Like I've said before, it's pizza. It's noticeably better than the pizza at chain restaurants though. The garlic knots are super garlicky, yay (but also really salty). I wish they had more veggie pizzas. The ordering process seems kind of disorganized. I'm still not entirely sure how to order; i.e. I don't know if I can get something other than what they have displayed. The pizza-making/ordering part of the restaurant makes me think of a college dining hall, and the dining room is so dark it's like it's trying to imitate Hollister for some reason. It's odd. But anyway, the pizza tastes pretty good.
Review Source:On a complete lark and without knowing much about the restaurant, we stopped in for lunch on our way to North Conway. Â While I'm not a huge fan of New York style pizza, we thought this was very good, hand thrown, thin crust pizza. Â The sauce was pleasing and balanced, and the cheese was full fat mutz (mozzarella). Â The crust was crispy with a pretty good snap to it. Â The large pizza was enormous and inexpensive, which was nice.
My one quibble, and this is very debatable, is that I thought there was too much cheese. Â I like full fat mutz, but not so much that gobs drip off the pizza slice as I pull it away from the pan, so much so that it saturates and softens half of the slice's crust (the only crispy parts were the edges of the slice). Â I know some would say that "that's how NY style pizza is supposed to be." Â I can't rebut that other than to say that's not my preference.
I tried La Festa because I saw it on Phantom Gourmet. Â I loved the by the slice set up, it's quick and there were a lot of types of pizza to choose from. Â I tried the Biance and the garlic knot, my boyfriend also tried the white buffalo. Â We couldn't pass up the garlic knots and ordered two beers as well. Â The girl pouring the beers really knew her stuff, and could carry on a decent conversation about craft beers. Â I ordered the Moat Mountain Blueberry and my boyfriend had the founder's porter, both about 5.50, served in big mugs. Â The pizza was fabulous, thin crust and perfectly seasoned. Â We took some cinnamon knots home and had them for breakfast the next day. Â The only thing wrong with this place is that I don't live closer!
Review Source:Holy Clusterf*** Friday. I'm still not sure how you order, if you go to the register or the counter or what, but we were so confused that we just got a slice and some garlic knots.
We drove two hours specifically for the famous garlic knots and unfortunately they were cold and a little stale from sitting out. Would have been delicious if they were hot and soaking in garlic oil.
Overall, the potential is there but the whole experience was both overwhelming and underwhelming at the same time.
It's been a few years (more than I'd like to admit) since I left UNH, my house in Dover, and La Festa, and I'm happy to report that at least one of those things hasn't changed.
Still a casual atmosphere with fun and inventive food, La Festa churns out old favorites and new exciting dishes with regularity. Â The buffalo chicken pizza was just as delicious as I remembered it. Â The waitstaff was friendly, the table clean, and the atmosphere calming and tasteful. Â
It felt like I'd never left. Â Come back? Â Any time.
The buffalo chicken pizza was good. Especially, when you took a bite with the white sauce on it. The white pizza had a lot of oregano, but other than that, nothing jumped out at us. The Hawaiin pizza was your standard Hawaiin pizza. The cheese was not very good at all. It was incredibly greasy and tasted like a pizza from the Papa Gino's chain. The crust for all of them was bland, too dry and too crunchy with a lot of holes/bubbles. So, the crust was ok, but for pizza cooked in a brick oven, they were sub par.
Now, the bread knots on the other hand were fantastic. For some, they may be a little too greasy where you may not want more than 1 or 2, but they are soft and the cheese was a great touch. I wouldn't go out of my way to visit, again, but if I was in the area, I may give them another try.
My favorite place for a slice or two in Dover. Always something good to choose from. They could do with more organization. It can be hard to know where to stand in line.
If you choose to sit down for dinner, you make your order at the counter, then sit down at a table, then wait for them to call out your order. They will bring your food to your table, but they don't know where you're sitting, so you have to keep an ear open.
The wine is terrible... the food is OK... but where else can you easily seat a group of 15 without a reservation and spend $5-$10 each on dinner?
La Festa is a great central meeting place. Everyone can show up whenever they want, eat at their own pace, and pay their own bill. The lack of waitstaff means you can hang out longer than at a sit-down restaurant, and the plethora of seating and parking means you never feel pressured to give them back their table.
It also seems to work for family meals-- cheap and child-friendly. It's not gourmet, but it does the job!
