Pagliai's Pizza

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by alexa s

My extended family meets at Pagliai's once a month for dinner. We really love the pizza, and the staff is always willing to make sure everyone is having a great time. The kids love the crayons and the menus to color. The adults love being in a pizza restaurant that has some atmosphere.

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by jimmy K.

We are impressed side salad what fresh mixed greens, very nice. Our pizza was Awesome! The cheese, sausage, onion pizza toppings were yummy! Pagliai’s pizza sauce is simply delish. The service was very good just right. I went to school at Iowa and the dined at the IC Pagliai's weekly, the pizza just as outstanding! It’s super to have the expanded menu!

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by nevesis

After eating at Pagliai's in Iowa City at least weekly for four years, Pagliai's in Johnston is a sore disappointment. This place lacks the passion, evident from their expanded menu and poor service, but that would be forgivable had it kept the Iowa City recipe. Sadly, it has not.

Actually, disappointed would be an understatement.

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by A and D

A and D visited Pagliai's Pizza in Johnston for the first time. A had a cheese and garlic, D a sausage and pepperoni, both 10-inch.

This is superb pizza. Perfect sauce, perfect sausage, perfect cheese, perfect thin crust.

D used to get Pagliai's pizza in the 1970s in the university town of DeKalb, Illinois. It was the best pizza D ever had and the pizza at the Johnston store is EXACTLY the same pizza remembered from 35 years ago.

This is a pizza success story. The Pagliai family began the pizza business in Iowa back in the 1950s. Eventually, they would have stores throughout the Midwest. The stores are spotless, the service is excellent, and the managers are focused on the customers. And that focus has never changed since the founding of the original store.

While it is not Grazziano's sausage, Pagliai's makes their own using choice, small cuts of pork and it is excellent. The cheese is sourced from a single manufacturer in Wisconsin that has been making the cheese to Pagliai's specifications for years. This is a very well-run business in what must be the third generation, with an obsessive focus on doing one thing well: Running a great restaurant.

Salads are excellent; meatball sandwiches are huge; pasta dishes are great. Good selection of beer and wine. Pricing is very reasonable.

Five Stars. Great value. Superb service. Wonderful pizza.

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by Bret

Horrible slow service and I've had better frozen pizza from the grocery store.

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by Danny

Bing Bada Boom Best Pizza in the Metro

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by Connie

Love the pizza & salads both crispy!
This restaurant is clean too.

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by Frank

Good pizza I love the pepperoni pesto just the right blend of toppings:)

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by jimmy Heart

Great Zaa...service to match, thin crispy crust, sauce that talks to ya! Be there, Pizza Land this place must be owned by the MOB!

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by Cheffy

The only pizza I have found so far in Des Moines thats consistent and tasty. Thin crust, nice vibrant sauce and a nice cheese. They don't skip on the toppings and they get your right to you. Take-away, dine-in or delivery, their pies stand out.

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by Pete

Opens late afternoon, simple no-frills menu, great pizza. No the best pizza I've ever had. In fact, I've probably eaten around 200 pizzas there over the past 10 years.

Wait staff and cooks are utterly clean-cut, professional, and polite.
I have had nothing but positive experiences at Pagliai's.

I'm addicted to the sauce, THE SAUCE GOT TO GET ME ONE!

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Tips for Pagliai's Pizza from foursquare users

Bryan B.

The "House" special is our favorite., largely due to the sausage they use here. Great pizza.

1 person has done this

John H.

My vote for the best Pizza in the DSM area!

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