Pino’s Pizza Al Centro

This Italian restaurant is located very near my company’s headquarters and the hotel I stay in when I visit here. I have eaten here many times during the last ten years. During that time, I have always enjoyed every meal. Open for lunch and early dinners the pastas, pizzas and other menu items are always good. The lunch crowd is usually larger than for dinner only because of the surrounding commercial area. Counter service only. Parking is somewhat limited.

Sorry, guys. Pizza was solid in terms of dough/​crust quality. Other than that, super super greasy (actually needed to do the paper towel dab move to get the grease pools off), lousy and sparse sauce, and just plain overpriced. $ 20 for a takeout large pizza in central Phoenix (cheese with a smattering of greasy pepperoni) is just way too much. Management clearly is in the nickel and diming business. I dined in once and the bread basket was $ 5 and olive oil (2 ounces as it was advertised) was $ 3. Wow, guys, charging for the olive oil? Must be good. Also, hairs in my pizza. Also, any place that looks as though they are purposefully hiding menu prices (no prices on menu thru Unilocal,no website with menu and prices) in my experience is usually over priced. Don’t have a better place to point you guys to other than Pomo which is on the higher end of the scale in price and quality. Basic takeout pizza options in Phoenix still suck! Back to fired pie. At least the product is worth the price there.

Nasty person At the counter it was 815 was told sorry kitchen closed why say you’re open until 9pm

I only go here for lunch. The food is always decent — but the prices are pretty high and the portions are too big. It would be nice if they had more lunch appropriate dishes/​prices.

I love the food here. They have great pizza and even better salads.
My favorite things on their menu are the panzanella salad and the deep dish pizza. The panzanella is one of my favorites salads in town. However, you can’t go wrong with anything!
They also deliver, which is awesome!

I see that I am not alone in noticing that Pino’s is going downhill. I’ve lived right around the corner for the last 8 years, and this place has been a staple that whole time.
I was in here last night (Saturday) and there was one other table, and it was immediatly clear that Pino was not working. The male employees were acting sketchy (details upon request), there was hispanic music blaring from the kitchen, the food was sub-​par, and we got nickel-​and-​dimed for items that are supposed to come with our food.
When done right, the food here is to die for, but until then, ciao Pino.

Pinos is straight up authentic Italian Pizza in the middle of midtown Phoenix. The cozy atmosphere forces you to put your phone down and have a conversation with your party.
The food is fantastic! About anyone can make a pepperoni pizza, but not many can make this simple dish taste as good as Pino’s.
Sitdown, have a slice and enjoy! Welcome to midtown.

I finally tried Pinos, it’s right next to my office and looked a little run down from the outside, but I’m glad I tried this place! I’m from the east coast and I have always searched for good east cost tasting pizza. It’s all about the crust and Pinos crust is thin, chewy and charred. It’s wonderful! And the Marianna is to die for. So far, I have tried their pizza and their calzones, both excellent. However if you get pepperoni and sausage, it’s a little greasy, but it’s pepperoni and sausage, so what do you expect. Thanks, Pinos for giving me a reason to go into the office :)

I wish we could say that we’ve eaten more of the delicious sounding menu items. but we’ve only had the pizza! It is so amazing. It’s what I always want when I think of pizza: thin, delicious, crust and GREAT toppings! The real pepperoni cooks up into little crispy-​edged cups of amazing! Pino is usually there, cooking away in the kitchen, but he remembers us and always comments about «not seeing us in a while» or how we «came all this way for pizza!» Because we don’t really live close to the downtown area /​: Still, we really love this style of pizza and we love buying a loaf of homemade bread before we head home!

absolutely awful service. Eaten here for 20 years and cannot believe they can’t get a simple pizza order right. Sat there waiting for ONE hour for the pizza, took it home and open the box and got a vegetarian pizza (I ordered the meat lovers). Tried to reach them on the phone, waited 5 minutes, got hung up on called back and finally got the rude cashier who took my order. No apologies, nothing. Just Oh there must of been a mix up in the kitchen!
Drove back over there and she pushed the money in my hand (DIDN’T GET MY TIP BACK THOUGH!) and again uttered excuses about the kitchen making a mistake. Never will go back. this is the SECOND time they haven’t been able to produce a correct order. My time is valuable and I wasted 1.5 hours waiting on a pizza for nothing. Very disappointed in the service and ATTITUDE of the cashier.

