John’s of Times Square – Jersey City

Horrible service. No one comes to take your order, if by making some eye contact, you do manage to get some attention, your water and drinks will not arrive till you go up and ask for it. I go back to this place again and again, only because it’s a block from my house. When your food arrives, it’s usually someone else’s order and then you say, I didn’t ask for this and then they’ll take it back and not come back till you go up and ask for your food. Honestly I tip because I usually do, but service is the worst I have seen in this country. Understaffed and total lack of hospitality skills.

Overpriced with the obligatory arrogant waiter. $ 8.75 for a veggie salad, but who cares when the WAITER gives the CUSTOMER the third degree? I tipped him because I always do, but really, do I have to put up with the attitude?

There is a sign above the door that says this place is not associated with John’s of Bleecker Street. You can tell that by the pizza, too, which is horrible.
They are also bad neighbors, double parking their delivery car and blocking traffic and not picking up the abundant litter on their sidewalk. A pox.

great food!

My boyfriend and I were walking around Jersey City and stumbled upon this place in Paulus Hook. We were really hungry and didnt see much options nearby so we decided to give this place a try. We had a personal pizza as an app ($ 6.75), two drinks (~$ 2.75? Can’t recall but around $ 3. FYI, no free refills.), my boyfriend had the drunken wings and I had the spaghetti with meatballs. The total came up to be $ 42, with tips it was $ 50. For $ 25/​person I would say it was a decent meal. The pizza was good. Not the best personal pizza we’ve had but by all means not bad. The drunken wings were very interesting. They were not Buffalo wings or hot wings but has a very distinct taste. I would recommend getting it. The spaghetti and meatballs were also OK… I wasn’t a fan of the sauce, but between me and my boyfriend, we finished all we had ordered. The waitstaff can be very slow and inattentive at times but our orders came out in time and we never had to ask for anything, so it didn’t really bother us. I would say this place is a solid 3 stars. We enjoyed it, but was nothing special. May or may not come back here again if we are in the neighborhood. Not a place you would crave, but did serve up a decent meal. The prices were very fair as well.

This pizza is the best! We came to the restaurant by mistake, thinking we were going to another restaurant. The pizza was delicious, so delicious that we came home and order some for dinner the same day. We’ve placed several orders since we tried the pizza. It takes 45 mins, a little slow and hope it was faster but worth the wait. The reason of my 4 stars is because ate the restaurant, the server was extremely slow. We had to remind him twice that we needed a high chair, an extra plate for our child and remind him of an extra cup. Pizza wise, nothing can describe it…

Amazing cozy place… this was just a sudden drop in… loved the ambience… Good Hangout place with friends… loved their brick oven pizza… well cooked… and even their garlic breads… the cheese quality is very good

We came here to have some dinner before our paint nite upstairs and were very pleasantly surprised. We didn’t know much about John’s but knew we were starving and needed to put something in our stomaches before we drank and ATTEMPTED to paint. Hahah
So we started off with the garlic bread which was simple yet did the job. And I had the spinach ravioli with vodka sauce which was so good. The portion size for me was large, but thats always a good thing (always have leftovers)!
I do agree the service could have been better, our actually server was phenomenal but the host kind of just disregarded us.
But overall, we were happy with the food, definitely exceeded our expectations that evening.

Pizza is good, service sucks. Lunch crowd in this area on weekday should not come as a shock to mgt. long wait, no waiter or waitress, host took order only to get it wrong.
Staff up!

Want a pizzeria style atmosphere that is amped up with full bar (I use that loosely given ²⁄₅ taps were not fully functional)? This is your place!
Pros: Classic Italian food that is not that bad/​damn good!
Thin crust pizza! This is the saving grace of this place.
Great low key atmosphere!
Cons: the service and how the back end of the restaurant fails to a degree – we sat near the pizza station, and let me tell you, these guys work and are pumping out pizzas!
However, the bartenders and servers can’t seem to keep on top of organizing the orders so that apps and pizza don’t come out on top of each other or worse yet, in opposite order (happened in our case).
This place makes the majority of its income on delivery orders – that is very apparent given the pizzas are great!
However, should you venture out for a good pizza and beer in a low key atmosphere, this is your. place…
Final word – I would come again…

Guys. I am so disappointed by you tonight. First of all it took me to contact Unilocal and them to speak to you for you to even notice my order (*this was stated by the Unilocal EAT24 people. Then you guys finally turns up after 75 minutes (in fact over 85 minutes) from the original with lukewarm food, I query the delay and he shrugs his shoulders and says sorry but your busy. No discount and not even an offer to return the tip I made.
All in all, as we say in there UK, a P*ss poor service and it will be while before you get any orders from me again.
Very disappointed in you tonight.

