Aldo's Pizza — Restaurant in Washington

I have certainly had my fair share of excellent Italian dining experiences throughout my life. The highlight being those I experienced while living in Italy for a couple years. Scattered throughout my adult years I have experienced the rare trip back to that time via the samplings offered in places like Boise, Nashville, Pocatello, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, St Louis, and many more.

This location was not anything like those others. Sure it may carry the flag of an authentic Italian experience but it couldn’t be more American and it couldn’t possibly be more deceptive unless they straight up boasted Italian roots; and therein lies the problem, they do have Italian roots.

Italian food is more culture than anything else and my very limited sampling of this menu told me everything I needed to know about the disrespect that the owners have toward their own heritage and culture. I decided to have a simple dish, the Mastaccioli con marinara and that would be enough for me to decide whether this place deserved my praise. My wife, instead, sampled the Lasagna Emiliana and my son sampled the Margherita slice.

To put it mildly my 8 year old son could produce better results that are more authentic than what we sampled. To start, you cannot have any self respect by claiming Italian heritage and serving up a soggy plate of Penne Rigate with unseasoned marinara from a jar. First, Mastaccioli is not Penne Rigate and the two shouldn’t be mistaken for each other; a crime against the Italian culture to be sure. The lasagna was flat with flavor, soggy, and no white sauce (a classic ingredient in Emiliana) to be found. I immediately thought I had placed a piece of rubber in my mouth as I tried that dish. Finally, the margherita resembled my first attempt at home made pizza when I was 15 years old and had no experience or business attempting it. It was flat, the dough was neither soft nor crunchy and the toppings were completely wrong. Provel is not the same as Mozzarella and basil is a leaf not a glaze that you place on the slice so that it looks as though a Leprechaun took a piss on the pizza.

In short, this experience was what I would call an insult to the category of Italian food and nobody has any business giving these people any more time or money until they learn to harness the love of their heritage and an effort to make their dishes more authentic. I am shocked that this place has received so many glowing reviews but it just tells me that not many Americans have experienced true Italian cuisine. This was not it and in fact the only things good about the experience were the waitress, the fountain drinks,...

We have tried your restaurant 2 times now, the 1st time the restaurant had only a limited amount of people at a couple of tables. We waited 15 minutes at the hostesses stand and no one ever showed us to a table. The employees knew we were there, but no one came over to seat us. We left.

So tonight we tried for a 2nd time. The parking lot was packed but there were tables open and we were seated relatively quickly. Other guests at 3 tables were seated after us. Not once did anyone come to wait on us. The other tables that guest were seated after us were waited on, received their drinks, and started receiving rolls and salad. We had still not even been asked what we would like to drink. Finally the hostesses came over and asked what we would like to drink. We ordered 2 waters, and a pink lemon aide. It took the young lady about 4 minutes to bring our drinks and said someone would be with us shortly. About a minute latter the waitress went to the table across from us and brought them their salad, and said to those guests, I bet you thought I forgot about you to the other table guests. We were just sitting there and were completely ignored, like we were invisible. My wife was so upset that she told us we were leaving, and thus we left. I doubt we will...

I want to like Aldo's, because it seems like everyone loves Aldo's, but I just can't get on board. I gave them another shot last night, for the first time in years I ordered a large pepperoni, mushroom & bacon pizza.

My first complaint is the canned mushrooms. Canned mushrooms are just not good... especially when they're piled in excess on top a thin crust pizza, it made the dough mushy. Imo a restaurant with the kind of reputation that Aldo's has shouldn't be using canned mushrooms, even Domino's uses fresh mushrooms!

Other complaints: Too much cheese, too many toppings overall with not enough sauce, soggy crust with way too much flour on the bottom, the flour starts ruining the flavor...

Another let down, but not a surprise... this is always the experience that I have...