Italian Pie Shoppe & Winery

I am shocked by all the bad reviews I’m seeing. Allow me to offset them by sharing my experience with Italian Pie Shoppe. I’ve been eating here regularly for about 8 years. For one thing, the place is a favorite among locals and is packed night after night, so they must be doing something right. Second, their deep-​dish pizza is one of the greatest things in this world.
I can understand if someone leaves a bad review about the service, but DON’T KNOCK THE PIZZA. The deep dish is really their marquee item. I’ve never had anything like it anywhere else. It’s hard to describe what makes the crust so good, but… just try it. And the thin crust is good too.
That said, The menu gets dicey if you don’t want pizza. I definitely can’t recommend the salads. But the calazones are good (and reasonably priced!), and they also have a really good baked pasta dish. Prices are no higher than average, with the exception is the deep dish and stuffed pizzas, which are higher-​priced, but still typical for a gourmet deep-​dish pizza restaurant. And they are well worth it.
Regarding the service, there is a thicker-​built blonde waitress there who is NOT cut out for the service industry and needs to be let go, plain and simple. She is rude and unpleasant every time. I wonder how many of the bad reviews are due to her? But the rest of the wait staff is wonderful (shout out to Angel and Sam!).

So, I figure I should try this place because I live rather close and always drive by it. The minute we walk in we were asked to walk up to the cash register. We kindly tell them we need a minute. The server walked away shortly after hearing that. When we decide, we go up to the counter and this lady is there, ringing us up. We ask her some questions about the food and she gives us this half-​assed response, clearly showing her disinterest in either us, or just being there in general. Way to make new customers feel welcomed. We order what we want and she then walks away right after. At this point I’m thinking l, hmm… Maybe it’s just the new year and she just wants to leave.
So we leave while they get cooking. Come back 30 mins later and they are still cooking. I ask the new lady cashier «hi, do you know how much longer the pizzas will be?» She is looking at the computer screen, doesn’t even care to look at who she’s talking to and says «I can ask them…» Then proceeds to walk away, halfway to me saying «thank you.» So at this point I am wanting a refund and to quickly leave. My friend tells me to just sit down and wait. So we wait, then the cook is heard yelling repeatedly, «I NEED THE CRAP! Give me the CRAP!» So… Great, our food is referred to as «crap» love it. The lady slumps back and says «it’s gonna be 5 minutes.» Then walks away. Why does everyone just keep leaving?! Anyway, we get our mediocre pizza and a horrible experience and leave.
My advice, DO NOT EAT HERE. They have crap service and icky cement dough pizzas. Bleh.

The service was pleasant. I had the lasagna and it was OK. I would have liked more meat. My husband had the combo pizza and he enjoyed it.

Awful food. Expensive and service is mediocre at best. The next time I feel like paying 9.00 for a head of lettuce, at least I’ll know where to go. Garlic bread was barley toasted plain white bread and you had to rely concentrate to taste butter or garlic. The «godfather» salad for two came with one single slice of ham that looks like it came from a pre packaged from Cub as did the «hearty» single transparent slice of salami. I can’t even count on the pizza as pizza. Granted I am from jersey but I already had low expectations and they managed to fall below that.

Either Unilocal didn’t exist or I didn’t know about Unilocal when I used to frequent this eatery between 2007 and 2009. However, I have had some of the best times of my life here. Consider this an «homage» review. Large thin crust Italian sausage pizza, cut in squares, dripping with gooey real cheese, beer (or pitcher of root beer with kids) — always a good time! Had first dates here, family meetings here, birthday parties here. Thank you for being part of my life for some great times. Tip: Stick with the pizza — it’s what they do best. My mom tried their ravioli and it was pretty awful. Just order the pizza and enjoy! Buon appetito!

We ordered stuffed pizza for delivery through a 3^rd party service. I lived in Chicago for 8 years and I can say with confidence it would not survive there. The sauce tasted like Ragu… And the crust was equally as bad and hardly cooked through. Giving it one star for the comedy factor because my husband and I couldn’t stop laughing over just how bad it was!

Sarah C saved me some words because we must have had the same pathetic waitress. From our party of six, five got their food after about 20 minutes. One person had received no food when everyone else was finishing. We tried to cancel the order, but the waitress brought us the order in a takeout box, not acceptable since we were staying in a hotel. Repeatedly one of us had to get up and walk to the service station to get a fork or napkin, etc. Getting our check took forever because she had not written down the orders and had to ask us all again, then had to ring everything up. The place was empty except for us, and she had plenty of time to prepare. Sometimes in a situation like this good food or value for the money will lessen the pain of bad service. Unfortunately the food was between ordinary and bad. This was our third experience in this area with waitresses who couldn’t do their jobs. What gives?

