Garaffa’s Pizza

First time patron, and was very impressed. Family friendly, local Mom and Pop establishment that served great pizza and was very accommodating to our large group. Really enjoyed the food and atmosphere. Looking forward to our next visit.

This husband-​wife establishment shines through with hospitality and great food. The pizza is good. But the Italian meatballs are the real star. Sooooo good, I could eat them all day. The sauce is rich, with just the right amount of kick. Visit this place soon.

My family and I love to go to Garaffa’s pizza! It is a family-​owned and run business that makes everything fresh. Because of that it will sometimes be closed or run out of certain items. It’s worth it, though. The mozzarella cheese sticks are baked, not fried, and are the most delicious cheese sticks I’ve ever had! The meatballs and baked spaghetti are yummy, but I usually get the pizza. The toppings are portioned well. Ricky also makes some great desserts. I don’t even like coconut, but thoroughly enjoyed the coconut cake. They portion out a *huge* chunk of cake when you purchase, as well.
For the kids, they give them little gummy pizza treats once you check out.
Everyone is so friendly there – the Garaffa family. I hope they are around a long time.

We travel I-​95 between Richmond and Baltimore often and have been wanting to try this place for a while, based on previous reviews. Ours is going to be mixed.
On the plus side — It’s a pretty little place, very clean. The owner and his family are such nice people. He came to the table to ask how everything was and when he found out this was our first visit, he gave us a complementary meatball. As others have said, the meatballs are really tasty. Our side salads were super fresh as well.
On the minus side — the pizza tastes good. We’re fans of thin crust and this one was just right. Unfortunately, ours was a little over cooked for our taste, the cheese a little too browned. We also split a baked spaghetti. Given the choice, we chose the meat sauce over the marinara. It was underwhelming. Something tells me the marinara would have been better. There was, however, a decent amount of cheese baked on top. Truly disappointing was the dinner roll that came with it (no garlic bread??) that was obviously microwaved — yuck. Finally, there are only 2 choices of salad dressings, ranch and Italian.
I really wanted to love this place, instead it was just ‘meh. We probably won’t venture off the highway to this one again.

Garaffa’s is great pizza, and other food. The menu is small, but dont’ let that deter you because the food is awesome. Everything is made fresh, and to order. Their meatballs are fabulous, but so is everything else.

Best meatballs I’ve ever had! The pizza is excellent, with a nice chewy crust. Mr. Garaffa came out to our table to talk to us a couple of times and is clearly passionate about his food. His passion shows in every bite! Cannot recommend enough. Go here now!

I will start by saying I love the pizza. The pizza sauce is delicious and as recommended by another Unilocaler I asked for more in a cup on the side. We ordered a sicilian (my fiancé expected thicker crust, he is from NJ), however it was still very good. The menu lists as part of the pizza toppings, meatballs. However, when I was ordering the lady said we couldn’t get them on the pizza but we could order seperately. Can I tell you 4 meatballs the size of a ping pong ball cost $ 10? 2 for $ 5. They were very good and fresh but WAYYYY to overpriced.
This was the only complaint we had, the items for our area and the location are a bit too overpriced. I think the owner who is very nice by the way, may want to give this some consideration as I agree with some of the other reviews about price. We will come back but won’t get the meatballs if they are still $ 5 for two small meatballs.
Hope they do well, they have delicious food.

My boyfriend and I have been wanting to try this place for a while now, but kept getting there late and missing out. Well, it was worth the wait. We got the 16″ square pizza and it was so delicious! The sauce was probably the best part, it had a slight kick at the end. It was so good I asked for a little bowl on the side so I could add extra to my pizza.
The owner and his wife were both extremely friendly and passionate about their restaurant. He came out to greet us and welcomed us to his place, since we had never been there before he gave us a free meatball to try… And holy moly… It was good. He told us he cooks them for 12 hours and the sauce is his old family recipe.
I truly loved the how genuine the owner was when he told us he was happy we came. You can tell this man loves what he does, and it shows in his food.

Went on a Friday night and only saw a handful of people. Ordered the meatballs and a pizza. My son actually ate the meatballs. That’s a great sign. Pizza was great but overall a bit pricey. Owner was very friendly and visited the table often.

