Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana — Restaurant in Watertown

I am honestly mad at myself that I did not write this review sooner. My wife and I often discuss how quality of service and small acts of kindness are rapidly disappearing arts in our society, especially in regards to our food industry. This restaurant overcame that narrative and then some.

First — The food is great. The pizzas came out pipping hot and the flavors were fantastic. I am a big texture guy and loved the crunch of the crust. We ordered a large salad to take the edge off because the pizzas take awhile to cook (well worth the time but be prepared to wait) and my goodness was the portion and quality wondrous. The large salad is too much for two people but we toughed it out. The only area for improvement I have for management is to increase the appetizer selection of the pizzas are going to take awhile to cook.

Second — We had an amazing encounter with their personnel. Our server was kind and accommodating and pleasurable overall. No complaints but nothing extraordinary. We ordered two pizzas (my wife was pregnant and you know how cravings go) and between those and the salad there was a lot of leftovers. Our server packed up our pizza for us in a box, we paid, and left full and happy. We walked out to the car and before we pulled out we realized I forgot to bring the leftovers (of course it was my fault). I ran back inside to find that the table had already been cleared. Disappointed, I turned to leave and was asked by a gentleman at the front desk if I needed assistance. Keeping hope alive, I asked if there was any way they saved the pizza in the back in case we came back. He asked me what kind of pizza we had and how many slices we had left. I told him and he went into the kitchen. He returned shortly after and told me that the pizza was gone but he put a fresh one in the oven for me. I was in awe. I told him not to worry about it but he assured me it was no trouble. 15 mins later I walked out with fresh small pizza that my wife enjoyed even more than the first time around as she devoured it a few hours later.

This place made me and my stomach happy but moreso than that, it made wife happy at particularly difficult time in our life. I went to this place for the first time 6 months ago when I had this experience described above and have never forgotten it. We no longer live in Boston but I make an effort to buy a slice for my wife whenever I am remotely close to the city — both because we like the pizza, and because I feel that a simple act of kindness and service such as the one I had the pleasure of encountering deserves to be respected.

This is a reminder for everyone that a little thing can go a long way. Pepe’s will have my business for as long as they keep doing what...

I wanted to like this, but after my first experience today, I think I’ll only return again as a carry-out customer. For what it’s worth, the food was pretty tasty, but the overall experience left us pretty confused and disappointed.

We stopped in for lunch on a Thursday afternoon. The place was not very busy, maybe only six other tables busy in the entire restaurant. It took over five minutes after being seated by the host for someone to even acknowledge that we’d been seated, which was peculiar given that the restaurant was not busy. We ordered a salad and a pepperoni pizza, and chose to add basil and fresh garlic. I noticed it was difficult for our waitress to understand us, as she asked us several times to repeat the order. It is my understanding that English was not her first language, and while I am sympathetic, her level of unfamiliarity with the either the language or the menu significantly hindered her capacity to communicate meaningfully with us.

After a few minutes, a different waitress came over and tried to clarify the order, saying our original waitress had specified it was a pepperoni pizza with two additional toppings, but she’d forgotten what they were. Seeing as we had repeated the order several times, this seems unlikely, hence why I suspect a language barrier. We clarified for the second waitress that the two additional toppings were basil and fresh garlic.

The salad came, and I’ll say it was quite tasty. My partner especially enjoyed the Caesar dressing. However I found the croutons to be hard as rocks… the salad was a small, but still reasonable for two people to share as a side salad portion.

After finishing the salad, we waited over 20 minutes more for the pizza, at which point, a pizza with only basil and fresh garlic was delivered…. The new waitress explained when she had clarified our order, she understood it as “only basil and garlic,” whereas when she started to clarify, the original waitress had specified pepperoni, and we reiterated the two additional toppings…

Having already waited nearly 40 minutes since originally being seated, we opted to just take the pizza rather than send it back, and I did something I have never done before. I walked over to Roche Brothers across the parking lot and bought a small container of pepperoni. It took me three minutes round trip.

The extremely petty (and frustrated) part of me fantasized about leaving a slice of Roche Bros pepperoni as a tip, but having worked in food service myself, that would be inexcusable behavior.

All in all, the food was 4/5 stars, but the service was… problematic to say the least. Might be willing to try again, but only if we have the time for a 90 minute meal, and likely to do...

I really wanted to love this place. I know the origin story and the whole thing is very romantic. When we arrived, the restaurant was almost empty. The host seated us next to a large table of young children, what is up with that? The place is less than 50% capacity and you put us next to a bunch of overactive kids? We ordered our food, and it came out pretty quickly. The pizza was not good. I understand the concept of the Frank Pepe, thing. But, really, you can't offer us a better pie when most of the staff is just standing around? This brings me to the most dissatisfying part of our visit. We eat about half of our pizza. Ten minutes goes by. No staff. I get up to go to the gentleman's lounge. Come back, no staff! What is up? My partner in crime is now swiveled out of the booth, looking at the pizza cooking team, hoping for a waitress, nothing. We finally flag down a different wait person, she disappears. Eventually, our waitperson finally comes back. I urgently tell her, we will take the rest of the pizza to go and a check please! No lie, it was almost 15 minutes for us to get the check. This is not cool! Frank Pepe seems like a great place to go for an authentic slice of Italian pie, but the reality is, it is mediocre at best, not cheap, and the service almost insures, we will take our...