Zucca Bar & Pizzeria

I have been here before and it’s ok. It is what it is. It’s good if you want to have a PBR and catch some sports. Which is exactly what I wanted to do on New Years Eve (minus the sports, I actually just wanted a PBR).
We checked to see what time it was closing before we decided to take the drive over there. We were told 3am, so we drove over there and arrived promptly at 2.30am to be greeted by a gentleman at the door who informed us that the place was closed. It was literally ¾ full. He then elaborated. The bar was shutting down and therefore they didn’t want to anymore customers who would come in and delay their cleaning duties. Fair point if we wanted an old fashioned, or something that would have required some effort. We were in the market for a PBR. And given that I had been here before, I knew full well all that was required of them was to pull a can out of the cooler, place it on the bar, open it, and slide it my way.
This I explained to the gentleman who was having none of it. I even offered to open my own PBR at the table if that would have been too much hassle for them, or if it would have caused too much mess. But no, a continuous shake of the head and lack of common sense. 4 people, 4 PBR’s, $ 3 each or something, I’d have thrown the bartender a 20 and told them to keep the change. Probably less work than me writing this sentence, yet common sense did not prevail. In spite of the fact that people were clearly still eating and drinking in there, and would have been for a lot longer than the 10 minutes I wanted to spend in there, they would not budge on this stubborn issue of theirs.
This is the only place I know that would turn business down 30 minutes before closing on New Years Eve before last call at the bar. It is also the only place I know that actively talk down to their customers, or potential customers should I say, when they are trying to buy into the service that they offer. All in all, I wouldn’t bother going. There are scores of good places in Decatur so I’d definitely advise going elsewhere, even if it is just one PBR you are after.

Zucca is pretty solid, but not anywhere near great. The interior is like a standard sports bar, and there are TVs in each booth which was good for watching the Falcons game. Our server was on top of everything, attentive, friendly, thumbs up for him.
Honestly, I liked everything about this place other than the food. My bloody mary was great and a steal at $ 6. My friend had the lasagna special which was average, but only $ 8 and a huge portion. It was definitely good enough to bring back for leftovers. Pizza slices are only $ 2 and 25 cents for toppings. Unfortunately, the pizza is pretty bland, not even at Fellini’s level. I could see myself stumbling over here after some drinks at Brickstore to down a few slices, but I don’t think I’d ever stop by for a real meal.

Its hard to order pizza in ATL when you live in a place that really knows how to serve it up. I went here based on suggestion of my boo and I will say… Hmmm, they must step it up if they are going to push the pizza. Large slices, yes! Tasty, no! The draft beer was good and there was a huge selection.
As for memorable, not sure about all that. If a game is on I could go there to eat wings and drink a draft beer.

I was recently in downtown Decatur running an errand during lunchtime and decided to stop at Zucca because it was the closest restaurant with an enticing scoutmob promotion. Aside from the fact that I was accosted by Red Cross volunteers prior to entering and shortly after exiting, my experience at this restaurant was a reasonable one.
Food: Zucca is your standard, no-​frills bar and pizzeria. The food is by no means exceptional or innovative in any respect, but it’s palatable and will adequately satisfy a craving for pizza and/​or red sauce Italian fare. The menu is comprised of soup, salad, appetizers, pizzas, sandwiches, calzones, pastas, and various other entrees. During my visit, I opted for the garlic bread with melted mozzarella cheese as an appetizer and the chicken parmesan calzone as an entrée. Both items were sizable in portion and true to the ingredients listed on the menu. I didn’t have their pizza, but it is allegedly «award winning»; they offer quite an array of toppings, including premium options such as artichoke hearts, Canadian bacon, pineapple, and roasted red peppers.
Service: The staff were friendly, but the server to table ratio is high. As such, the ordering process was inordinately long for the limited number of patrons that were actually ordering food.
Atmosphere: If you’re looking for some sort of intimate Italian pizzeria experience, then I’d recommend dining elsewhere. Zucca is first, and foremost, a sports bar; in fact, they have televisions at every table, so those that are so inclined can watch multiple sporting events at one time. As would be expected in such a situation, the screams and quips of disgruntled fans were commonplace during my Saturday afternoon dining experience.
Cost: Inexpensive considering the size of the portions. Appetizers cost $ 6 to $ 10, soup and salad are $ 5 — $ 9, sandwiches are $ 7-​$ 9, calzones are mostly $ 9, pastas and entrees cost $ 9-​$ 14, and pizzas are $ 8 (personal) to $ 13 (18″ diameter). Regular and premium pizza toppings cost $ 2 and $ 3, respectively.
Other: In addition to dine-​in and takeout, they also offer delivery 7 nights a week. Hours are Monday-​Friday, 11AM-​4AM, and Saturday-​Sunday, 11AM-​3AM. However, it is important to note that after 10PM only a late night menu is available.

