Jim M.
Yelp
I was so hoping for a better experience than what I had on my first visit to Pizza Baby. But honestly, it was mostly a disappointment.
Two diners, we arrived at 8:45PM for a reservation and were seated promptly. Nice host, who was even happy to accommodate my request not to be sat in front of the doorway.
Nice interior with a lively sound level, and Pizza pies on tables everywhere.
We decided to order the meatball appetizer and a 12" pepperoni, sausage mushroom pizza (I always order this at a new pizzeria, because if you can't make a pepperoni pizza then why are you in the business).
The Meatballs came first, and they were an execution mess! Having two huge meatballs served on top of a 2-3" thick piece of bread, with two thinner slices of bread as well? Well the bread was so thick that it soaked up all of the tomato sauce for the meatballs, so to get any of the sauce flavor you had to try and cut through this soggy piece of bread with a very tough crust. Basically I would rather they just put the meatballs on the plate covered them with sauce, and gave me the two side pieces of bread provided. Rating - Meh.
But hey, it's called Pizza baby not meatballs baby, so we wait for the pizza, and we wait, and we wait, until finally one of us orders a bourbon on the rocks because we are waiting so long. Drink arrives, and it looks like they used one of those crushed ice machines from Sonic for the ice in the drink. When did Rocks ever equate to crushed ice in any cocktail bar? No ice cubes? Rating - poor
Finally the pizza arrives - very well done, but just shy of black. Still, there is a hint of burnt to the taste. The crispness of the underside was nice, but the crust was inedible. Rating - Meh
Server was great, although he made no attempt to acknowledge the amount of time it was taking for the kitchen, but still he was very polite and personable. Rating - saved the experience
We left somewhat disappointed, as living in the fourth ward this would have been a great option for a local pizzeria. I will say that I saw a lot of good looking pies on other tables, so I may give it one more try.
I just noticed that the owner only replies to 5 star reviews, so I suspect he will not acknowledge this as well. Hopefully, it helps him to with his business to improve quality and consistency.