Today was the first time I ever tried La Festa Brick and Brew. My family and I made the mistake of going there during the lunch rush, so we were waiting in line for a while. My mother in law and I ordered the meat cal zone, my fiance ordered the buffalo chicken pizza, my sister in law ordered the pepperoni pizza, and my father in law ordered the baked ziti. We also split a half dozen garlic knots and a half dozen cinnamon sugar knots. Both versions of the knots were TO DIE FOR! I tried a bite of my fiance's buffalo chicken pizza and it was awesome. It had such a nice balance of buffalo chicken, pizza sauce, and blue cheese that nothing was overpowering the other. My mother in law and I had to wait a long time for our cal zones. We were the last ones to receive our food out of our party, my father in law received  his right before ours and we were waiting over 20 mins after that to receive ours. But, the cal zones were worth the wait! Our cal zone had ham, pepperoni, Italian sausage, mozzarella cheese and ricotta cheese. The cal zone was fresh and not greasy or burnt. I highly recommend their food. They are a little pricey, but it is worth it. Although I didn't have any this trip, they also have an impressive beer list for a pizza restaurant.
Besides the long wait for our food, the only complaint I have was that the table behind us had a bunch of middle school or high school students who were being loud the entire time we were there. It wasn't that they were talking or laughing loud, they were continuously screeching and yelling. For such a small dining room, it was very disruptive to the conversations of everyone around them, including ours. It wasn't until a fellow patron got up and said something to them about being so loud, that they FINALLY started to quiet down. I realize that this isn't the restaurant's fault, but I feel like someone from the restaurant should have said something to them instead of waiting for another patron to do it. This experience really does make me rethink eating there again, but I will definitely be ordering out from there.
Cheers!
I have nothing bad to say about the food, it's good and it's consistant. However, some of the counter staff have serious attitude problems that really need to be addressed, because the person who took my order over the phone today was straight up rude. Not only that, she got my order wrong. As a former pizza girl myself, I understand that people can get frazzled when it's busy, but this has been an issue ever since I began to frequent the place a few years ago. If management could hire people who were less concerned about being hip and more concerned about doing their job, I'd gladly give 5 stars.
Review Source:I love La Festa.
When it first opened, I honestly didn't get the hype. I thought it was pretty unexciting pizza. Then I branched out into their speciality pizzas. The great thing about these, is that at any given time, they have seven or eight different pizzas just waiting to be tried on their slice line. If you feel like you didn't care for a particular flavor combination, you didn't have to waste the cash to get an entire pie. The downside to this, in many reviewers opinions it seems, is that sometimes the slices get cold while sitting out. Although unless you specifically ask them not to, they'll pop the slices in the oven for reheating before serving them, if you still find them underheated, just ask them to throw them back in for longer.
I'm not a huge fan of red sauce, so my personal favorites are the Bianca (mozzarella, ricotta, olive oil, and red pepper flakes) and the Chicken Cordon Bleu (mozzarella, chicken, ham, mushrooms, gorgonzola, and a drizzle of ranch dressing on top). Also, their pasta dishes and sandwiches aren't bad either. I like the cheese manicotti myself, and the hot roast beef and garlic sandwich is excellent (WARNING: not for those who are not BIG garlic fans, this one will make your eyes water!).
Also as other reviewers have said, the lack of organization in the slice line, and the cashier line is a hassle, but only when it's super busy, which if you're going during dinnertime it will be.
One other great thing- La Festa is located on the same block as the Dover Police Station and City Hall, so when the power goes out in Dover, you're sure to find them still open, and serving up great chow. Plus, I can get two slices for lunch or dinner, a bottled drink, and only pay around nine bucks. I'm not much of a beer drinker, but my husband always enjoys their seasonal and local selections. What are you waiting for? Get ye to the pizza!
This place would have potential if it weren't for the staff who needs serious lessons in how to provide customer service. When I order something (in person or over the phone) the person taking my order acts as though I'm inconveniencing HIM/HER. The food is average, slices are often cold/room temp. There is no organization of a line when ordering/paying at the counter, often people cut and it becomes frustrating. Â Â I wish there were more options in Dover.
Review Source:I have to say that I didn't really get the huge appeal of La Festa - it was just "okay" when we went there. Â The pizza slices were kind of lukewarm, it ended up being kind of expensive. Â The staff seemed really busy and not able to give you their full attention. Â It was really hot in there and we needed some air conditioning! Â I had talked up the place so much because I heard such good things...but the people with me were underwhelmed and I felt bad about that!
Review Source:Excellent pizza! Â I've been going there for 3 years and while they serve a great amount more, the pizza is the only thing I've had. Â The garlic and cinnamon knots are heavenly...
Now...the Brew part. Â This is why I love LaFesta! Â They have great beers on tab, Dogfish Head, Rogue, and Stone are usually on tab along with other microbrews. Â Their bottle selection is also really good...
Great pizza! Â We are visiting friends in Dover, and we ordered some pizzas and garlic knots for dinner. Â We got three really awesome brick oven pizzas (Bianca, sausage, and prosciutto with extra basil). Â Get the extra basil, they put some on before cooking and then add some after, so you get a great aroma of basil while eating it. Â Pizza was perfectly cooked and tasted wonderful.