Decent pizza, more of a bar atmosphere than a restaurant or a pizza joint. The drinks were OK but I’ll have to side with the haters on this one with much better places surrounding this location I’m hard pressed to find a reason to stop in here other than a craving for pizza & you can’t walk two or three blocks over to Johnny’s.

I am so surprised by the average 3 star rating! I came for the first time this week and absolutely loved it. I purchased a Half Off Depot gift certificate so I could try it out. My friend and I ordered a White Pie and shared a caesar salad. This put us only 50 cents about the gift certificate. Awesome. The pizza was so delicious. It tasted really authentic and fresh. Loved the big globs of cheese. The pizza was so big that we each had two pieces to take home as leftovers. In-​house service was average. I couldn’t find the place at first, so I called the restaurant and they guided me to where they were. The only problem coming to this place is the parking situation of Decatur Square. I wonder if they deliver to my apartment… hmmmm.

Four stars because of the cheese slices. Three stars for everything else.
One would think that a cheese slice is the easiest thing for a pizza joint to make, but not so. Very few actually do it right, and this place is one of them. Thin crusted, with a solid layer of cheese that stands on its own, with no need for extra toppings. In fact, I would argue that added toppings take away from it all, so I recommend just ordering it plain.
Go at lunch time, and treat yourself to two.

Good pizza and sandwiches, salads come with plenty of dressing. The atmosphere is lacking and I’ve never seen it full.
I do enjoy the fact that it’s still open when everything else has closed so my lady can take the edge off an evening with a guilty pleasure of mozzarella sticks.

This place fails on every level. The food and service is some of the worst I’ve experienced in Atlanta.
We sat ourselves and then waited and waited for a server. We flagged one down and he said he would find our server, and then the same dude came back and took our order. So it WAS YOU, you rascal!
We ordered some beers and wine… and waited. We all got our drinks after we reminded our server except for Steve. He had to ask more than a few times until his beer was finally delivered. By this time we had another server.
Eventually we ordered food and when they brought the pizzas our they sat one on our table and the other one on a nearby table. They never brought a pizza riser and left the other pizza on another table for us to serve ourselves. We were all confused. The management needs to seriously take a look at some of their servers and how they act.
The margherita pizza we had was the single poorest example of pizza I’ve had in Atlanta. Cardboard crust. Terrible sauce and only occasional cheese here and there. I tried another pizza that was better, so I suggest you avoid the margherita.
The only positive experience I had was at the bar before my friends showed up for dinner. The bartender (Carrie?) was really friendly and quick with service.
Even though they have a scoutmob, I would seriously reconsider eating here.

We decided to hit up Zucca thanks to Scoutmob. For a Friday night, it sure was full of kids — I’ve never seen so many babies in a bar! Most of the families were seated in the TV booths so we sat at a high top table. I’m really not a fan of TVs in restaurants, let alone having my own TV at my table. Ick. The hostess seemed a bit in her own world — it took about 10 minutes for me and the people in front of me to be seated while the whole restaurant was wide open. This didn’t change throughout the night. Just odd.
The caprese salad was fine, but the flavors muted and bland. I enjoyed the «award-​winning» Victory pizza, but it wasn’t life changing. In fact, I found the flavors rather muted too. Weird. The $ 2.50 PBR was tasty though!
Our waitress was super cool and I thought she did a great job.
I probably won’t be back, but with Brick Store next door, Iberian Pig across the street, and a score of other tasty spots in Decatur, can you blame me?

Delicious NY-​style pizza. Fresh, mouth-​fillingly amazing.
And let me be honest — I am NOT a pizza girl.
This spot is a traditional bar/​pizzeria setting — it reminds me of other nearby pizza places. There’s a bar with tv’s set up for the big game. Tables — both indoors and outdoors. They have big booths with built-​in flat screens playing movies to entertain the easily-​distracted minds of little ones.
I’ve only been here a couple of times — because I seem to forget about it. And I’m only reminded when I’m at the Square on my way to somewhere else. I need to keep this place in mind because it really is a cool hang out with the. most. delicious. pizza.
Should you eat here? Yes. Absolutely.
Why am I not giving it 5 stars? It is a LITTLE more pricey than I think it should be. Worth it? Unclear. Perhaps only time will tell. But it’s not so much that it’ll keep me away during this tough economic time. I’ll be heading back soon for more «research»!

