The Upper Crust Pizzeria

Besides his denial of labor problems, Jordan Tobin is a sneaky back-​stabber. His pizza recipes were lifted from a former friend’s pizza joint. They guy is greedy and stupid, which is why he is in trouble.

This is one of those places where Gourmet = less food. You REALLY overpay here.
I ordered the large shrimp pizza for delivery. That’s pretty straightforward, you take a regular pizza and add shrimp to it. But when I sat down and opened the box I saw a pizza with only ten shrimp thrown on it, no tomato sauce, maybe a quarter cup of cheese, and pesto sauce. This is recognized by anyone who enjoys pizza as (cheap) Shrimp Pesto pizza. This isn’t «gourmet», this is CHEAP. I saw more crust than filling. And it wasn’t filling enough to be an appetizer for me.
Again, let me remind you, for this place Gourmet = less food
When I called to complain I was told «that is how we make our shrimp pizza». If they ran a gas station their gallon would be two pints. That’s the last time I ordered from here.

I want to clarify to any readers out there that the non-​burned portion of the pizza, had it been delivered warm, would have been truly delicious. Hopefully my experience was an aberration and should not deter you from making your own decision about this restaurant or particular location.
Now, on to my response to Management’s comment:
«Hi Katerina,
I understand your frustration, but a phone call for these kinds of issues normally would have solved this immediately. I know our pizza is a bit more expensive, yes gourmet, but that means our customer service is always top notch. We have invested in terrific quality delivery pizza bags so in all honesty-​until now– we have not received ONE complaint of a cold pizza delivery this whole frigid winter! I recently drove to the White Mountains with a pizza in one of them and it actually was still warm when I got there-​4 hours later. If you called that night we would have gladly made you another pizza and got it right out to you ASAP. I would like to question the „late night“? We close at 9 weekdays and 10 on the weekends so I am not sure this is even the right location (West Roxbury?) If it was, please contact me at the store 617−323−6400 and I will be happy to discuss your experience further.»
First — thank you for responding. Until this review, I have ONLY ever written positive responses (I’m not a huge Unilocaler but I do order quite a bit on Etsy). I have gotten cold pizza before at other places. I have gotten burned pizza before at other places. I have had very late deliveries at other places. I have NEVER had all three happen for the same order. This, I believed, warranted a negative review. It is well and good to say that you have «top notch» customer service but I would suggest that if that were the case, I would have received a call that my delivery would be late because my pizza was accidentally burned in the oven and it would take some extra time to make a new one (and subsequently that the pizza would have arrived warm). I have had to do that myself in the past (again, I worked in a gourmet pizza shop for 4 years in college) — it’s not a happy phone call but I think it’s the right thing to do.
Second — to answer your clarifying questions, I placed my order at 6:40PM on Tuesday, January 29^th with the West Roxbury location (6:40 constitutes «late night» studying for me this early in the semester). My «delivery» time was set at 7:25PM. I did not receive the pizza until AFTER 8:00PM. It was burned and it was cold. I don’t remember the delivery driver having the warming bag with him so if he didn’t, maybe that’s why my pizza was cold. If he did have the warming bag with him, I would suggest that maybe my pizza cooled off PRIOR to going in the warming bag and out for delivery. I don’t know how it happened, just that it did.
If my public review helps to prevent similar problems for other customers in the future, that’s enough for me. I will increase my review an extra star for the response from management and hope that they will make the appropriate adjustment with their staff.

I like the pizza at upper crust. However, we continue to have bad experiences with our orders being wrong. The last FIVE times we have ordered, our pizzas are missing an ingredient (usually scallions). Tonight we ordered broccoli, scallions, potato and jalapeño and did not receive the scallions and got eggplant instead of potatoes — this after we indicated that our orders had been consistently missing something and asking them to check our order to make sure it is made correctly. When we called to complain we were offered a gift card that we would have to go into the store to pick up. We said that this was not acceptable and asked for a refund on our order. We were told that a manager would call us back within an hour. They have not called and it has been three hours. Really poor way to run a business.