Plz open more locations, specifically by my house. Thank you.
Pepperoni curls up
Tangy sauce
Thin crust
Good cheese
Kalmata olives 4 lyfe
Delish bread
Delivery available before 2pm
Use the postmates app for delivery after 2pm like we did and fall in love with your life

Really sad to have to downgrade my rating of Pino’s. I have been a regular at this restaurant for over a decade, but have decided it’s time to say goodbye. Pino is the most gentle, hospitable owner. But that hospitality has been overshadowed by the greedy, inhospitable attitude of whom I shall only refer to as The Dragon Lady. I am not referring to any of the employees, so you will have to deduce who I am describing.
One employee, a delightful server who really made the dining experience so enjoyable; a consummate, old-​school professional, resigned this past week.
His reason… the infighting had become so unbearable that it not only effected the experience of the patrons, but made the working environment unbearable.
Pino is the true professional here, and it is so sad to see his hard work thrown out the window by the most hateful attitude of The Dragon Lady.
So sad…

Best pizza in town! This place uses only the best ingredients and it shows. And it may come as a surprise, but this place has the best salmon I’ve had in Phoenix! Seared, and in a lemon caper white wine sauce. Amazing. This is really a full Italian menu restaurant and much, much more than just a pizza place. But the pizza is incredible! Better than Pizzeria Bianco in my opinion!

Never Again.
I have Been an advocate and a customer of this Place for nearly 20 Years.
Today some Uneducated Lippy Rude 16 year old girl. Put me over the edge.
Customer service and the Quality of there overpriced food has been lacking for a while now. But this took the cake.
I tried ordering $ 30 Worth of sandwiches. She seemed bored with my order…
I asked if she could put mayo on my Turkey sub. She said «NO» Unless you want to pay extra… HAHAHA What the Fu#*…They tried charging me for Mayo.
My business apparently isnt worth the Penny it costs to Put mayo on My sandwich.
She said If you want me to waive the $ 1.00 for Mayo… Ill have to call the Owner!!!
I Kindly said… I have been coming here for 20 Years. You are really charging me for Mayo?
She said YES. I said .No worries… I am never coming back.
She said «Good …Dont»…I dont care if you come back…
I will never Advocate or Return To this place.
You guys suck.
MAYO COSTS 1 Penny…
The cost of Having Customers Return… PRICELESS.
You are loosing Customers you idiots.

We visited last night after many years of not being there-​big mistake the service was atrocious and food was just as bad. We got the Bruschetta to start as an appetizer that we decided to send back because of the awful taste. We ordered a Margherita Pizza and a Penne Primavera Pasta. To say the least, My husband and friend got sick from the pizza right after eating. The pizza was extra greasy. Puddles of grease formed in the bowled shaped pepperoni. My pasta was hard, greasy and soaked in sauce-​not tasty.
The highlight of the night was when it came time to pay –they had included a charge for the appetizer that I had sent back and no longer was at our table. When I asked the Waiter about the charge of the appetizer, the waiter answered verbatim, «of course I charged you for the appetizer, otherwise people would come here all the time order, send it back and not expect to pay for anything,» he was very loud and angry. So there you have it –horrible service and food!

The best thing to happen in my mouth!
I ordered the Pinos Blanca and it was amazing. There was probably a 15-​minute wait but it was worth it since their dishes are fresh, hot, and made-​to-​order and I promise you that your tongue will notice the freshness. My friends, who are regular customers, ordered the Carnivori and a calzone. They devoured it. They visit this place about every week.
The decorations are well done. Very similar to restaurants I have been to in Europe.
I cannot wait to return and try their other dishes!
Also, it is awesome to find a restaurant that appreciates military customers.