Horrible experience !! They just turned the portion size. On a Friday night same dish is given half quantity of what you got on a Thu night. When I pointed out waiter said just give me a sec and reappeared in like 5 mins or much later and says Manager will come talk to you. Manager does not come for 10 – 15 mins. I get up go talk to him. He is not ready to talk then. Says I will come right over. Finally after waiting over 20 mins he come on the table. I explain the problem that the portion size is almost half of what we have had earlier and the so called Fettucini Alfredo did not have any kind of Alfredo sauce. He says this is the right portion and asks do u need more Pasta? Seriously man !! Where is the apology, service concept? Rude rude rude guy. I will never go back to this place …
Not worth giving a single star.

When we moved to Jersey City 8 years ago, John’s made absolutely perfect thin crust pizza.
Since then things have changed, and not for the better unfortunately. The ingredients are no longer the high quality they once were and the pizza is disappointing… actually it’s pretty terrible. I don’t know if ownership has changed or if they’re just trying to make their pies on the cheap but regardless, I recommend you order from another place.

This place is literally likely to be the death of me. The pizza here is so good. It tastes amazing.
The service has been pretty good. The only night it dropped was when the blizzard came so I think we can forgive them for that!

Unfortunately there is no 0 stars rating. Yes they make a decent Pizza. But their delivery time is ridiculous. And they are 2 streets away and it takes them 1.5 hour to deliver a cold pizza. So now warming it up in the oven it takes me almost 2 hours to have dinner… fail!

Anytime I can’t decide where I want to eat, I always come here. I know what to expect when I eat here– DELICIOUS FOOD. I’ve come here many many times. I’ve tried nearly everything on the menu. For the location of this place and the quality of the food, it is VERY reasonably priced. They recently changed the décor of the place and it is absolutely beautiful. Service has never seemed to be an issue for me as so many people have pointed out. This place gets very busy, so I can only imagine this alleged lack of service is due to how busy it gets. How terrible can a place really be if it gets that busy? Let’s use our brains people. ;)
This pizza is definitely one of my favorites. I usually get the Margherita Pizza or pepperoni and pineapples. The bacon vodka pizza is extremely delicious as well.
If I’m not in the mood for pizza I go for the chicken marsala. It’s one of the best chicken marsala dishes I ever had. It’s even better than my mother’s chicken marsala, and you know no one cooks better than mom.
I would definitely recommend this place to people who are visiting the area or if you want to take this new girl you’re interest in out on a date and you’re not afraid to burn a whole in your pocket. ;) It’s definitely worth it.

Delivery drivers need to learn some manners. Don’t double park and block a perfectly good parking spot.
Employees… When a customer complains about it… Don’t make up excuses! Don’t block parking spots for your own customers! RUDE!

If you enjoy your pizza slice barely having any sauce or flavor, then this place is for you. Very overrated.

I’ll start off by saying our waitress was great. Hands down the best service I’ve gotten in awhile. The hostess on the other hand was a little short with us. Not too friendly. We ordered the wings to start and the chicken Marsala pizza. We also ordered margaritas before dinner. The margaritas and chicken wings were good. As for the pizza I would say the crust was pretty good but the toppings were not. The chicken on the pizza was a little too dry. I would come back only to try their brunch pizza and because service was so good.

Came in for a drink with my sister. Bartenders were very pleasant and friendly. My sister couldn’t decide on a wine so the bartender let her sample a few. I had a beer. We ordered a personal size breakfast pizza to share. It was so good! Crispy thin crust, crunchy bacon and perfectly cooked eggs. It didn’t sound too appetizing on the menu but one bite and I couldn’t stop. This place had a relaxing vibe friendly staff. Nice experience.

Very good pizzas! Prefer to dine in than delivery as its not a regular pizza delivery. Highly recommended.

Le sigh. After traveling into Jersey City, I was pretty tired from the day’s travels and craving pizza, but didn’t feel like venturing back into the city for pizza after just having fought traffic (Mets playoff game) to get to my hotel.
The hotel recommended this place because it’s walkable, but it really wasn’t the NY style pizza I was craving. It reminded me more of Papa Murphy’s — or what you could get in pretty much any other place in the country. It wasn’t bad — it just didn’t hit the spot like I was hoping it would.

I’m leaving one star because there is no option to leave zero. We ordered at 8:25pm. Grub hub estimated that the food should arrive by 9:15– and given common sense that it’s Saturday and probably busy, we waited until 9:30 to call. First a woman told us that the orders were all already out on the way. When 9:45 we call again and are told by a man that the food was coming out of the oven. Uhm… Okay. 10:10 comes around– no food. And we decide to cancel the order.
This was the first and last time I give this place a try.

I will start by saying the service and delivery are some of the worst ive ever experienced in this area. I gave them multiple chances. The pizza is decent, as in nothing special. The places around grove street path are much better but a bit further.

