on all of the above, plus a small gluten-free cheese pizza, a coke, and an Honest peach tea. It more than fed our family of 2 adults and 2 usually very picky kids who don't often eat much when we go out, but scarfed down their dinner this time! We took home half of each pizza and most of the Nutella dessert pizza, plus half of the large order of...

We ordered the stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer and also ordered a large pizza - half cheese, half pepperoni. The mushrooms were pretty good but were definitely frozen and then heated up. The bottom of a few of them were cold and there was like water all over the bottom of the plate from being heated up.

We were served an old reheated pizza. The cheese was completely dry. I took one bite and it was like eating cardboard. I hate complaining, I even apologized to the server and said I’m so sorry I just can’t eat this. It’s just soooooo dry. I told my server and he said he would go get the manager.

The manager never came. Our server came back and said they were remaking it. I asked if it was indeed reheated and he said no I promise everything is cooked fresh here. (The one server who came over and took the pizza was like wow I do not blame you. He saw how dry the pizza was and was extremely nice.)

I have about 10 years experience working and making pizzas in multiple pizza shops. I can tell it was not fresh. We were considering just paying for our drinks and appetizer and leaving but we decided to stay. (Big mistake) We waited 40 minutes for our new pizza. It came out looking way way better than the first one.

I will post pictures so you can see the difference. (First picture is the first pizza and second picture is the second pizza) The pizza was ok… just ok… Wasn’t crazy about the sauce but it was way better than the first. While we were eating the cooks in the back kept staring at us. It was super awkward.

I still tipped the server 25%. I know it wasn’t his fault. They took 10% off our bill for the “inconvenience”.

Well I get home and am feeling completely sick...