Having a class at Phoenix College from 1 to 2 works out pretty well for the fat girl trapped inside of my skinny body. I’m on a mission to try new places everyday after class since it’s near central Phoenix. Anywayyyy, I have passed by this place a bunch of times and I finally decided to look it up on Unilocal… it had such good reviews on Unilocal!I was so excited to try it!
After class, I drive my happy ass down there and I walk in and thought it was closed… I was going to get my order to go but I had time to kill so I decided to have it there. I went with the margherita pizza.
So there were cons with my experience but the one that took the cake was this: a lady (I presume it was the owners wife) and some guy were sitting there having some sort of meeting about getting new wines… this lady looked like she had done meth for too long and botched plastic surgery; what a bitch she was. She was talking down to the girl in front, she was discussing the fact that she wanted to fly to Texas and beat her kids ass (how pleasant. At that moment I wanted to beat her ass). Then she starts talking about how DUMB college graduates are these days… umm…hello! College graduate here! Then she makes eye contact with me and asks me what I ordered. So weird. The guy sitting there was nice though. I felt bad for having to deal with her. The owner was there… he didn’t say hi to me. He didn’t ask how the pizza was, he didn’t do anything. Maybe I’m spoiled but owners usually love me… especially Italian ones.
Onto the pizza. It was good. It wasn’t anything spectacular. I’ve had better. I wouldn’t ever go out of my way to go there. Actually I wouldn’t even go there if I ran into the place. So disappointing!

Great pizza! Crust is airy and crisp… Oh, so tasty! Seem to use high quality ingredients. This is hands-​down my favorite pizza in Phoenix. I always seem to crave Pino’s on Sundays, so I find myself frustrated that they are closed.
Dear Pino’s,
We know you need a day to yourself, but please, please, PLEASE… stay open on Sundays!

I don’t enjoy writing negative reviews. In a lot of cases bad service is redeemable, what isn’t is a rude, arrogant owner that doesn’t value their customers enough to handle their complaints with maturity.
My husband and I have patronized this restaurant several times, usually the pizza is decent. That wasn’t the case tonight. Instead what we received was pie that would bring any seasoned pizza-​lover to tears. The entire center was a soupy, congealed mess that was completely inedible. We chalked it up to a one-​time mistake and figured we could just call them up and make it right.
Called Pino’s and asked the polite, young cashier if I could speak to a manager, to which she hesitantly replied, «Um, well, my boss isn’t here, but I can take a message.» I declined, and instead explained the situation to her and asked for a refund. She then informs me that her boss IS there, in fact, he’s the one that made it. She asks me to hold while she tells him. She comes back on the phone and nervously says, «He says that the pizza is perfect and that if you want to bring the pizza back for a refund that’s fine, because if he makes you another one it’s going to be the same.»
I felt so bad for this girl, she sounded so uncomfortable. Truthfully I found it pretty pathetic that he had her say it for him. And considering my husband only made it about half a slice in before declaring that it tasted as bad as it looked, I told her he’d be glad to bring it back for the refund.
When he got there, she nicely handled the transaction, and then Pino made his way to the front, opened it, barely looked at it, and then condescendingly said «That’s the way it’s made, if you don’t like that style, no problem», and turned his back to my husband and just walked away. Cool, man. You seem like a really reasonable person.
Maybe Pino and Sammy from Amy’s Baking Company are long lost relatives? Needless to say we wont give this place our business again.

This was by far the greasiest pizza I’ve ever come across in my life. The grease is literally pooled onto the slices of pizza.
Given that this restaurant has a four star rating I would assume the other food is pretty good, but I will not be returning to find out.
Not recommended for anyone that is into Midwestern pizza.