Scordato's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Tucson

Ate here for "lunch" a little before 2pm for the first time. Place looked like it was closed at first. Like 4 cars in front, if that. Walked in and waited at the hostess stand for about 5-10 minutes minutes before some one came over to sit us. Place was not busy at all. Maybe 10 customers in a place that can easily sit 50+.

Food is mediocre. Like it wasnt horrible but it wasnt fabulous. Everything had a decent(ish) flavor but nothing to write to "Nona" about. Id definitely pick it over, say Olive Garden or maybe even Mama Louisa's, but not over Piazza Gavi.

Our waitress was very friendly and initially helpful, just not very attentive and tended to disappear for lengthy amounts of time. The other staff/waitresses are about the same. Somewhat understandable if this place was packed but it was far from it. You got the vibe from the staff of "if we dont know you/recognize you, why she would bother with you." Also, the other posts talking about flies, yeah totally true. They were a nuisance for sure. Didnt see any cob webs though, maybe why they have a fly problem now? Lol.

We ordered the "bento box" lunch special which is a fun idea I guess. Just weird to have your appetizer, side salad, main meal and dessert all arrive at the same time and on the same plate. She had the minestrone soup, mixed greens, eggplant parmesan and tiramisu. I had the bruschetta, ceaser salad, lasagna and cheese cake. Like I said above it was all decent(ish). The only real disappointment was the cheesecake. Wasnt a whole lot of flavor to it, even with the creme sauce on top. She had water and I had Ice tea to drink. Had to ask for a refill, despite being empty for 20 minutes and had to ask another waiter to find our waitress for it to happen. Due to slowness of the waitstaff we didnt leave until almost 3:30. So definitely set aside some time if you go here and dont be in a hurry, like at all. So about an hour and 40 minutes for the whole experience and to only get one refill, a meal all on one plate and a pizza to go. All in a place with maybe 10 customers? The cook/serve/wait on time doesnt even out.

We also ordered a personal pepperoni pizza (6inch/4 slices) to go and had it a short time later to try it while it was still hot. The pizza, while good, was extremely greasy, like really greasy. The one to go napkin they gave was soaked in grease in a matter of minutes from the first 2 slices.

Heads up, do to the cooking method and slice thickness of the pepperoni it cups. Which I dont mind at all, only when the cup is full of grease. Which these were. So make sure you have plenty of napkins to sop up the grease. Total food...

Once, Scordato's was excellent. Homey, comfortable, and impeccably qualified in offering both authentic Italian pizza as well as a few moments spin-offs which made you come back for more.

Once, they had a smaller location with a limited menu, allowing them to focus on the pure simplicity of the dish.

Once, they made sure customer satisfaction was primary, and they kept their house in order in every detail from the welcoming entry to the table service.

Once.

We had not yet visited the location on north Stone and River, but decided to give it a try this past weekend. Disappointment settled in from the get-go; a dour hostess (no smile, no welcome, and a sulky walk-off to see if a table was available for us), dirty floor (which my wife slipped on...reportedly it was an olive-soaked mushroom leftover from the previous occupants of our table which had not been cleaned up), shard-filled water glass (already set at the table)...the scene had been set for an underwhelming evening. When our server was asked if they had hot tea he stammered, "Well, we have iced tea but we should have something, I'll go check," and proceeded to bring out a variety of cheap teas. Not his fault, but the principle of the issue remains.

The wine list consists of bottom-shelf wine that retails for $6-$7 per bottle being sold for $7-$8 per glass, and aside from pizza their fare consists of Olive Garden-style entrees which I suspect are frozen and thawed before served...though admittedly I did not tour the kitchen and is only a supposition.

Admittedly after ordering a hot tea and a glass of wine we were already disappointed, and after ordering our food and spying what was on our neighbors' tables we decided to leave. Regrettably, when we told the already pissy hostess we we're going to leave she informed our server, who rang us up for both the drinks and a salad which was, "already made" and were charged for it despite being told we were leaving. I admit I didn't dispute it as we were already leaving, but this underlines the point of this review: Scordato's has definitely plummeted from the quality which once was, and we will not be returning until something is done to raise the bar once more beyond that of the typical "Italian" fare, which it was far above before their move. I recommend you review wisely before settling on this establishment before they do something about the low standards they have apparently resigned...

So if I could give this restaurant a rating less then 1 start I would. We visited scordatos yesterday 2/17/24 for dinner to start out with the ice had speckles of what appeared to be mold in it (gray and fuzzy) and frozen into pieces of ice. When we pulled a couple pieces to show the server she basically brushed us off and told me we’re were wrong. I worked in the restaurant industry for over 5 years and I definitely know what mildew and mold looks like and it means they aren’t cleaning their ice machine properly, the one drink I had tasted of complete liquor (not bad if you want to get drunk/ severly tipsy off one 12.00 drink) but makes you wonder if the person behind the bar knows how to actually make a drink…. They also do not have fountain drink and only serve bottle or canned drinks with no refills for anything but tea and lemonade that you can tell is made in house and not in the good way….which is honestly ridiculous especially considering the price they had for one canned soda. Food was also mediocre with the sauce for the manicotti being very salty, we also ordered a shrimp pizza and a pepperoni pizza….shrimp pizza shrimp ratios was appalling with have one small shrimp per every slice, pepperoni pizza was ok but you’d have to be completely clueless in the kitchen to mess that up….Lastly the icing on the cake was when it was time to leave we asked for a pizza box for the few left over slices of pizza and we were handed a dirty and clearly used pizza box that had sauce and cut marks in it and crumbs…makes you think that the entire back kitchen is dirty. It took us flagging down three different servers to get a clean one….severs were nice once you finally got one of their attentions but truly brushed you off when you had very valid concerns and the atmosphere consisted mostly of 50+ year olds with us being set by one particular large party of them that kept glancing back at us with sour expressions with being seated next to us because we have children who by all means we’re in on their best behavior not really making much noise and stayed in their seats the entire time….you can tell they’ve had the same consistent clientele for years and this place was a huge disappointment which was upsetting because it’s locally owned restaurant and we do love to support the businesses of Tucson and we were truly excited to go here worst $76.00...