I hate to be a hater, but when it’s gotta be done, I’m up for the task. In short: I strongly disadvise y’all from patroning here.
The boyf and I stopped in here two years ago when it first opened, by which I mean we went in, stopped, and realized it was not the place for us. TVs in every both and super loud music playing are too signals that we need to go elsewhere. And when you’re in downtown Decatur, there are plenty of other awesome options available.
But Zucca had the Scoutmob deal for this Tuesday, so six of my friends and I went for pizza and drinks on Thursday night. There was no wait for a booth at 8 pm, which is always a nice surprise in downtown Decatur, and our server didn’t mind that we had two folks in chairs at the end of our booth. Sometimes folks are sticklers for fire hazards, so it was nice that no one made a big deal about it.
Perhaps that’s because our server didn’t really make a big deal about us, you know, like, being there. She brought out waters right away, but not silverware and napkins (which we had to ask for after our piping hot pizza arrived; very annoying to have to wait for the minor detail of plates and eating utensils). She was also very slow in bringing out our drinks once they were ordered (she made a very show of needing to see our IDs, which was kind of strange) and did not anticipate our needing water refills. I know we’re at a bar and pizza place, but come on: what’s up with the attitude? Folks are supposed to be friendly here, k?
Four of us split a large pepperoni pizza for $ 15 which I found delicious and extremely generously sized in terms of portions: YAY! But it was also probably the greasiest pizza I have ever eaten. And the bar was out of PBR, so I had to wash it down with Yuengling (a pitcher is $ 14). Which is pretty okay by me… but seriously, out of PBR?
The worst part, though, was settling the bill. Our server charged full price for the drinks that were on the daily special ($ 6 Absolut martinis) and added 35% gratuity. When confronted with the mathematical error, she protested that the computer had done it automatically so there COULDN’T be an error, which is what her manager repeated when she brought him out. Finally they reprinted the receipt correctly and told us to write the dollar amounts to be charged on each card. So we did, making sure that it all added up… but then she brought it back to us, claiming that our amounts added up to more than our bill. We did the math again and it was correct. Then she told us that she in fact COULDN’T enter different values on cards and would need to simply divide the total equally among us. This turned out to be roughly equivalent to what we each would have paid anyway, but the whole paying for the meal ordeal took a half hour, and our server and the manager were real jerks about it.
So, yeah… totes not coming here again. Yeesh!

Okay let me preface this by saying almost two years ago we started going to Zucca and I loved the wings and the personal pizza’s and overall it was a lot more cozy and quiet then the ever so popular Brickstore (don’t get me wrong I love Brickstore).
We tried to go just a week or so ago and it was completely different. First of all being id at the door like we were going to a show or a club that was different and then as we entered they were blasting terrible hip hop music and there were two scantily clad women dancing and pretty much the rest of the place was empty. Now I like my share of hip hop and scantily clad women don’t typically phase me but overall the atmosphere sucked.
We sat for a few moments and no one came over and we couldn’t hear each other talk, or yell for that matter so we left and will never go there again unless something seriously changes.

Wow. I don’t think I’ve had food this terrible in a LONG time. Everything we ordered was horrible. The garlic bread was way too salty, the risotto balls were ok but the marinara sauce that accompanied it was so watery. Disgusting! An Italian place should at least have decent marinara sauce! We also ordered the fettucine alfredo which was insanely bland. I had to add salt and parmesan cheese to it to make it somewhat edible. And lastly, I ordered the «Award winning» Victory pizza. It barely had any cheese on it (I guess theyre trying to cut costs) and it had that same disgusting sauce on it. After eating it my friend says «Did they give themselves the award?» I took one bite and could not eat anymore. We had a ton of leftover food and didn’t even bother to get a box which is unheard of for me. I always pack up my leftovers!
The only reason we came here was because every other restaurant in the area was packed. In retrospect, we should have waited 1.5 hours to get a table at Iberian Pig instead. At least I would have left happy.
I will NEVER return.

This is one of my favorite pizza parlors in town. My wife and I even catered their food for our wedding rehearsal dinner!
Food: A huge assortment of specialty pizzas and calzones. I enjoy the Victory Pie and Sicilian. They usually have a daily pizza special too. Plus, there is a wide assortment of entrees like penne a la vodka, eggplant parmigiana, chicken dishes, lasagna, etc. Everything is good! For appetizers, I highly recommend the risotto balls.
Drinks: There is a full bar which is open late. There’s about 8 – 10 beers on tap and a long list of bottles. Draughts are around $ 5 – 6, but canned PBR is only $ 2.50.
Ambiance: There is a long bar when you first enter. There are over a dozen wooden booths which are great for groups. Each booth has its own individual flat screen TV that you control. There are also some free standing tables plus some outdoor seating when the weather permits.
There are video game machines and a jukebox in the back.
Staff: Overall, super friendly. This is especially true for the bartenders.
Parking is always a little tough in Decatur.
Definitely give this place a try… and then you can go to the Brickstore next door for drinks!