Stopped here after a long day at Kings Dominion based on other Unilocal reviews and were so happy we did. The pizza is excellent. The crust is flavorful and had just the right amount of chewy texture. Also liked the fresh tomato sauce. The owner and his staff couldn’t be nicer. Overall a great finish to a long day of riding roller coasters.

When I give 5 star reviews, it’s not often. To quote a fellow Unilocaler, 5 star reviews are earned, not given. To me, this place is getting five stars not all for food quality, but there are certain things about this place, and in one visit, a fellow customer will either overlook or fail to understand.
The menu is very simple. There’s maybe 12 items, and most of it is the pizza. I got a 16 inch round pie as they were out of the dough to make the smaller 13 inch one. Immediately, the owner, Ricky, got to work.
Ricky makes his pies the way some people would make something they are truly proud of. He’s got more pride and zeal for pizza that I have not seen in a long time. Everything on his menu is homemade with nothing frozen and all of it is fresh. He was also extremely friendly and was always trying to strike up something. Not to mention he was super confident in his own product that it almost sounded like he’d bet his own life for the sake of it. Confidence sells. And if the pizza tastes average, it’s the trick that makes people want to come back to get it again. When the pizza was finished baking, he put some garnishment on it, and boxed it up. Certainly was excited to eat this.
I’ll start, yes, the pizza is a solid ³⁄₅. Tastes a bit salty and the crust a bit thin. But he’s got something good. The sauce is not rich, the cheese layering is perfect, and not one bit of cheese stuck to the box. If he continues, he’s going to do just fine, and has already earned a fan in me. It’s hard to believe I wolfed down 6 of the 8 slices! Still, it’s unorthodox, but it works very well and is good, really good.
Ricky, keep up the amazing work. You have an amazing craft and I’ll keep «tasting the passion» as you said. I will most definitely be returning, but to show other people that there is a hope for pizza outside of New York City. Thank you!

Excellent pizza! The pizza was delicious, as well as the breadsticks and meatballs. The meat sauce is really, really good. Everything tasted fresh and the prices are reasonable. I highly recommend stopping by! The owners are incredibly hospitable as well.

We came here twice. First time was about a month ago on a Saturday during the dinner hour (around 5pm). And guess what? They were closed. Says they ran out of supplies and will open the next business day.
Based on the reviews, we decided we’d try again. Came here again this past Saturday. It was around 4:30pm and they were yet closed again due to «family emergency.» Yet again, they said they’d open the next business day. Does this happen quite often and are they serious about their business? Hubby thinks they will probably be out of business soon. Anyway, we were quite pissed because we drove 30 minutes both times and we were hungry. We’re not coming back because there are alternatives to some really amazing pizza in Fred.

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. First visit and beginning to end, food and service impressed. Mr. Garaffa greeted me with a joke as I entered (my brother was already there waiting). The spaghetti meat sauce is bangin’! Wonderfully seasoned, just enough spice. The sausage on the pizza was so flavorful, and the cheese was definitely real. Meatballs are 2 for $ 5… Want to know why? Just cut into one and you’ll see it before you even taste it. Our server Kari was pleasant and attentive. I REALLY enjoyed this visit.

I wanted to like the pizza more — I really did! As a New Yorker, I have incredibly high standards. My husband and I ordered 2 side salads (only dressings were ranch and Italian) and small for $ 3.95, water, and a 16″ square pizza for $ 15. As everyone has stated, there was very little selection on the menu because everything is made fresh — pizza, meatballs, breadsticks, and weekly pasta specials.
The reviews about the hospitality were exactly right. The owner came to greet us personally and thank us for coming. He asked my husband if he had tried the meatballs and when he said no, he got the waitress to bring us one on the house. He told us that everything was made fresh and that he had no freezers. His passion was apparent to us both as he explained that his recipe came here from Italy in the early 1900’s. He loved what he did, clearly! The place was clean, very nicely decorated and roomy.
But after all that, there was very little flavor to the pizza. Even my husband thought it was just ok. The crust was thin and crispy but that, too, lacked flavor. I was regretting telling the waitress beforehand that we didn’t need salt and pepper. The spices offered were grated parmesan, red pepper flakes, and oregano. I was really thinking a little garlic might have made a big difference but it wasn’t available.
I wish them all the best. The place was pretty full on a Friday night and I expect with all the new subdivisions going in, they will be very successful as a friendly family pizza place.

