Italian Connection

I have a long and complicated relationship with Italian Connection, which, like one of the other reviewers, has now come to an end. I, for my part, have no regrets.
My wife grew up in Edinburgh and has ordered pizza from Italian Connection for years. I moved here in 2009 and after trying a few places, we settled on Italian Connection as our regular pizza delivery place because their pizzas were good, with interesting toppings and plenty of them. The drawback with them was that they have always taken an incredibly long time to deliver. Our first flat, when we moved here, was approximately ten minutes’ walk away from Italian Connection. (Our current flat is maybe 15 minutes’ walk away.) Despite this, they would routinely take an hour or more to deliver a pizza. We got used to ordering from them long before we were actually hungry.
You may ask why we didn’t order for pickup, rather than delivery. The fact is, they offered delivery, and as the parents of young kids it wasn’t always convenient or even possible for us to pick up the pizzas. On the one occasion I did order for pickup, I was told to come in 20 minutes after placing the order. I did so. On arriving, I waited another 25 minutes before my pizzas were ready.
I say all this to show that I’m not some ignorant curmudgeon who just thinks that restaurants and takeaways should be able to deliver exactly what you want, instantly. I am able to make pizza. It takes hours; you have to wait for the dough to rise and you have to make the sauce, etc. etc. But I also know that unlike me in my kitchen, a proper pizza restaurant has already done all those things, and that with a proper pizza oven, it only takes about 5 – 10 minutes to actually cook a pizza. I recognise that takeaways have delivery systems and queues that can delay delivery. I also know that my favourite Chinese takeaway can deliver me an order of six different dishes within 30 minutes, whereas it can take Italian Connection, which is closer to where I live than the Chinese takeaway, an hour or more to deliver two simple pizzas.
The other night, I ordered a pizza for myself and was told it would take between 45 minutes and hour to be delivered. I’m used to that with them, so I waited. It finally arrived 90 minutes later, and was brutally overcooked to the point of being barely edible (the crust was biscuit-​like and the cheese was dark brown all over.) In spite of that, tonight my wife and I ordered two pizzas at 8.22pm. I told them, on ordering, that the last time I’d ordered my pizza had been way overcooked, and had taken a very long time to arrive. I was told that they had a new manager, and was promised that this time, it would be done just right and would arrive promptly.
At 9.45pm, I rang to ask where my pizza was. I overheard the phone operator asking where my pizza was and being told ‘Two minutes!’ I was then told it would be there in two minutes.
At 10pm, I rang to ask where my pizza was. I was told it was on its way. Five minutes later, it arrived. It was clearly freshly cooked. The delivery guy asked how I was. I said ‘Hungry.’ He said ‘What about me? I haven’t eaten anything all day.’ I did not point out to him that that was not my problem.
The pizzas had barely any topping on them, certainly not as much as they used to have. I can only assume that Italian Connection deferred cooking my pizzas, for some reason, and then decided to punish me for complaining about them by putting the bare minimum of topping on them.
Italian Connection claims to have a new manager. All I can say is, they may have hired someone new, but whoever he or she is, he or she is not a manager. I will never order from them again.

We had a great experience here with a delivery to cure yet another seasonal hangover. We went for a veg pizza, a few sides and some juice. Standard prices for such items and delivery was quick.
The pizza we received was piping hot and looked the part. Everyone enjoyed what they had and for a take away this was a good effort. The sides were better than your average pizza place. All in it wasn’t our culinary highlight of the Christmas period, but for what it is, it was great. Thumbs up from me and I will definitely be back.

again as other reviews very disappointing. It doesn’t look great from the outside but i thought i would give it a go with my son who fancied a burger. The food isn’t the worst i’ve tasted but the staff are so slap dash they’re not really geared up for people sitting in. They seem to focus on take away’s and seemed to have alot of delivery orders but still we had to wait 10 minutes to get some cutlery. I don’t think we will be going back!

Right, so me and Italian Connection have had an interesting relationship, which I regretfully announce has come to an end.
My friend loves take out. Like more than any single man should. Placing the order for pasta I was charged with the task of picking it up. 20 minute wait.
Right, this is where I get pissed off. 45 minute wait. Which would have bothered me less if I hadn’t actually watched them put my pizza in the oven. When I complained about this, there was little apology other than «we’re very busy». Really? Its a week day, and there were only 2 other customers in the shop.
The food isn’t bad, just the staff. I shall never, eat here again.

Could this be the best garlic bread in Edinburgh? Great takeaway, does good pizza, and pasta — particularly good penne boscaiola. Not really a restaurant, although there are tables to sit in, you’re between the counter and the front door, which if fine if you’re passing and want something nice for your tea, but not somewhere I’d go for an evening.

Very nice indeed, bursting with flavour!

I was pretty disappointed with my meal at Italian Connection. Located in the centre of the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh, Italian Connection should be the Italian place that every student living in the area goes to for their lunch or dinner, but it is rather disappointing. The place does not look much from the outside, and the food is not up to much either.
Italian Connection primarily sells pizza’s, which are very well priced as they are a decent size and most of them cost under £5, depending on what toppings you choose and a ten inch Margarita costs £3.50. I ordered a pizza with green peppers, onions and olives and although the topping of the pizza was tasty with lots of cheese, the base was really hard and pretty burnt. I have not returned to the Italian Connection since, but every time I walk by in the evenings it is always fairly busy inside which I am quite surprised about, but perhaps by burnt base was a one-​off.
Italian Connection’s pizza’s are for takeaways and they also do home delivery’s within a 2 – 3 mile radius of the shop which is handy if you live further away from the place and don’t want to walk.

I only went to Italian Connection once and I’ll probably never go back. Judging by the fact that it has ‘Italian’ in its name, I was expecting authentic pasta dises and speciality pizzas, but as far as I could see, it was just an average takeaway which did a bit of pasta on the side.
It mostly sells pizzas which, to be fair, are quite cheap at about £4−5 each, but I wouldn’t have even said that they were worth that. I ordered a pepperoni with pineapple which actually looked pretty good when they handed it to me. Despite this, the whole thing just tasted dry and tough and the cheese was obviously just standard processed stuff.
In its favour, however, the service is quick and friendly and seem to zap the (surprisingly) large queues pretty quickly. As I said, I’m not really a fan but plenty of people seem to be so give it a try and see what you think.

The only connection they have is to the Italian Section in Asda. This place is disappointing…
But that doesn’t stop hundreds of people visiting every time I pass, I’ve never seen the place empty. I don’t know whats doing on. For me, I’m with Sam, the pizza tastes very manufactured, it’s got no heart (which is strange as hell to say)
I’m giving this a 3 star, because I realise this a popular place. Might not be for me.

You can usually identify the quality of a Pizza by its tomato base. The Italian Connection (of which I’m sure food passionate Italians would insist there isn’t) slaps its sugary, mass produced, artificial tomato base on all its pizzas. This ultimately taints all the pizzas they serve.
Saying that, the pizzas are cheap and I often see people inside on a regular basis. Let me know if I’m missing something.