While we did takeout, the restaurant has a great look to it, and the tap beer selection was fantastic. I wish we lived closer. Â This would be a frequently visited spot.
Good pizza, but horribly inconsistent. We used to order pizza there once a week, but about 25% of the time they screwed up our order somehow. Several times they neglected to put sauce on our pizza. No kidding! A pizza without sauce -- like, how does that happen??? We figure the college kids who staff the place are smoking weed or something. Regardless, they're always very friendly and the place is clean.
I do like their pizzas a lot. The Del Sole, Mediterranean, and BBQ Chicken are my favorites. But, after being let down one too many times by a horribly screwed up order we just don't bother to eat there anymore.
I like La Festa ok, I'm not a fan of the taste so much as I am a fan of the location and the atmosphere inside. It's pretty laid back, lots of places to sit and the cooks make the pizzas in front of you (I'll catch you if you are a spitter, Mr. Chef! - and no I haven't caught anyone here). The dough makers don't just do boring making dough, they do the tricks and throw it up into the air making for a nice time passer as you wait for your food to arrive.
My favorite food item here isn't even pizza, it's the garlic knots. Seriously, you need to get them - they are a much better equivalent to garlic bread and they remind me of one of my favorite Italian restaurants in my hometown in Ohio. The garlic knots are a buttery, garlicy goodness that I order a few of with a side of marinara (extra for the marinara). SO GOOD!
The pizza is ok; I am not a fan of thin pizza or really greasy pizza. However if either or both of those things get your wheels turning, you should be happy here. I know plenty of people who LOVE it so I am not in the majority with my taste in pizza. The flavor isn't spectacular in my mind but my boyfriend loves the buffalo pizza with the white dressing on top - he loves that pizza and even tries to find places to replicate like they do. I eat here on occasion and I want to go somewhere for pizza that is sorta nice.
Drinks are fountain style so you can refill which I like and they usually have free popcorn you can munch on while you wait.
It gets busy on the weekends, so be prepared for a wait on those days.
Good local joint, just not my favorite.
I occasionally find myself fantasizing about La Festa. Here is why:
I am in love with their Spinach, tomato, and ricotta pizza
Holy fuck- the cinnamon knots are something to be reckoned with. Â Whoever invented these magical balls of cinnamon and sugar- covered dough might be the messiah.
They have great and to me, quite rare beers on draught. Â I love their blueberry ale.
They have a random room that is painted red with a fancy, plastic beaded curtain that I like to call the "sexy" room. Â I once sat there with my 2 gay lovers and watched a fat cheerleader try to do toe touches outside. Â It was very sexy.
I spent most of my young adulthood and teen years in a very Sopranoesque portion of New Jersey. Favorite pizza places were declared with passion and loyalty. Slices were to be large on a thin crust and folded over when eaten. Toppings were to use premium ingredients found in the best Italian cooking. Items such as olives, fresh mozzarella, basil leaves, sliced garlic, proscuitto, fine sausage. Anything below par ingredients resulted in an inferior pizza and was considered insult to fine heritage.
La Festa Brick and Brew is the finest pizza I've had since relocating to New England. The atmosphere is very family friendly, we bring our 3 year old out with us for a family night out most Fridays. The pizza chefs are passionate about their work, the servers are great and they always have a really superb offering of beers and wines. Most labels on tap are not readily found elsewhere. These things combine to make La Festa something truly special. Hope you go. I know you'll enjoy!
I guess its not fair for me to review this place since we ordered slices that never came. After 15 minutes I was told they would "try to track it down" and if I would wait they offered to fill the order. I decided to skip it after waiting so long and seeing other people get their food. My friends slice looked soggy, not a crisp crust but I do enjoy a thin slice and it was thin. I heard you can order it well done and it is crisper.
Review Source:I found this fun place on the way to a ski weekend in Jackson and had to Yelp about it. Â Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA and Yellow Snow on tap - Freakin huge frosted mugs - right on! Â We tried four slices to share and two huge beers and it came to $23. Â Buffalo chicken - yummy yummy rings of blue cheese sauce and hot sauce and chicken - mmmmm. Â Chicken and gorgonzola also melty good. Â Hawaiian had ham and fresh pineapple and lots of bacon. Â Who doesn't like bacon? Â The mushroom was earthy and good. Â The cd player was alternating the Grateful Dead and Tori Amos - just like at my house!
Review Source:I've tried every pizza place in Dover, and they all suck except for Smiley's and La Festa (this place). Â If you want pizza delivered or to go, try Smiley's. Â If you want great pizza (and beer) in a sit-down cafe, La Festa is the spot.
