Rizzi's Pizza Cafe

I do try to support local restaurants so that is one reason we went to Rizzi's.  We started off with toasted raviolis - they were tasty but looked like the ones you by at Kroger in the frozen food section.

Salads were fresh and the pizza crust was excellent.  We got a half Veggie and half Bar-B-Q pork pizza.  The Veggie was good but the sauce on the Bar-B-Q side was very sweet.

I could have gone four stars but there were some obvious food safety issues.  I witnessed our server using her hands to scoop ice into a bucket and then dump it into the ice bin near the ice tea station.  Nope - she did not wash her hands and had just bussed a table.  There were a couple of other cross contamination issues.  Our server said she had only been there a week - some training would be in order.

in the middle of no where. Solid pizza. Love the crust. i will be back soon to try other dishes and dine in.

As I mentioned in my previous review, I could see the potential in Rizzi's pizza, despite having one of the worst pizzas I had ever eaten.  As a result, we decided to give them one more shot on 5/14.  We dined-in around 6:30, and the service was fantastic.  I wish I had gotten the young girl's name that served us, because she was incredibly polite, incredibly prompt, increibly nice, and really was very welcomng.

The food was a completely different experience then the first time we ate here.  This time, our pizza was not burnt, it was not over-floured, and I avoided the pork sausage (not the specialty italian sausage -- which I have not tried yet).  Here is a new, quick review of the food.

Dough: Now that I have had the dough (almost) how it is supposed to be cooked, it is one of the best pizza doughs I have ever eaten.  It is crispy on the outside, and tender and chewy on the inside.  It was amazing.  In fact, ironically, I told my wife they probably could have left it in the oven for just another 30 seconds to a minute.  Though the outside crust was perfectly done, the bottom of the pizza toward the center was a little soggy.  Dough: 5 / 5

Cheese: The cheese is still very good, and compliments the entire pizza well.  It is not too salty, and has a nice, clean taste. Cheese: 5 / 5

Sauce: A perfect blend of tomatoes and spices that compliments the flavors of everything else.  This is exactly what a good pizza sauce does.  It is a flavor-enhancer for the rest of the pizza.  Despite being good, I do like sauces that taste 'fresher'.  It didn't seem like they used fresh basil or tomatoes.  It tasted more like canned tomatoes, as well as dried herbs and sesonings.  Still, a good sauce though 4 / 5

Based on my two experiences at Rizzi's, and some of the other Yelp reviews, I think it is only fair to add one more category to this review: Consistency.

Consistency: This is where they are getting docked.  For me to go in and have one of the worst pizzas of my life one week, then a month later go in and have the best pizza I have ever eaten in Memphis, is a damn travesty... Ownership needs to seriously look at their staff and begin auditing their pizza-making abilities.  Though my pizza was very good, it still wasn't perfect - and I still think they have more potential.  This is saddening when I see that Rizzi's could be a solid 5 star pizza, but they have people working for them (probably high school or college students) that don't necessarily care as much about the product as the owners do.  Sorry to pick on students, but I have found that their mentality (as mine was at that age) is, "I'll be quitting here soon anyway when I graduate...I'm not going to make pizzas for the rest of my life."

This is a bummer, and honestly, I would love to get a pizza made by the owner.  I would love to see this places true potential, because I am certain that it is very high.  Unfortunately, the extreme lack of consistency frightens me.  What am I going to get the next time I go?  This makes me wary of spending my money at this etablishment.  I will be back again; I just don't know which pizza I will get -- the worst ever, or one of the best ever.  Strange, and sad...

Overall Pizza Score: 4 / 5

Final Thoughts: When RIzzi's is at its best, I would be willing to go out on a limb and call Rizzi's one of the best pizzas in the entire region.  I cannot fully recommend RIzzi's, because if they cook pizza like they did for me the first time I went, it makes me look stupid, and diminishes the value of my reviews. All I can say is, if you dine at Rizzi's; it may be great, or it may be awful.  I hope you get a good pizza maker when you go.  Maybe shake the Magic 8 Ball beforehand or something?