Fat Lorenzo’s

Hit and miss, mostly hits. Kids love the pasta. We usually love the pizza. Tonight, though, our pizza delivery (via Bite Squad) had a woefully undercooked crust. I know they were busy, but a crust that is partially «raw» is not what we want in a pizza. Called to share our concerns, but were cut off while on hold. Que sera, sera. Probably going elsewhere from now on… too many options to go back to a place that, given tonight’s circumstances, didn’t meet our expectations.

Service was the worst. We sat for over 30 minutes outside after alerting 2 staff people we were waiting for menus and a highchair. My husband finally went in and got 3 slices of pizza. The only consolation is the pizza was hot and decent. The service goes down as one of my top ten worst. We won’t be back.

I’m surprised with the reviews I see here. I tried pizza and the best way I can describe is lumps of partially cooked dough topped with tasteless excess tomatoes. It was so soggy with tomatoes you can’t pick a slice and eat. But you can take a spoonfull of pizza. However locals love this place. I don’t get it. My head is still spinning.

There is nothing of interest on the menu at this noisy hole in the wall. This is just boring Minnesota food I could barely eat. The locals love it, but Minnesota is not adventerous or sophisticated. This dive is not handicapped accessible either?

after getting delivery from here for years, I finally went inside to get it to go. Cute little place! We were getting Gelato and the guy who helped us was so helpful and friendly! He was so nice and happily let us sample pretty much all of them! He even had the great idea of combining 2 flavors in 1 container, and we did just that! Lemon and strawberry.
We also got slices of pizza and omg they were huge!!! Super delicious and super filling!
Great place!

Wasn’t impressed at all. My husband and I came here on a Saturday afternoon, the wait was only about 10 minutes. Once seated we ordered the spinach artichoke dip which was waaaaaaay too cheesy and just not good. The pizza had so much dough and it just made it heavy and for the first time in my life I didn’t finish a slice of pizza. I’m just glad my husband ate the leftovers. I’ve had pizza from here in the past and loved it, sucks I couldn’t have the same experience as before.

I think the Pizza is fantastic and so is the Fat’s Special.
Service is another story. I’ve gone there for years and just gave up because of the consistently horrible service. It’s so bad it doesn’t make up for the great food.
Slow service, wrong order, having to ask the waiter over and over for something, having to go flag someone down, waiting for ever for the check, etc…
I went there recently, it’s been over 5 years since my last visit, and ended up with the same guy working there and guess what, same problems all over. Will never go back!

Best pie in town, hands down. Nobody does it better. I live in the west suburbs and drive in atleast once a month for a Fat’s. If we’re on a job within 10 miles, we’ll take an extended lunch break to get Lorenzo’s.
LOVE THIS PLACE!
Don’t forget to get some gelato on the way out!

Pretty basic as far as Pizza goes in the Twin Cities. It’s not bad but it’s not great either. If you love a pie that is over topped then this place is for you. All the toppings really over took the wimpy crust for me. More of a knife and fork slice i appreciate one you lift and shovel in your mouth. Sweet sauce if that matters. .too sweet for me.

Overrated. It is just very average. I even went back a few times trying to like it more. My waitress was slow and didn’t seem to care. (She was in here phone most the time). The cooks were cool and helpful
It’s okay.

Hidden gem with a great family feel. Prices are affordable and dishes are enormous. Our server Steven was excellent. Our apps and entrees came out ridiculously fast. We’ll definitely be back!

This is my new favorite Italian place. The building is small but cool with murals and paintings all over. But the food is the best part — you really get the most bang for your buck here. While it may not be the very best Italian food I’ve had, the portions are more than generous and the prices are incredibly cheap! My sister paid less than $ 10 for half of the appetizer, a giant piece of pizza, and a heaping cup of gelato! I had baked ziti and it was great — especially the bread they serve on the side (to die for)! I will definitely be back to Fat Lorenzo’s multiple times!

Really torn about this place. The gelato is unbelievable and the steak sandwiches are among the best I’ve ever had. The pizza is good too, but I’ve rarely gotten it because I love the O Mio Dio sandwich so much.
The only reason this isn’t a 5-​star rating is because the service has been consistently terrible every time I’ve dined in. There’s only one (small) dining room, so I have no idea where the servers are going, but wherever it is, they seem to disappear there whenever someone needs a refill. I thought I’d get around this by ordering take-​out, but they said to pick it up 40 minutes later and when I got there still hadn’t finished making the sandwich. Great food, just not sure how to get to it.

Once upon a time there was an amazing restaurant off of Central Avenue called Totinos. They made the mistake of trying to move to the suburbs, lasted a short while, and then folded. Totinos had the best sauce around, generous portions, fresh bread, and very good pizza. Since then I’ve tried to find something that could compare.
Fat Lorenzo’s isn’t Totino’s, but it’s pretty darn close.
A great Italian menu with lots of options, the spaghetti with meatballs was fantastic. The pizza was good — not the best I’ve had but very good, and very large too. This isn’t the kind of place where you go for presentation or for odd ball dishes that you can’t pronounce but make the chef feel impressed with himself. Easily right now one of the best Italian restaurants around.
The only negatives were lines; I don’t think they take reservations and it can be a tad noisy. Parking is also a challenge with no real lot to park in. But the food makes up for it.