Had a miserable experience here tonight.
Service started out fine, drinks were ordered and delivered, then everything started going downhill.
The waitress returned to take our orders. She doesn’t use a notepad so I figured she was an expert at her craft, even though we had a large party of 8.
She then returned 15 minutes later, with a notepad, saying she forgot her notepad the first time, and made everyone repeat their orders. At this point I was growing extremely skeptical of this establishment, and the oddly dressed headless mannequin behind me was really adding to my distress.
Not being in a pizza mood, I had ordered the greek salad with chicken, and, since at this point I was really doubting our waitress’s abilities, made sure to confirm that she had added chicken to my order before she disappeared again. After I asked her this simple query, she stared at me like I had asked her a question in an alien language… for about 5 – 7 whole seconds… before writing down that I wanted chicken on my salad. Then she walked away, leaving us all in a confused stupor. Several of us commented, jokingly, that something in our order would be wrong when it arrived.
If only we know how wrong it would be.
After a completely disproportionately long wait for 2 pizzas and a salad, the food arrived, and I was immediately horrified by my salad. The lettuce was wilted and soggy, drenched in some unidentifiable oily liquid, and the only vegetables besides the sad lettuce were some equally sad banana peppers, maybe 3 black olive pieces and a hunk of an unripe, wet tomato on the side of the plate. Don’t even get me started on the chicken… I’m pretty sure it was canned. It gave the whole salad an unsettling cat food vibe.
BOTH of the pizzas the rest of us ordered were wrong. Where green olives were requested there where black olives, and vice versa. One pizza was supposed to be deep dish and wasn’t. I don’t even know how one mixes up one entirely different crust from another. It’s a sin, really.
Then, when this was all pointed out to the waitress, she got defensive and said it was because she had to go help out in the kitchen, and then blamed my boyfriend for not repeating the order back to her again after she wrote it down. Okay?
At this point, it was kind of an out of body experience because I never dreamed service could be so bad, anywhere. The incorrect pizza wasn’t taken off the bill either.
Upon arriving home with the correct, boxed up deep dish pizza we originally ordered, we opened the box AND…
It was wrong too.
Sorry Italian Pie Shoppe. You’ll never see me or my credit card again.

Service was terrible and food was very unimpressive.
We went there because of a coupon but wont make that mistake again.

Ordered a cheese deep dish and cheesy bread. Probably the worst pizza I’ve ever had. I had to smother in it hot sauce just to put it down. It’s too bad because the old lady at the counter was no nice. I would recommend trying a new dough and sauce recipe out

The service has been marginal over the years but we put up with it cause we like the pizza… It has been getting steadily worse and our last time we waited over an hour for our order with only excuses from the staff. One of the waitresses went to check and never came back to us — we won’t be going back to them.

What happened?! I hear this place was a fun hole in the wall. Now the service is ok at best, and I would rather buy a frozen pizza! Yuck! Too bad for them. The idea is something special but they do not live up to their name.

Best pizza in St Paul. I took my extended family to celebrate a birthday and I discreetly brought a cake with me. Italian Pie Shop staff refrigerated the cake while we ate our delicious pizza, put lighted candles on the cake and brought it to the table singing — made it a really special evening for us. I cannot thank the staff enough for the fabulous job they did. Privately owned by very warm, family friendly people!

I have eaten here a few times in the past and found the deep dish to be decent. But when the 6 of us sat down for dinner a few weeks ago. We were amazed at the dry garlic toast served without sauce. And the fact that both pizzas were down right terrible! I’ve honestly had better frozen pizza! I’m not sure what happened to this restaurant but I will not be back anytime soon.

We gut in promptly and were courteously served. I was underwhelmed by the calzone, though. The sauce lacked much of any sort of blended flavor and the crust was bland. Not sure I’d hustle to go back.

Not a fan. The crust of the pizza is very tasteless and dull. I ordered a Margherita pizza and was truly disappointing. It was a standard pizza with mozzarella and some slimy canned tomatoes and dried basil sprinkled over top. I can do that at home with a Jacks Pizza. To be fair ordered another time, deep dish and it was just tasteless and dull. Nothing is special about this place. Should have gone to Pizza Hut.

I worked there as a kid and moved to Cal since then and definitely can’t find half decent pizza there since I guess they’re ‘green’, health conscious and stuff.
The pizza sauce has a bite to it that I like and the sausage in the pizza or patties for the sandwiches are spicy. I’d consider it bold in flavor.
The Italian fries are one of a kind still. The crust is soft and I add pepperoni, sausage, and smother the crust with the butter, garlic salt and oregano.
I wish I could have it delivered to Cal.

Working in Eagan I tend to find myself eating at the same few restaurants. I don’t live around the area, so I don’t venture out try new places as I am usually on my lunch break and want to make sure I like what I am eating. My co-​worker has eaten here numerous times, and decided to take me this time. It is not a large space so it is perfect for people looking to get seated, order their food and leave. I would not suggest this as a hang out spot for dinner. It is the medium between fast food and a higher end sit down restaurant. The food was good, I got the white pizza and my co worker got the Chicago Torpedo and a slice of sausage. We both we very satisfied, nothing to authentic about it, but good nonetheless. Service was a little slow, but I got the vibe that they seat you and give you some time so they can get the whole order at once. The menu isn’t to elaborate, so a couple minutes and you should be set.
I will now add this to my regular spots for lunch! A many a dinner since there is a good selection of wine available to!

Their pizza crust has very, very little flavor and the sauce is very canned tasting. The toppings themselves were all right (I did enjoy the unusual additions like fresh chopped garlic) but they weren’t good enough to elevate the overall experience.
The service was slow and the waitress seemed generally disinterested. None of us had our drinks refilled the entire time we were there.
After eating there, all of us felt vaguely ill and had stomach issues. I’m almost entirely positive we won’t be returning… it wasn’t a particularly good first impression.
The only reason this place got a two star rating is due to their relatively large selection of unusual toppings and the atmosphere.

OMG their deep dish pizza is a burst of flavor in your mouth. Its sooo good. Not kidding you, the pizzas are huge with a amazing crust that isn’t greasy like what you would expect from the typical deep dish. They aren’t cheap on their toppings or skimp on them every bites gives you a mouthful of food. The meat lovers is my favorite so far.
If you sign up for their newsletter online they have coupon deals.
They also have a freezer right in the front that has some frozen pizzas for you to take home and bake if you are the grab and go kind of person. and Takeout they make their pizza’s fresh so give them a call ahead of time so you don’t have to wait around because the strip mall they are located in doesn’t have much other than a fantastic sams and a mexican restaurant next door.
The service was down to earth and friendly one of my favorite pizza places to eat at.