Pete's New Haven Style Apizza — Restaurant in Washington

I lived in the neighborhood for years and have been to Pete's Apizza many times...it's a hugely popular place and a neighborhood favorite particularly with families with small children. I love kids but be forewarned, this is not a place where you will have a quiet dinner with your spouse. Most likely you will have 2 and 3 year olds racing around tables and there might be a lot of falling and screaming. OK. That is not the restaurant's fault but some parents could do a better job of watching their kids when eating out. On the positive side the pizza is still pretty good, with crispy and chewy dough and good toppings. I was by myself on my last visit and had a slice of sausage mushroom pizza and a small arugula salad with fried goat cheese which could have been warmer but ok. The whole purpose of fried goat cheese is that it be warm and oozing and this was not. The real disappointment for me came from the look of the place. I mean come on...wooden floors deeply stained and damaged, walls that could really use a repaint job, fingermarks everywhere, baseboard torn or missing in parts, many chairs broken, unstable tables, windows with cracks held together by tape ? I feel like the owners have been coasting on the success of the place, they seem to do a huge business of both eat-in and carry out, so why bother fixing things up? This place is still good when you can sit on the patio outside in nice weather. But they should be careful as they might start to lose customers...There are other and newer pizza joints in DC that are better deals. Casual does not have to mean tired and worn out. I was not even sure about cleanliness and that is a huge thing for me in a restaurant. Enough said. Pete's, you badly...

Honestly it's more like 3.5 stars. The dining experience here is usually great. The servers at the front are awesome and the staff gets the pizzas out to you in a timely fashion. I love their pizzas but I also understand if people think they're overpriced. My favorites are the following: Down the Hill (hands down the best), Margherita, and the Nighthawk. I just recently ordered one with pepperoni and tomatoes and it hit the spot. As for other toppings I am a big fan of how they prepare their eggplant and would also go with the whole garlic rather than the minced. One quick note, avoid their soy cheese pizza. I had it a while ago and vowed to never eat it again. If they have updated it in the last several years, let me know and I will try it again. Their salads are good and my wife enjoys the gluten free crust.

The biggest issue has been their delivery. This happened the last several times. I will receive a text saying my pizzas are ready but they won't be delivered until at least 45 minutes later. They have come in barely warm. Not sure if they no longer have a delivery team or something else changed, but that service has gone significantly downhill. So, if you do want to eat at home I would pick them up instead of having them delivered, paying the...

Came in at 4:30 this afternoon. There were maybe 7 or 8 people standing behind the counter and 0 customers in the restaurant. Nevertheless, I stood and waited for a minute before anyone even acknowledged that I had walked in. The person who finally spoke to me assumed I was there to pick up a delivery and without speaking to me just tried to read my phone screen.

Yes, I'm Black. I've also lived in this neighborhood my whole life. Fun fact, there's actually a bunch of us that live and grew up here and we enjoy going to restaurants in our neighborhood. This isn't the first time this has happened here and usually, I just grin and bear it. This is the first time it's happened on a day when I'm just not having it.

Then to add injury to insult, they forgot to put my slices in the oven. Again, there were no customers in the restaurant.

How's the pizza: it's good, sometimes. Sometimes it's amazing (try the Edge of the Woods and add sausage). Sometimes it's meh. Today my 2 cheese slices weren't heated all the way through. But it's not good enough to pay for a side of micro-aggressions.

This shouldn't need to be said in almost 2022, but please train your employees to assume everyone who comes in is a customer - cause even the delivery folks eat...