Rotolo’s Pizza

I called and ordered delivery (two orders of spaghetti) at 5:02pm tonight. I was told on the phone that delivery would take forty-​five mins and I was asked to verify my address twice. Forty-​five mins goes by and still no food. At 6:20pm I called them to find out the status of the food and I was placed on hold. It is not uncommon for people to not be able to find my apartment because of the location. I was expecting to be told that the driver had gotten lost, but instead a gentleman picked up the phone and asked if I was the one who «ordered delivery, but it was written down as pickup». I told him I had no idea and just wanted to know the status of my order. He told me it was on the way now.
Twenty-​five mins later (at 6:45pm) it finally arrived at my door. Keep in mind my apartment is literally 0.2 miles from their location. Normally I would have picked up my order, but I thru out my back the day before and sitting in a car is next to impossible. After waiting almost two hours for food, I certainly wouldn’t be asked to pay for it right? Well… I was asked to pay for it. Heck, I even tipped the delivery driver ($ 16.98 was the total and I gave him a $ 20) because I know this wasn’t his fault.
This review has nothing to do with the taste or quality of the food. I have been ordering from Rotolo’s for over 10yrs and really enjoy the food. This review was to express my disappointment in the customer service I experienced tonight. It was poor to say the least and I know they could have done better.

I have been getting Rotolos for years now. Both for personal and for work (just around the corner). Rotolos has been at all three of my daughters births (waiting to be devoured by my worn out wife), numerous parties and tons of work events, so needless to say Im a regular. But unfortunately the latest two managers decided to leave and thats when the quality of the pies diminished drastically. We ask for extra cheese and what we get is a pathetic attempt at best. We ask for pie cut and we get square cut (which sucks by the way). The delivery person has been rude many times (I get it… you deliver pizza) but come on man. I will still recommend it but for nostalgic sake only. Good pie, Ok customer service

«Trust me.»
They’re not the most encouraging words you want to hear when someone takes you to an eatery you’ve never tried before, but it’s what my friend Dan said before we waltzed into the Rotolo’s Grandview location for the first time and he ordered –get this– a double roasted garlic pizza. The pie came out and it was gartantuan wall-​to-​wall chunks of fresh garlicy goodness, not chopped or minced product out of a jar. Still, I had doubts about ingesting so much in one sitting and cringed at the thought of what my breath would smell like. «Trust me.» After the first bite, my worries were all a distant memory.
That was in the mid 90s. Since then, Rotolo’s has expanded (I think they’re up to four stores in Columbus), their prices have gone up a bit and their garlic chunks are somewhat smaller, but the flavor experience is unchanged. Their sauce is, in my opinion, what puts them on the map, and I hope they never change it.
Unfortunately, I can’t speak for the service end of things, as my orders are invariably carry-​out. There’s some discord among some Unilocalers that maybe the quality of service has dropped somewhat over the years, but I have yet to witness it with my interactions. To that, I’ll just say this: there are a gazillion pizza joints around, cranking out more pizza than we can possibly eat, so only the strong will stick around for the long haul. If service really was a systemic issue there, they wouldn’t have survived this long. Trust me.

One week later and still angry. Not a flippant reaction from last week, still not as an iron… This establishment is a true down trodden wreck with people that don’t care about baseline customers.
If you take that for granted… you are lost as a company.

Used to love Rotolo’s, especially the great meals. No longer impressed with the food quality, but especially not impressed with the staff. I was treated very coldly when I asked a question while picking up my dinner. Then got home to realize my order was not as expected/​ordered via phone. I called and was rudely informed that I was charged for what I had received and that’s what I got. Told him I ordered additional items. He didn’t seem to care or offer to make it right. We are done with Rotolo’s.

Leonardo’s Pizza’s reopening prompted me to revisit another old classic pizza place — Rotolo’s. I checked out their original location here in Grandview about a week ago. It’s been years since my last visit and now? I’m a fan again.
Medium Mushroom for $ 11.75. Came with plenty of cheese and mushrooms, although they could have used a little more mushrooms. It has a really great tasting crust which was a combination of chewy and crispy. It’s that crust where you get the crunch on the outside and then the chewiness is inside. A rich, fresh tasting tomato sauce rounded out the pie that was cut into squares, as it should be.
15 minutes from call in to pick up. (carry out only) Hot and steamy — I couldn’t wait to get home.
Another Columbus Classic Pizza and a solid choice.

I went over here for lunch today. It’s in a very nice building right on 5^th Ave. They’ve got menus that list all four stores and the items sold by each store. They include lasagna, meatballs, pizza, and subs. The only problem was that I needed «dine-​in» and the only store that does that is Worthington. So I was out of luck today.

I have been to this rotolos on several occasions. The staff is always friendly and the pizza is good. It has a lot of sauce and a lot of cheese– and when I say a lot, I mean a lot. Their other toppings are very good– but it can be over whelming how much cheese their is. Their garlic bread is a no go– either over cooked or under cooked. Good pizza, but not in my top ten places in town.

Hands down best pizza in town The Rotolo family imigrated directly from Italy and you can taste it!