Bleh bleh and more bleh.
The place was nearly empty on a hopping Friday night in Decatur. The pizza here is ok, but the atmosphere just has no personality.
The service staff didn’t seem to give a crap. They had that fake «hello how are you» thing going on, but seemed like they’d much rather you didn’t bother coming in.
Then we saw the advertisment on the bar for Zucca franchising. I get it now.

Stopped in here to check out the pizza which has very high marks on their menu. We got the victory pie which I thought was good, but came out room temperature and almost cold.
if you go get this pizza but make sure its a warm pie.
Lentil soup was meh and the caprese was a nice size for the price. Service was great.

Great service, friendly people working there. However, the food was mediocre and I probably won’t be coming back here to eat again. 2.5 stars, rounding down.
The zucchini and eggplant chips were sliced too thin. I could not taste the vegetables and could only taste the deep fried batter — not too bad when you are eating one or two, but you can’t eat more than that since it is just too heavy. Comes with marinara sauce, and at $ 9, not cheap either.
Also got a large pie of their Victory Pie, which is a Margherita pizza with cheese, sausage, and mushrooms. Not exactly sure how this pizza won any awards, given the fact that it was just way too soggy in the middle and seemed like it might have been undercooked. I think the pizza had potential to be better, but probably could have spent a bit more time in the oven. The thin crust definitely has more of a New York feel to it, which is my favorite style, but this pizza just did not do it for me. I’m pretty sure the leftovers tomorrow will be better after I put it in the oven for a bit, but this pizza was unfortunately not impressive tonight.

Holy shit! Real pizza in Atlanta!!! AND, They make cannolli? And, zeppoli!!! Let me tell you a story.
My wife and I moved to Atlanta last summer and have since lamented the lack of good Italian food and pizza in particular. In fact, it is a sort of joke among us and all of our friends from New Jersey who live in Atlanta. the pizza here plain sucks.
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were wandering around the Decatur square on a Sunday evening, looking for a bite to eat. We wanted to avoid our standard (Raging Burrito, Siam Thai, and Sushi Avenue). We saw Zucca’s and thought, WTF, let’s give it a try…
When we walked in, we were warmly greeted by the owner, who was very enthused by my NY Yankees t-​shirt. We knew we had found something special. I asked the owner if they made «real pizza.» He responded in the affirmative. My wife and I took a seat our front and looked at the menu. We saw the things one should see at a real pizza place. Garlic knots, eggplant parm, meatball subs, calzones, and, of course, a selection of pies and toppings. We ordered a pie and garlic knots.
The garlic knots were perfect. Now, in the world of garlic knot-​eaters, there are two distinct varieties — light and doughy. These are the light kinds. And: Oh. My. God. good and good.
The pizza — well, I sort of gave it away: real fucking pizza. Not the slab of dough with ketchup and crappy cheese you get all over around here. Real fucking pizza. Thin crust, real, honest to god, sauce, and good cheese. I can’t recommend it enough.
We have been back several times and have explored the menu extensively (though we always get some pizza and a basket of knots). My wife had a calzone. She says it was perfect (I don’t really care for calzones — too much cheese for me).
Another upshot of the place is that it is super kid-​friendly (as many places in Decatur are). We don;t have one, but will soon, and like that. Last time, I have to admit, it was a little loud, due to one set of parents who let their kids scream the whole time. Each booth has a TV in it, which is cool, and there is a nice skeetball table in the back. The bar is cool, and the beer selection is good.
I can’t say enough. If you want a nice pizza place with the atmosphere of a friendly Decatur place with the quality New York pizza joint, you must go here.
Update — We still love this place. We just realized they make zeppoli. If you order them, they come in a brown paper bag — as they should! Definitely go here!

I have just recently stumbled upon Zucca in downtown Decatur and I am hooked, line and sinker! Still pretty new to the area, Zucca is a welcoming, warm, cozy spot with a full bar and a well-​rounded and balanced menu. It has quite the charm. Great for an after-​work drink and bite to eat, kid friendly and accommodating for large groups… overall great new spot. Just what downtown Decatur needed!
Shuffleboard in the back adds to the good time of course, but on top of that there are several big flat-​screen tv’s hovering over the bar as well as flat-​screens in every booth — awesome! Perfect for game days…
Pizzas are HUGE and will leave you with leftovers for the days to follow… trust me, I speak from experience. My date and I each had 2 pieces of our Pepperoni and Sausage pizza and ended up bringing home the rest which has fed me now for 4 days. Slices are gigantic! We also tried out the garlic bread with mozzarella — ORGASMIC. Seriously, it’s so so so good. Bring a pack of gum along, it’s potent with garlicky goodness… as it should be. Yum.
I’ve found my new go-​to spot in Decatur for good drinks, attentive and personable bartenders, and an overall good time… I’ll be back many a times, very soon.