Just watch out for that group of crazy libertarians that take over the side room on Wednesday nights... of which I am one! Â :) Â Feel free to stop by and say hello. Â We're family-friendly. Â There's even a kids table.
La Festa is the perfect place to enjoy pizza and a glass of wine. Â Their pizza is delicious and no matter which one we order, it has always been one of the best pizzas we have ever eaten. Â When you order a pizza, the pizza you get is enormous, compared to a take-out pizza from the same place. Â There's always leftover pizza for a midnight snack or next day lunch. Â
The atmosphere is just right- low lighting, comfortable seats, and quiet most of the time. Â The best part of La Festa is that lovers can share a pizza and each enjoy a glass of beer or wine for under thirty bucks. Â A lot of money can be saved by going here and avoiding leaving a waitperson a tip. Â In these economic times, La Festa is the "go-to" place for a night out.
La Festa makes a variety of delicious pizzas, in a couple different styles. This is not a place for people who usually order a cheese or pepperoni pizza. Come here and enjoy pizzas like the Chicken Cordon Bleu, the BBQ, or try their smaller, brick oven pizzas like the Amici (my personal favorite). The atmosphere is perfect for a college town, although the place is often also filled with young couples and children. It is usually busy, which is a testament to their success.
La Festa also has an excellent selection of beer on tap, including several local. They also have wines which I would guess compliment various pizzas, but I don't know much about wine.
Many people come here just for the slices, which is one of their great features. You will never come in and see several cheese pizzas out for slices like you might at a typical pizzeria. However, during their busy nights there are sometimes few slices left. I really recommend that you try ordering a brick-oven pizza. They are really the highlight of La Festa's offerings.
I really enjoy going here for a weekend evening of people watching and pizza eating.
I have always had good luck with the pizzas here, I espcially appriciate their brick oven fired varieties, as they are very economical and yummy! Â
I will say, the pizza is just pizza, it won't blow your mind by any means, but it's great to hang out somewhere with a local buzz going on, where one can actually come out of their "winter hibernation" and feel plugged back in to society again.
I have had a few bad experiences while trying to buy slices during the busy times, like my slice getting overlooked, or given to someone else (annoying!!!!!!) Â But I will let this slide as I don't usually go for slices, but for yummy whole pizzas. Â As of yet they have never given my whole pizza to some other random customer :)
You know what's amazing? Â Buffalo chicken pizza. Â And when it comes out of the oven all fresh and hot, with swirls of bleu cheese dressing and buff sauce, it not only looks great but it smells great.... and once it cools a bit, it tastes amazing. Â I love doing takeout, and taking out four slices and keeping them for midnight snacks.
Review Source:I recently found myself in Dover, NH and not a fan of traveling and going to chain restaurants, I drove around town until I found La Festa Brick and Brew. Â Thinking of stopping for just a brew, I found the pizza's aroma too great to ignore. Â Hence I got two slices to go, a soda, and spent a fun evening in my hotel room. Â The place is very friendly and the pizza was excellent. Â Delicious to every last crumb.
Review Source:I think this place has the best pizza in the Dover area and is a regular choice for my wife and I. Our daughter seems to love the pizza as well, but then again, she's only 18 months old, so that's not saying too much.
Great atmosphere, the best Micro Brew selection of any of the local pizza places and a great price to go along with it. We usually just go with the slices and add on their awesome cinnamon knots and can eat as a family for less than $20.
There's not really a wait staff, kind of a bus-your-own deal going but that saves you the price of leaving a big tip. Easily the best combination of quality affordable good with a great beer selection that I've seen in these parts.
My only knock against the place is the high chairs. They have a half dozen or so, but only 1 has a working belt.
Usually the busiest place on earth (or at least in Dover) on a Friday night as families rub elbows with high school/college students.
The brick oven pizza is always the best option and quite good (but can get soggy).
The traditional pizza is not as good as the brick as there is something missing (the sauce is kind of bland as well as the crust).
Slices are big and always a great option for when you can't  decide or want a quick meal (great for lunch).
The staff is friendly (but you always get a sense of some MTV-like drama you are missing going on behind the counter).
Excellent selection of beer (which you would hope since it is part of the name). This isn't a tap system of Bud, Miller, Coors, Sam, and one microbrew... actually quite the opposite.
Could use a more frequent cleaning schedule but the place is usually hopping and there is a lot of table turnover (no excuse in the afternoon though).
La Festa is a good pizza and beer joint, relatively new in Dover, and generally a safe bet, especially with a group. Booths and tables aren't always kept wiped down, but if you ask one of the counter staff, they are usually good about it.
Wood fired pizza, good thick crust that isn't too doughy. Decent selection of beers on tap and some interesting pizza toppings (like BBQ chicken, prosciutto, etc.) Â in addition to the standards. They also have salads, which are edible, but are not all that fresh, usually.
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