Cugini's Pizza & Pasta

07/07/10

Good Food Horrible Service

by br23 at Citysearch

As a former employee I am making this review strictly on the basis of what i have encountered. I used to frequent Cugini's as much as possible food was great cooked to perfection, Growing up in Queens NY I could not ask for more. When I applied to work there i was hired with in one week, and saw another side of Cugini's, the cleanliness is far far beyond what it needs to be, for warning to EVERYONE, the cooks in the back and especially the pizza makers barely wear gloves or even wash there hands, yes the management can deny this as much as they want and i was at fault also the floor and walls are covered in grime and dirt, just take a peek around the corner by the register or when you walk by to use the bathroom, un covered meats for heroes roaches in bathrooms, ovens barely ever clenaed only QUICKLY scrapped out at the end of the Day. Both owners over price there food and it is far from fresh, if every customer could truely honestly spend one day as an employee this resturant would lose all of it's clients, it saddens me because the owners are good people and mean well but have ABSOLUTLEY no idea how to run a business, also why only give discounts to police and fire fighters when 75% percent of your customers are Military Kinda funny to exclude them when the keep Hampton Roads Running. Pizza is made right in front of you so pay attention people and notice the employees are bare handed using ther aprons to clean there hands ALL DAY LONG, dipping there bare hands in and out of every topping container while making everyones pizza then touching counter tops stuff in the back smoking a cigarette than coming back and making more pizza, it grossed me out beyond belief, they try to hard to make what they call NY Style Pizza and Italian food, one it is Virginia so yes it will be different but if your not from NYC and never cooked food for TRUE NY'ers then dont clain NY Style yeah good food but not NY.

• Pros: Semi NYC Feel
• Cons: Dirty Restruant

03/02/10

Great food and wonderful service!

by empathychik4u at Citysearch

The food and service here was wonderful. The past few times i've been here everything was fresh and tasted amazing. Everyone was friendly and real family like, they could maybe make the restaurant a little bit bigger I imagine it gets crowded quick haven't been there for that yet. But overall i give them an A+.

• Pros: Great food
• Cons: Weird way of checking out

07/21/09

Terrible service, good pizza

by hikerdad at Citysearch

This place has good pizza, maybe the best in town, but the service is terrible.

Problem #1: We ordered a two topping pizza, spinage and pepperoni and we had a coupon for a one topping large pizza for $9.99 so I was expecting to pay about $12.00 for an additional topping, I mentioned the coupon when I ordered, but when I went to pick it up they didn't honor the coupon because they consider a spinage pizza a specialty pizza which is fine, but they should have told me over the phone. They charged me close to $19 for the pizza which is rediculous in my opinion for a pizza. When I got home my wife and sister in-law refused to eat this pizza because it was not what they wanted, there was no tomato sause, the sauce was a ricotta cheese, which is not what we ordered or wanted, so my sister in-law called and was on hold for about 10 minutes after telling them about the problem. If you are going to charge this much for pizza they should have much better service. If I paid $6 for a pizza, I would expect bad service and be surprised if there is good service. If I pay $19 for a pizza I expect good service and am surprised if it is poor service. In this situation I was surprised at how poor this service is.

Problem #2: (This is a minor minor problem, but something I noticed) I noticed that they have a firemen and policemen discount of 10% so I asked about a military discount and they don't offer military a discount at all. To me it doesn't make sense that my brother can spend 1 year in Bosnia and 1 year in Iraq and earn a purple heart (he was shot in the knee) and he isn't considered for the discount. I do appreciate the discount for Police and Firefighters don't get me wrong, but if you are going to offer the discount it doesn't make sense not to offer it to the military. How would a Policemen feel if there is a discount for Firemen and Military but no Policemen. They go hand in hand in most cases, but not here. Maybe the owner has a problem with the military. My wife, brother and I all served in the military and I refuse to eat at an establishment that has a problem with the military.

This place is too expensive, for these prices I should feel welcomed and they do not make you feel welcomed at all!!

• Pros: Pretty Good Pizza
• Cons: High Prices for subpar service

05/20/09

Great Italian Food!

by Diane52 at Citysearch

This is one of those store front independent restaurants that one hopes is good. I can honestly say Cugini's surpasses all expectations.

The pizza has some of the best crust (not greasy) and sauce was some of the best I have ever had. The ravioli are plump and delicious. And the canoli are homemade and fabulous.

They also have other unique dishes that are amazingly delicious like the strips of lightly breaded eggplant rolled and filled with ricotta cheese. Our other favorites were the soft warm garlic bread knots. None of us had anything we didn't find delicious. I wish I could have wrapped them up and brought them back to Cincinnati because we sure don't have any thing here that compares with Cugini's! (Sorry LaRosa's)

Oh, and another big important thing for me were the bathrooms were very clean and the staff were friendly and efficient!

• Pros: The food was amazingly fresh and delious
• Cons: They are not in Cincinnati (where I am)

04/27/09

AWESOME NYC STYLE PIZZA

by metsfan722 at Citysearch

As a transplanted New Yorker, I finally found the pizza I grew up with. For anyone who loves REAL New York style pizza...this is the place for you. THANKS!

• Pros: The best tasting pizza in this area
• Cons: none