HotBox Pizza

This is the best pizza place ever! It has a great atmosphere and amazing food. My favorite is their breadsticks. They’re seasoned perfectly and amazing hot cheese to dip it in. They are pretty fast with making their pizza and making sure it’s delivered out quickly with plates and napkins. They treat everyone like they’re friends or family. I always tell my friends to come here. Also kudos to them for dealing with drunks. Boiler up!!!

Great pizza, but they are pretty limited on delivery and the prices are a little high. The tip is go online and check out their pie of the week, you’ll get that pie in any size half off. Great way to get a specialty pizza for half the price. It will always hold a special place in my heart because this is the first place I had pizza in the Lafayette area. Ps, they’re open late.

Introduced to this place by my colleagues. Enjoyed the pizza dough and breadsticks. Visited recently on my own without the distraction of dining partners. While waiting, observed food handling practices that were not appropriate. Young lady with blue-​green hair ran fingers all through hair while making breadsticks. Another young lady packaged baked breadsticks with no gloves after opening boxes and handling other non-​food items. These were the two errors I could see. Who knows what happens outside of eyesight. When I canceled my order, I politely noted the food handling practices. When she thought I was gone, the young lady helping to expedite orders snarkily explained why I canceled my order to the cook as if I were in the wrong. The issues I brought up could be easily resolved with use of gloves or tongs and retraining of staff. Remember, a restaurant is not your personal kitchen. Given the public health stakes, restaurant staff must engage in more vigilant food preparation and handling practices, or you will represent a different type of hotbox… one of germs and contamination.

Breadstick! And garlic sauce! Not much choice for salad.

We ordered delivery from this place and it came very promptly. I can’t say I was that impressed with the pizza itself. It wasn’t terrible but it was nothing special. I had the alfredo sauce with broccoli, mozzarella and chicken. The ingredients, especially the sauce, were pretty bland and flavorless. I also didn’t think much of the famous breadsticks, which just tasted like bread sprinkled with garlic and had none of the buttery taste I associate with a breadstick. It is also quite pricey, especially for the area, I think. However, I also ordered a dessert pizza (basically a brownie baked into a pizza shape) and it was amaaaazing. Warm and melty with a very rich dark chocolate flavor. I would go back for that pizzabrownie alone.

If Marco’s was still in town I’d probably take an extra star off. Ultimately this is good pizza, but inconsistent. I’ve had it 4 – 5 times and they’ve always been 5 – 10 minutes past their estimated pick-​up time, most recently they were 30 minutes late – and did I mention I always place my order right when they open or a little before! The most recent wait time was 40 minutes past the est time and it was infuriating as I got their about 5 – 7 minutes late, paid, and then looked over and could see my 2 small pizzas sitting on the toppings counter all prepared but not in the oven. I watched for 20 minutes as the guy stretched dough, sauced and topped at least 10 pizzas and put each one in the oven after he finished while mine sat on the counter. Ultimately those pizzas went out for delivery :(I really don’t understand the rationale of that order as there was definitely room and time to put my 2 little ones in while he was making the others – especially when I noticed they didn’t even have boxes out for that order yet (they line a shelf with the upcoming orders’ receipt attached to boxes). Also, sometimes I’ll get a lot of toppings and others it’s very very sparse – especially the meat. This restaurant, while friendly, suffers from hippie service: they’re always busy and the employees don’t get in a hurry.
But, even with all these delays and inconsistencies, at this point they’re the best game in town. I find Dominos & Pizza Hut very greasy and poor sauce and cheese. Papa Johns acts like there’s a cheese shortage in the USA in every location, and their meat toppings can be greasy and taste bad (their pepperoni has a gasoline-​like taste). I’ve had all 3 crust types from Hot Box and they’re all great, with the skinny being a true flatbread like crust – crisp at the edges and stiff, but not cracker-​like. Their regular crust can rise too much in the oven, the hippie wheat is quite good. I really like the Popeye and Hot Chic, even though I’m usually a cheese or pepperoni person and a former New Yorker who is still grieving the loss of that unique pizza style.
Be warned, the small is big enough for 2 people or 2 meals and they don’t have a personal size. But, their crust heats up well in the oven the next day.

Really average pizza. Only one star because they are so incredibly stingy with toppings in addition to being so darn boring. You pay so much for add ons and literally need a microscope to find them. I’ve tried and tried and tried again… every time it’s the same. Average and overpriced. I’m a forgiving type… but seriously, every time?!? Service here is awful too, obviously and delivery is 9 out of 10 times over an hour. Plus… this joint is only a stolen concept from Pizza Express in Bton. That place was great… how do you knock them off, steal their secrets, and still get it so wrong? Go to Arnis instead. It’s local, honest, and not so stingy. Plus it’s just so much better… and legitimately unique.