I bought a groupon for the west roxbury location and had intentions of using it on my way home from work one night. I knew from Unilocal that this place closes pretty early– 9pm but i called just to verify since it was 8pm and i didnt want to get all the way there and find out they had closed. When I called at 8pm, the young lady on the phone said, «we close at 9pm but it doesnt matter anyway because we ran out of dough» and then hung up on me! Perhaps you need groupons because your staff is so rude.

HORRIBLE. Whole Foods is better than here!!! They have terrible service, and soggy messy pizza. They did not even include everything I ordered! Save your money, and your time. 0 stars

I have to say I like the concept of this place but the execution is lacking. The pizza was soggy in some places and tough in others. You can barely pick a slice up or it just busts into a big mess. For $ 1.50 each topping I expect more than 4 paper thin slices of barely cooked summer squash that was advertized as roasted squash. The proscuitto was stringy and lacked flavor. The toppings were so unevenly distributed that some slices were basically just cheese, others all blue cheese etc. I was hoping for something better and for $ 18+ for a small pizza that is what I should have received. I won’t be wasting my money here again.

I lived in Roslindale for three years before I realized the local Upper Crust would deliver to me.
I implore the devastatingly socially-​conscious folks railing about labor practices to acknowledge that this probably goes on at more places, far less publicly, than they’d ever care to admit (or boycott). So now that that’s out of the way…
First order was the Patata Rossa — roasted red potatoes, rosemary, caramelized onions, fontina for me and a sausage pizza for the husband. Fell in love with this pizza — till I realized I could make it at home with a brioche crust far more cheaply.
Have since had several pizzas (mostly veggie) on whole wheat. Husband always orders sausage and seems very satisfied.
Salads leave something to be desired — not many veggies, but then again… I like my salads to fill a mixing bowl and have 6 – 8 different veggies, so I have high expectations. The feta on the Greek is delicious, though.
This is thin-​crust, pizza, folks. So be prepared for that. On occasion the dough is baked unevenly — burnt in places, underdone in others.
Bottom line — although pricey, I choose it over Checkmate about a block away.
Delivery prompt, drivers friendly, and you can order ahead for the evening and spend your workday drooling over it in anticipation.

When you pay top dollar for a pizza ($ 20), you expect a good pizza. This place is garbage! It’s cool to see the 2 or 3 over worked guys moving as fast as I have ever seen workers move, but the pizza isn’t any better than the other places around, which are cheaper. Nothing special here folks, not worth the price tag either. Also, I am a coupon guy and before I ordered here I did look up online for coupons and I printed out a coupon from «The Upper Crust» and brought it in. Sorry, Mr. Manager dude who got mad at me because it was a different company. I didn’t know there were other Upper Crust’s around, I thought it was your company. You didn’t have to yell at me for it, I didn’t care about the $ 3 off that much. You could have just politely told me.

It’s there, and you’re hungry, so you go.
tasty but used to be better, more substantial pizza 5+ years ago.
they said they deliver to all of roslindale but after reading Kris P.‘s review, I’d call and double-​check that factoid for truth.
staff there has always been really nice. i tend to ask questions and they did not seem to mind.
slice of the day was 3.84 $ish before a drink or salad fyi.

Great pizza but bit pricey

Always. Soggy. Pizza.
Seriously, like every effing time, at every effing location. You may ask, «Why do you keep going back?» Well, between drunken, late nights, impromptu office outings, and other scenarios where you’re dragged around by OTHER people… between all that ish, I’ve had more than my fair share of the Upper Crust

Tried this place for the first time since it opened a few months back in the center of West Roxbury. It will make it a lot easier once they have online ordering but the web menu was accurate and concise.
The choices here are unique and all sound pretty good and some of the topping choices are equally as creative. We tried a white 3 cheese with pepperoni and ordered a large which was gigantic. The staff seems friendly over the phone and the delivery was just as friendly and fast. However the prices are a bit high and although this seems like it is gourmet pizza, the area has about 6 pizza places within a 4 block radius so they might want to think about adjusting prices.
The pizza is a very thin cracker crust and had a great taste with large slices. You definetly get your moneys worth. It would have been a better experience if I didn’t feel so sick all the next day possibly from the rich cheeses on this pizza. Next time I would try one without so much cheese. Not bad and a welcome addition to the neighborhood.

i just love false advertising. called them. they asked if i lived in west rox or rosi. i said, actually, i live in jp (since their website says they deliver to jp). «oh,» the very polite person on the phone said, «that’s too far for us.»
«uh,» i said. «your website says you do.»
«oh,» came the polite reply. «that’s a corporate thing. all i know is we don’t go there.»
nice.