Pizza is alright, but where did they come up with that Hawaiian?
rotolos makes some good pizza no doubt. Cheese and sauce are great which are usually what does it for me. Yeah I like toppings, but they are just a bonus. a good sauce will makes or breaks a pizza for me. I cannot give them another star though because when I ordered the Hawaiian it was the weirdest and worst I’d had to date. There was cinnamon on it and nuts. I have a slight nut allergy so I couldn’t really enjoy eating it.

CAUTION — If you’re not a native of Columbus, you will not like this stuff! I tried it, and I don’t like it at all.
Several of my Columbus-​bred friends LOVE this place and carry on about it, like I babble about Lou Malnati’s. After failing to find even average pizza in Columbus, I thought I’d finally gotten a hot tip — a place called Rotolo’s! Maybe there WAS good pizza in Columbus, pizza with flavored crust!
I probed deeper. Turns out my friend used to work there, so he was in insider! He told stories of secret tomato sauce. Mmm, sounding good. Surely, this was my place!
He said their business was so good, it was carry-​out only, no dine in. Wow, these guys must make an awesome pie if they can get away with that! I’m sold!
But, alas (sorry, I always wanted to say that), I was so let down by the pizza. Again, it had that limp, thin, not crispy but not doughy crust that has literally no flavor at all. Maybe the sauce was good, but the whole thing was just so very bland and unremarkable in any way.
It was this experience that convinced me that people from Columbus actually WANT to make their pizza this way. This is the style they want. Having had pizza in many states and several countries, I do not like this style at all.

Quite possibly, the best pizza in Columbus. The perfect combination of crust, sauce, and toppings. Everything is fresh and flavorful. And dont look for a PaPa Johns pizza here… the toppings are piled high, including the cheese. You need two hands to carry this heavy pie.

Had this review hanging around for a while but it was a gruesome day! Two hours to get a burnt, dried out pizza — usually good pizza but I’ll never go back. Had company over to watch the game and it was a disaster. Happy new year!!!
If you want good pizza, try the new place, Rocco’s

Been a customer for 30 plus years, will never go back again. Poor Service and Bad Customer Service, Bad Pizza… It a sad day had my last Pizza from Rotolo’s Pizza.
Try thie new place on First Ave, Rocco’s. Yum!

Best pizza ever !!!

I’ve been eating here for about 20 years, and my parents frequented this establishment in the 70’s while in Med school at OSU. It’s good, Columbus style thin, square cut pizza. They also have great meatballs with spaghetti sauce. Their salads are your classic cheap lettuce marinated in italian dressing, a guilty pleasure. Don’t expect anything from their plain bread, just a cheap, stale-​ish roll. If you have a hankering for some classic American style Italian, this is your place.

Fantastic supreme pizza

Serious cheese, very little sauce, good crust, always very very hot.
So between the cheese and the hotness it works.
They deliver for an extra buck. If you check em out on Tuesday you can get a large, one topping for practically nothing.
So you’re shoveling hot cheese down your gizzard for free, basically.
One thing I love about them is their commitment to community service. They gave my nephews a bunch of pizza boxes to make pizza box ovens out of that were solar powered. Granted, their effort took place in November, so it was none too productive, but given the right season… It could be a great venture.

Sadly, I’ve not yet tried their pizza. I did recently order a to-​go dinner for a group — rigatoni with meatballs, bread and a salad. We asked for the meatballs on the side as some folks in the group were vegetarians. Rotolo’s, in a moment of hilarious inspiration, put the meatballs on the SIDES of the dish… as in, near the edge. Our vegetarian friends were none too pleased.
The food ended up being a mixed bag. The pasta was a tad overdone but good enough. The scandalous meatballs were great. The sauce was simple and tasty. The salad, unfortunately, was just a chopped iceberg and carrot sliver affair. It was likely out of a bag. The dressing was flavorful, though. The bread seemed stale.
I’d love to go back and try the pizza… but I won’t ask for anything on the side. Who knows what they’ll do.

Although pricey, Rotolo’s is definitely one righteous pizza joint. much has written about how excellent their pizza is, and having eaten there as many times as I have, I can vouch for all of it. Every element of their pizza, from the cheese all the way down to the texture of the crust, is of the highest order of ingredients. What really got me hooked on Rotolo’s was the crust, which is tender, chewy, and just garlicky enough to whet your appetite for more every time you bite in to it. The taste is distinct without being overbearing or leading you to believe that you wreak of a pizza shop for days after digging in.
On a very rare occasion, I decided to get to share a lasagna dinner with a friend that had eaten pizza far too often in the days leading up to the situation. The meal included bread sticks and a salad and was well worth the 8 – 9 we paid for it. It’s definitely more than enough food for one person, and it was no surprise that it was delicious as well. There was visible grease around the edges of the lasagna, but everything else about it was top notch, just like the pizza.
If you’re curious about what Rotolo’s has to offer, I’d recommend calling in an order on a Tuesday, as they are currently offering large one-​topping pizzas for either $ 10 or $ 11 dollars. Not a bad deal for one of the best pies in Columbus you’ll ever sink your teeth in to!