In my opinion this is the best pizza place in the area. The breadsticks are amazing I have to get them every time I go. It is slightly expensive but so worth it! I love the pizza toppings and crust!

By far the best breadsticks you will ever have! They are addicting and out of this world! Also — you can’t beat the lunchbox specials!

This has to be the worst pizza I’ve ever had.
Fine little specs of sausage sprinkled around like sawdust. And a very small amount of sauce only in the center.

This pizza is certainly the best in the area, which isn’t saying much really. I’m from Chicago so I’m used to top notch pizza, however, due to college locations, I do dabble in the frozen section at Walmart and occassionally a lil pizza hut or papa johns. But as far as commercial pizza goes, Hotbox is the best! I love the spicy pepperoni’s and the dough is amazing and fresh. Idk about the rest of their ingredients though, their mushrooms are small and dry and their black olives were also small and dry and gross. Make sure you get the large 1 topping DEAL that comes with the sodas and the breadsticks. You end up spending more if you just get a large by itself. Wish I had known about that before. But the pizza is good. It’s not just «oh man I’m drunk and nothing else is open» good, it’s «Oooh let’s get Hotbox to celebrate!» type of good.

Couldn’t hit an estimated pickup time to save their lives. Never had an order here that wasn’t at least 30 minutes late past the given time.
The thing is… The pizza isn’t really Even worth it.
Skip it.

15 minutes wait past guarantee time. 2 people in the restaurant. Employees in bad mood. Food was average. Better off getting Domino’s or papa john’s for literally half the price it cost here.

Pizza is overpriced but it’s good. It’s different than the typical chain pizza and worth buying! However, their breadsticks are what you need to come for. Also, slightly over priced, but the cheese is amazing.

Excellent pizza. I have been going to HotBox for years now and have yet to have a bad experience or get an order messed up. I generally get The Deal which includes a large 1-​topping pizza, bread sticks, and two drinks. It’s one of the better deals for good pizza in the area. I can’t speak to their specialty pizzas, as I haven’t tried them but which everything else being good, I would assume they are too. I even introduced my parents to HotBox when they were in town and they thought it was some of the best pizza they’ve had. I would highly recommend trying it.

Get drunk and get bread sticks with cheese!

Hot box pizza is the definition of average. I could end my review right there.
There isnt anything about hotbox that distinguishes it from any of the other half-​dozen pizza places scattered around W. Lafayette. In fact, I can only think of two things to mention.
#1: the thin, little, spicy, crispy pepperonis are excellent
#2: their breadsticks are abnormally thin
UPDATE: 5÷24÷15
Hotbox has sort of become my default pizza place. It didn’t really achieve this position by being fantastic. Although the pizza is pretty good — it has the fresh ingredient local pizza-​joint flavor that I enjoy, it isnt spectacular. It’s merely «pretty good.» The reason Hot Box became my go-​to pizza place is really by being the lesser of evils. The competing pizza places are all so problematic that Hot Box wins by default. Pizza hut and Dominos are disgustingly greasy and taste like plates full of plastic preservatives. One chain that I like a lot is Papa Johns, but their customer service and pricing is horrible. No matter how much they try to goad me into it, I’m simply not going to pay $ 25 for one pizza. Thus, Hotbox, the dark horse has managed to win the local pizza wars.
There are quite a few things that I have come to like about Hot Box. The breadsticks, though unhealthy, are surprisingly delicious — especially with the trans-​fat laden nacho cheese dipping sauce. Each of the three crust choices satisfy a different particular craving. The thin crust is fantastically light and crispy (though not very filling.) The «hippie crust’ is rich and flavorful.
Aside from the overall quality and freshness of the pizza, the decisive factor that helped give hotbox the winning push towards victory was: the pizza of the week deal. This promotion, found on the store’s website gives 50% off a different specialty pizza each week. It’s a very good discount, which brings the price of a large pizza down to a very reasonable price of $ 8ish. Overall, it really is the best value in town.

The pizza might be good but it is too expensive for the amount you get. never going back.

Only receives a 5 because this is the only pizza I will eat in the Lafayette area.
First off, pizza recommendation– Alfredo sauce (though it also works with normal marinara sauce), pinnacle and spicy pepperoni.
Their dough is surprisingly good, so if you don’t like their pizza try out their breadsticks.
I’m not crazy about the atmosphere but what really gets me for a place that attempts to look hip and trendy is their lack of recycling. When you order a drink you get a fairly large hard plastic cup. If you don’t want to take it home it just goes in the trash. When I brought this up I was told that there at many uses for the cup in my home like keeping paintbrushes or pens etc… I’m sorry I’m not interested in a collection of hotbox cups and they should really start recycling.

Everyone can make pizza… so high quality, fresh ingredients and exotic ingredients usually make a place stand out. It doesn’t seem like this place can beat your average Domino’s or Papa John’s. It’s not cheap either.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad. But I can’t say it’s much better than your national chain.