Food: 1 star
Service: 3 stars
We were visiting the area and checked this place out as it was highly recommended by a local resident. First off, the location is pretty bad. It’s on the corner of an extremely busy intersection and with limited street parking, we had to park a ways down the street in the residential neighborhood and nearly got run over by a lady who clearly doesn’t stop for pedestrians that are safely crossing. The outdoor tables are first come first serve and we waited nearly 20 minutes waiting for an inside table before an employee informed us of this very key info. After getting our table (outside) a very friendly server stopped by and took our drink orders. (She was the only reason for the 3 stars). The service was great and she checked back on us quite often throughout our meal and refilled drinks.
Now onto the food… the local guy who recommended the place told us that we should skip the pizza and try one of their pasta dishes as they serve «authentic homemade» Italian food. So we took his advice and all ordered various pasta dishes and an app to share. The very generous spinach and artichoke appetizer was good and filled us up before our pasta came out. Thank goodness. I can’t speak for everyone else, but my lasagna was the strangest lasagna I’ve ever had. It was straight AWFUL and not at all «authentic». The lasagna consisted of pretty much some marinara with a large amount of various sliced Italian deli meats, layered in soggy pasta with some bell peppers and mushrooms shoved-​in, covered in melted mozzarella cheese. I cut right into the center for a bite and it was COLD as if it had been improperly reheated or maybe even microwaved??? Silently repulsed, I decided to instead eat the rest of the appetizer as my meal and not make a big deal out of it to not ruin everyone else’s meal.
As we sat there outside trying to enjoy our meals we found it quite difficult to have dinner conversation. It was drowned out by the sound of non-​stop traffic driving by. This is a VERY busy intersection! And I’m not so sure about the Minnesota laws regarding smoking but there was a fellow customer who felt the need to enjoy his cigarette upwind from our table as we ate which added to my frustrations. As the sun went down I could see inside the windows and noticed the kitchen staff preparing the food, when it all made sense… MICROWAVES!!! I saw it with my own eyes, they «cook» their pasta dishes in the microwave! What «authentic» restaurant would ever do such a thing?!? I’m sure it’s to help speed up the process, but pasta dishes should be made and served fresh to be called «authentic». The food looked and tasted like a TV dinner. With dinner a done deal, I looked forward to trying their homemade gelato which they also serve by the scoop inside. I popped inside to take a look at the gelato flavors in the freezer case and was grossed out when I saw the ice cream scoops (handles and all) inside the vats of gelato… yuck. Needless to say, I passed on dessert.
Overall, I would never go back to this restaurant again. The sad part is I always prefer a family run type of restaurant over a chain restaurant which there are plenty of being near the Mall of America. But this place was as «authentic» as your local Olive Garden, who probably doesn’t microwave their food.
I am disappointed and confused because all of their great Unilocal reviews. I hate to leave a bad review on a small owned place like this one, but the truth must be told.

Food– 5 stars
Service-​2 stars
Food was delicious, but service was terrible. Our party was split because of its size, which was fine, but half finished eating before the others got their food. After paying, I was shorted $ 3 in change. If you have a large party, I would recommend calling for delivery.

When I first walked in the door, I was a little confused on the seating situation. It was a cute and very small restaurant so they didn’t have a host. Instead they had a chalk board that said write your name here. It wasn’t very busy, we went mid afternoon so we just asked a server if we could sit down and he said yes.
My friend and I split the dinner salad. It was good, just your basic dinner salad with olives. I really liked that our server completely split the salad for us, putting it in individual bowls. We then split a small Alfrenzo pizza. I was just not impressed with the pizza. I think it had to do with the crust because it was very bland and dry. I have a weird thing with biscuits and baking soda/​powder and to me it seemed like there was too much in the crust.
A tip I would have is go in a small group or even a pair. The seating is very in small and not good for big groups. I’d also try the gelato. I saw it as I was leaving and I was bummed I didn’t order any.

Upon entering I loved the paintings all over the walls and ceilings! Felt like a fun, local spot. The seating area is pretty small but we were seated right away, which was great! Split a garden salad and an Alfrenzo small pizza. The waiter was very friendly and even split up our salad into two bowls so we didn’t have to bother doing that ourselves and gave us each our own preferred dressing.
The pizza looked amazing but was kind of a let down for me. The Alfrenzo had alfredo sauce, chicken, artichokes, roasted red peppers, spinach, ricotta, mozzarella and provolone. All the toppings were great but the crust was very doughy. Maybe these toppings would be better on a flatbread rather than a think, doughy crust so it could be more crunchy rather than soggy-​ish. The table next to us ordered a pepperoni pizza and it looked amazing so I may come back for that but I wouldn’t get the Alfrenzo again.
Didn’t try the gelato but would love to stop by some nice summer day to grab and walk around the lake!

I stumbled across Fat Lorenzo’s while driving to another spot for brunch. Needless to say, said spot had a ridiculous wait for a table. I loved that the seating area was smaller, it had a cozy feel to it! the service was awesome, and they were quick with everything.
My boyfriend and I had the artichoke dip for an appetizer that was hands down the best either of us have ever had! We split the Paolo’s alfredo and picante grassi. The alfredo was flavorful and the ingredients were fresh and delicious. The picante pasta had just the right amount of spice to it and the giardiniera peppers (which are something I eat regularly) I’d never seen in pasta and were delicious!
If we hadn’t been stuffed, we would’ve had some gelato too! For the HUGE portion sizes the prices weren’t outrageous, we will definitely be making this a regular spot for date nights and fun with friends!

Not a great ambience it’s quite shacky and outdoor sitting is on the road side basically but nice pizzas and salads. Great to stop for gelato too. Nice to be if in the area.