I’m a little surprised that so many reviews for John’s hover only at the 3-​star mark. I realize everyone likes their pizza «their way,» and that the thin-​crust style of John’s may not appeal to everyone. But for this pizza snob, I think John’s is pretty darn good.
I love this particular location because it’s tucked away on a quiet little block in Paulus Hook — what I often consider to be Jersey City’s «Brooklyn.» And it’s never crowded, unlike its Bleecker Street sibling. I presume this is because they do a brisk delivery business, judging by the sheer number of pizzas going out the door. I’m not sure I would enjoy John’s pizza quite as much if I wasn’t eating it piping hot right out of the oven. Thin crust pizza tends to get cold and congeals pretty quickly.
As for the pizza itself, I think it’s delicious — especially the vodka pie. The crust is always thin and perfectly cooked, and their vodka sauce is one of the better ones I’ve had. Rarely would I utter this phrase, but when ordering the vodka pie, hold the bacon. It doesn’t need it. When it comes to pizza, simple is always better.
But don’t stop with the pizza. While I haven’t sampled too deeply into the menu, I recently tried the eggplant parm platter and it was wonderful. Thinly-​sliced and fried to perfection, and topped with just the right amount of cheese and marinara sauce. Unfortunately, we couldn’t eat the side of spaghetti aglio e olio that came with it because the garlic was still raw. That’s a real amateur mistake, but a forgivable one considering how good everything else was.
I also like John’s because they have a full bar and know how to make a proper Manhattan, and the drink prices are very reasonable. If you know me by now, no liquor-​serving establishment can earn 5 stars from me if they cannot make a proper Manhattan. (Yeah, I know. I’m a cocktail snob, too.)
One tip I will give you is to make sure you tell your server to space out your meal. I dined here recently with my wife and the kids, and everything — absolutely everything — came out at exactly the same time: apps, salad, pizza, entrees, drinks… everything. That really makes me crazy, especially when you’re the only people in the joint.
But despite some of the missteps, John’s is still a winner in my book. I always have an enjoyable meal here, kicking back with a few cocktails or glasses of wine, in a nice atmosphere, and with friendly service every time. It’s a worth a trip if you’re in the area and in the mood for pizza.

While the service was horrendous (as you’ll see in similar comments below mine), the pizza was the BEST pizza I have had in Jersey City. I ordered the original and ordered a side of garlic knots and I was BEYOND pleased. I’d highly recommend this restaurant if you’re craving some delicious pizza.
Best: Pizza
Worst: Service

This place is just a cut above your average pizza place. That’s why this place gets four stars.
I never understood what was the big deal about «New York Pizza» until I moved here. Almost anywhere else in the country, pizza is a vehicle for sauce, toppings and cheese. I learned how to enjoy a plain slice here on the east coast.
Now good pizza can be found in any major city in America, it’s just gourmet and costs an arm and a leg. Here, you can get good pizza even at sketchy-​looking places. A three star pie here, is a four star pie somewhere else.
Now back to the review, this place is a cut above your average pizza place. The pie is good, it has all the elements of a good pizza, a good balance of sauce and cheese, and good cheese at that. The crust is what give this place an extra star. Yes, it’s a brick oven pizza, so the crust has that «brick oven-​ness,» but there is something in the dough I just can’t place that is good and is distinctive to John’s. Salt? Better flour? I don’t know, but the crust here is just damn good.

Yo, they gotz deelish thin-​crust pizza? yup
Yo, they got alcohol? yup
Yo, it be nice décor up in that piece? yup
Yo, they got an affable waitress/​bartender? yup
Yo, it be packed? nope
Yo, you gonna hit it again?
YUUUPPP

Disclaimer: this is only a review of the salad (yes, I went to a pizza joint for a salad).
I ordered «John’s Salad» — grilled calamari, walnuts, tomatoes and red onions over mixed greens.
The salad itself did not wow me, but there was a generous amount of grilled calamari and walnuts — which was pleasantly surprising for the price ($ 12). The calamari was pretty decent — not chewy or greasy. It was a satisfying salad, but again, no «wow» factor.

I normally would not venture downtown for pizza given offerings that are closer to where I live near JSQ, but in this case, I was eating with a friend of mine who works in the area.
My expectations were fairly low due to other ho-​hum experiences I’ve had with pizza in the downtown area, but the pizza at John’s surprisingly satisfies. I shared a large pizza with my friend, and we ordered sausage, mushroom, and broccoli rabe for toppings.
I found the taste of the pizza and toppings to be above average, especially because I wasn’t left overly thirsty after the meal. Such is indicative of a higher quality sausage topping as opposed to one that is loaded with salt and/​or MSG.
Seeing the mixed reviews from other Unilocalers, I will post an update should my next experience at this establishment ends up tending towards the «miss» side of «hit or miss.»

Very well priced lunch specials between $ 7-​$ 10.
Loved the Bianca white pizza, a mix of mozzarella and ricotta — four large pieces, enough for lunch and dinner to go. Tried the vegetable soup, but wouldn’t recommend it. Felt like I was eating canned tomatoes warmed up. Will stick to the individual pizzas.