Good atmosphere. Great pizza! Owner is very hospitable. Speedy service! Fair prices. Except for the cheese sticks. But great overall! Cool wallpaper

I have driven past this place a number of times but they have always seemed to be closed ooor I have just eaten. Finally had a chance to stop in today after beating the traffic of course. Walked in and was greeted by who I am assuming was the owner and his family, they are very nice people and love what they do. I ordered a 16″ square pepperoni pie and I must say it was pretty damn good! At first bite I wasn’t fond of the crust but after a couple bites I came around. I was told its home made fresh everyday which is a plus and It has a crispy chewy texture that I like. Next time I go I will have to eat inhouse and order a few more toppings than just pepperoni!

Garaffas Pizza replaces Napoleta Pizza. Thank goodness. Napoleta Pizza was inedible.
By contrast, Garaffas Pizza is pretty good mid-​range pizza. The owner seems like he is really invested in making his new place work and he seems to care about his pizza a lot, which (as a pizza lover) I really respect.
Garaffas puts a lot of spice into the sauce and keeps the crust dry, which I enjoyed. Not everyone will like this, but it is a specific choice on the part of Garaffas for the kind of pizza they are offering the public. You have to respect a place that is brave enough to bring a specific vision of pizza to their restaurant rather than using bland cheese, crust, and sauce in order to produce safe, generic pizza that is unremarkable in every way.
The cheese is really tasteless and cheap, which is fair enough since Garaffas doesn’t overload the pizza with their cheese and the center piece of Garaffas’ pizza recipe is his pizza sauce anyway. The very strong flavoring of the sauce and dry crust may or may not be to your liking, but I think his recipe works well and is worth a try from everyone. For a handful of people this pizza will exactly fit your tastes and deserve 5-​stars from you. Objectively, I think this place deserves 3 to 4-​stars (which is pretty good). I’d give it 3.5 stars if I could; right now I can’t decide between 3 or 4-​stars since Unilocal doesn’t give me a 3.5-stars option.
This new place doesn’t have cold beer on tap like Napoleta, which is a shame. But often it takes a while for new places to get an alcohol license.
I wish Garaffas Pizza the best, but sadly I probably won’t eat here again. Family Pizzeria is about 10 minutes /​7 miles up the road in Stafford which unfortunately puts Fredericksburg’s Garaffas in near direct competition with Stafford’s Family Pizzeria. As run down as the inside of Family Pizzeria is, their pizza is as good as it gets for New York Style pies. I am more than happy to eat Garaffas pizza, but I’d drive an hour or more to get Famliy Pizzeria’s pizza.
Minor things —
Garaffas really should do some remodeling. When you walk into Garaffas it’s very unclear if you are suppose to seat yourself or be seated or order from the front or what. Same goes for the fountain drinks. The restaurant seemed to want the waitress to handle drink refills and yet the soda fountain faces the customers. This resulted in a few awkward interactions with the waitress. If I could give them advice, I’d stick a «Seat Yourself» sign at the door and figure out whether they want the waitress to refill drinks or if they want the customer to do so. I personally like to be in charge of my own drink refills, but that might lower how much people tip. I am sure in a month or two they will have everything sorted out.
One last thing, what is with the parking lot? How am I suppose to get into it? Drive to the road next to Garaffas and then cross double yellow lines to pull in? Isn’t that illegal? I don’t expect to get a ticket, but that strip mall’s entrance is terrible. I literally have no idea how to legally enter Garaffas parking lot.

Best pizza in Fredericksburg !!
Garaffas pizza is amazing. Everything is homemade and not froze, they don’t even make sandwiches because the don’t want the tastes to seep into the dough.
Owner is very friendly and has a passion for what he does. I absolutely will be regular.

BEST PIZZA in FREDERICKSBURG! We were hungry for a pizza, and saw that it was under new management, so we decided to stop in. The new owner has upgraded the inside of the restaurant. It is a family-​owned business and the owner is friendly and talkative. The pizzas contain homemade ingredients and you can tell these pizzas are not factory made. Growing up on Chicago pizza I can tell you these are how I remember pizza should taste. The owner even brought us homemade meatballs just so we could taste them, and these were excellent as well. My family and I will definitely be regulars here. Thank God we found this place!