Transcript:
Upper Crust: Upper Crust West Roxbury, what can I do for you?
Kirs P.: Hi, I’d like an order for delivery.
UC: Okay, what’s your phone number.
KP: 617−555-STFU
UC: Address?
KP: 1235 Awesome Street, #1
UC: Where’s that?
KP: JP
UC: Hold on a sec.
Wait. Wait. Wait.
UC: Yeah, we don’t deliver there.
KP: Your website clearly says you deliver to JP.
UC: Yeah, we don’t deliver there.
KP: Seriously? Your website says you do.
UC: We don’t deliver there.
KP: You’ve got to be kidding me.
UC: We don’t deliver there.
KP: Well, thanks for the false advertisement! Good luck with that.

we’ve ordered delivery from here a few times, and they haven’t disappointed us once! Delivery is always on time. Pizza’s always hot.
As far as the food goes, we like it a lot. I LOVE super thin crust, and this one in particular is very tasty. So far I like the ranch pizza they have the best, and the harvard street is my fiancé’s favorite.
We’re definitely going back!
Minus one star for being a bit expensive

Most of the bad reviews for this location seem to be with delivery, and I have never had Upper Crust deliver so I am basing this review on pick up only.
When I heard they were opening an upper crust in West Roxbury I was intrigued because the Phantom Gourmet raves about it constantly, and I have never had the chance to try it and see what all the fuss was about. I’m glad they opened up around here as the pizza is really good.
Upper Crust is not typical gooey cheesy sloppy pizza, it’s a more fresh and high end take on pizza which I happen to enjoy. The ingredients are always fresh, from the toppings down to the chunks of tomatoes used in the sauce. I highly recomend the Buffalo Chicken pizza as it is loaded with fresh pieces of moist chicken and covered in chunks of blue cheese. The service is always good when I arrive to pick up my order, it’s not over the top great, but it’s just picking up pizza people, nothing to really be over the top excited about.
My only 2 complaints are the parking, which is horrible as you can never find a spot out front and always have to run across busy Center street dodging cars all while trying to keep the pizza toppings from sliding across the pizza looking like a drunk ballerina in the process.
Second complaint is the pricing, although they do offer a small version which is less money a large pizza with an ample amount of toppings will cost you upwards of $ 22. I personally do not mind paying a higher price for higher quality, so I have no problems paying for Upper Crust, but it’s also a guilty pleasure that should be enjoyed in moderation, if you plan on getting a pizza from here every weekend you might want to consider taking out a loan just in case.

I’ve never really understood why people rave about Upper Crust. It’s very expensive, the crust is too thin and the slice selection is usually limited. My best theory is that Boston had been deprived of good pizza for so long (with a few exceptions like Doyle’s or Pleasant Café, which I have reviewed) that mediocre is great. There are far better, more reasonable choices in town.

We ordered some Za from the Upper Crust in W. Roxbury last night. One «Fenway» –sauage, onions and peppers and one“Spinach Leaf” –spinach, garlic and ricotta cheese.
If you like super thin crust pizza, you will probably love this one.
Personally I like my crust a bit thicker and I love cheese.
The «Spinach Leaf» only had ricotta, no mozzarella. It definitely had garlic, which I do love, so if you are sensitive to it, beware.
The «Fenway» was tasty, nice use of red and green peppers. The sausage was sliced discs, not chunks.
The crust was slightly on the chewy side, not as crispy as I would have thought by looking at it.
It was a bit pricey for what we got, not crazy spendy, but not a great deal.
Upper Cust Pizza: My lady LOVED it. I would eat it again, but wouldn’t order it on purpose.

Love the new restaurant in West Roxbury! Awesome pizza. We’ll be back often.
Here is a quick write-​up posted on RainyDayMagazine:
Click on any of the images for a larger version.
Sincerely,
RainyDayInterns