Q: Let me preface a few things just so we're clear as to where I'm coming from. 1. I'm from Chicago, so deep dish is where it's at, though that doesn't mean I lack the ability to appreciate a good slice when I have one, no matter the style. But pizza is pizza, and good pizza is easy to recognize. 2. This place is so hyped-up, it's difficult not to expect some very delicious food, so as you can tell by my rating, it did not meet expectations. 3. I do enjoy hatin' on things, but in reviews, I try to keep a relatively civil and open mind and give the benefit of the doubt where I can. That said, let's begin... I can only think of one word to describe Pizzeria Bianco (obvious as it may be): Overrated. I'm pretty sure the popularity of this place lies in its' exclusivity. A sense of snobbery, but its' accessible to the average Joe with 3+ hours to kill. We arrived one evening a month so back. It was a bit of a going-away party with my fiance and I, and two of our closest friends. We knew the place was popular, so were prepared to wait. After putting our names in (if I recall, it was around 6 or so when we did such), and told of our three-hour-tour of a wait, we decided to head next door. I was told the "bar" next door was owned by the same folks, so we thought why not make it a Bianco-evening. Upon entrance to the "bar," which is basically the waiting area for patient patrons, we discovered that this place was also full to the brim. Also, I should note that I keep using quotes around the word bar because they only had a few beers on tap, and a wine list. Neither of those things strikes a fancy with me, though as a self proclaimed alcoholic, I'll drink what's available. The issue though, was still that the place was packed. After some deliberation, and a great backup plan from my fiance, we actually decided to go across the way to the British pub (Rose and Crown I believe; awesome place too, but that's a different review). After several rounds of drinks and pool, we figured our three-hour wait was about up (it was actually a little over even). We moseyed our way back over to Bianco, and proceeded to wait another half hour or so. Finally, around 9:30 or so, we were inside and seated, fortunately enough, in my own seat and not the next patron's lap. This place is tiny (remember, exclusivity). A quarter of the restaurant is the "kitchen" with the brick oven for the pizzas. Great! We can watch our pizzas come out of the oven; finally some promise... Speaking of the food, we ordered an appetizer of prosciutto wrapped asparagus with mozzarella cheese. I hate to spoil the review early (if you can call this early), but this was the highlight of the meal, and to be honest, what doesn't taste good wrapped in prosciutto (or bacon). A bottle of wine for the table, and four ordered pizzas later, we were ready for the main-course. If you're still reading, then you know this is all down hill. Thin crust? I knew that was coming, and I'm fine with it. Surprisingly small, I think we managed to fit all four pizzas on our table without space concerns, so I'm thinking these were probably 12" or so (14" maybe?). I'm a carnivore, so I required that the pizzas we ordered contained meat, which 3 of the 4 did. Don't get me wrong, I like veggies too, but they're only part of a well rounded meal. We ordered: The Rosa, The Wiseguy, The Sonny Boy and The Biancoverde. Now I'm going to say that if you hand-cook each of your pizzas (as I was told the owner does), I would think you could manage to not send them out black on the bottom, especially after thousands of practices prior to these four. Maybe I'm not hip to how they do it in Italy, but I'm not a fan of carbon-flavored pizza crust, which all of our pizzas were. As for the top-side of the pies, they were lacking in the flavor department. Now I don't want to sit here and slam the place outright, so I will give them this: These were some of the freshest ingredients I've seen in a restaurant, which was very nice. The caveat though is that you need to support these star ingredients (fresh cheeses and veggies and meats) with some good spices, or at least aromas, both of which were M.I.A. I can appreciate a minimalist approach, but this was bare-bones ingredient-listing. Bianco is definitely not worth the time or the effort. In all actuality, you could take a pizza-cooking class, swing by the store on your way home, pick up some fresh ingredients, and cook the thing yourself (and add your own flavors to boot) in the same amount of time you would wait, sit down, eat and leave. I would have at least thought that being relatively hammered, everything would have tasted good, but alas, that wasn't the case. Save yourself the hassle, get bombed and cook your own pizza; at least you'll have a more-fun 3+ hours.

A: negative

Q: Just stayed here for one night and it was passable. It wasn't awesome, but it is well located and fairly clean. It's just a bit dated and tired looking. The staff is friendly, so it's got that going for it.

A: negative

Q: Last week I stopped by here for a quick lunch with an associate. We saw the advertisements on the window for 2 slices of pizza and a soda for $3.99. It seemed like a good idea to stop in for a quick lunch. The place was quiet on a Monday at around lunch time. The atmosphere of Piza is "divey" with writing and personal pictures on the wall. I have to say I did like the atmosphere otherwise my rating would be a mere one star. The pizza slices were pulled out from a refrigerator and reheated. Each slice had that slightly burnt toaster oven look and feel to it. I want to say that the cheese pizza tasted like reheated Costco pizza, but that would be a kind exaggeration. It tasted more like warmed over supermarket chain pizza. I was relieved that the price of the lunch was merely $3.99. In all fairness, this lunch by far was the most affordable lunch I have had since my company moved to downtown Chandler. Overall, I found humor in my experience. The pizza was so awful that I had to laugh. This one I am not recommending!

A:
negative