Pupatella — Restaurant in Virginia

Came tonight for the anniversary of this pupatella location! It was pretty packed and had cute balloons everywhere. Sadly, our server Kathy was pretty rude. She gave us attitude when I tried to ask for a topping on the side. I totally get being frustrated but I don’t think we deserved that considering it was only for one pizza. Throughout the experience, she didn’t seem as cheerful as she was with other tables. She took 10 mins to give us refills we asked for and spent more time chatting with other tables than us. When a girl named Bailey brought our pizzas, there was an error on one of them. I notified her that the prosciutto was supposed to be on the side. When she took it back, I saw her conversing with my server. Coincidentally, when Bailey brought it back out, you could tell that the prosciutto was literally just taken off by hand. I told her I can’t take that and she immediately apologized even though she wasn’t at fault. I said it was totally fine but that I needed it to be remade since my boyfriend can’t eat pork for religious reasons. Our server Kathy did not seem interested in us. Not sure if it’s because we don’t look as rich as her other tables but it seems she plays favorites. She was very standoffish and not helpful when I asked questions about dessert. I asked how big the scoop of gelato was and she replied with “a regular sized scoop” and stared at us. It was such an odd experience to feel like we were bothering her considering she was our server. I have never had such a poor experience at this location before. However Bailey, was AMAZING. She made such a difference even though she wasn’t our server. She was super empathetic and had great customer service skills. Unfortunately, due to the unprofessionalism displayed by my server, I will not be back to this location. I do not recommend this location, the Springfield location has much...

{Quick disclaimer: This review is about the food, not the staff. The staff was awesome, courteous, and super helpful; but this review is about the food.}

American pizzas (whether Chicago, New York, Detriot, some-other styles) are just in a different silo and can't be fairly compared to Assozione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) certified Neapolitan pizzas.

The only other good reference comparison close by is Crust Pizzeria. Both Pupatella and Crust Neapolitan pizzas taste similar since AVPN cerification seems fairly strict or narrow to protect the Neapolitan-style -- and deservedly so since it tastes great. Who am I to rank one culture or city's pizza style since I prefer a variety myself.

Ok ok. For dinner, we ordered Margherita DOC, Filetti DOC, Bresaola Special, Bruschetta, Crostini, draft beers. So not to waste you time, here is what would bring me back to Pupatella and what I personally would skip:

Pupatella worth ordering again: -- Surprisingly, the non-AVPN pizza called Brezaola special. And it's even cheaper than other pizza. Seriously, brussel sprouts on pizza never tasted so good. {Kudo points for originality of flavor!!!}

Pupatella items to skip: -- Bruschetta ... cherry tomatoe mountain, not sure why? -- Crustini .... would prefer to have more european anchovies -- Pupatella draft beers ... lagers sipped like super-light coronas, IPA sipped like nothing special.

If you go, try their non-AVPN specials. If forced to compare to Crust Pizzeria, I wish there were other delectable ingredients they could use those beautiful awesome brick ovens for like fried friti, cooked seafood, lasagna, other pasta dishes, and other food that benefit from some good...

The dining experience at this Pupatella was a joke. The servers/hosts were too busy chatting and laughing with each other to attend to guests properly. It took forever for someone to take our order and to just give us waters, at least 20 minutes of just sitting there before a young Spanish male finally came and took our order.

Then, a Caucasian family sat next to us and were somehow attended to right away and even got their order before we did! The crazy part is that they ordered almost the same pizzas that we did, but with extra drinks and appetizers, and somehow they still got served before us. We are not Caucasian, maybe that's why the preferential treatment.

At this point, we had just been sitting around for more than half an hour to 40 minutes while the newly arrived guests to our left were eating away. I could tell the people around us probably noticed as well, since we had just been sitting at an empty table just drinking water.

The food finally came, only to find it wasn't even what we ordered. It belonged to another table. We waited some more and a young Spanish female finally brought us our pizzas. I had asked if she could give us some napkins as well, she rolled her eyes, laughed, and just walked away. What a bizarre experience.

The pizza was not even good. It arrived not even warm, like it had just been sitting out for a while. After a few bites, I just stopped eating entirely and didn't even bother with the rest of it.

We've been to other Pupatella locations and this is not worthy of being one. It is beyond disappointing in comparison in terms of food, quality, and especially service....