We tried Isa's on a week night when there was nothing left in the house and Mama was way too tired to cook. I saw the restaurant on 40th and Bell and wondered how good it could be. Well...it rocks! It has been a while since I have enjoyed a true New York pizza place in Phoenix. We have been to other places and they were good, but this place takes it up a notch. We tried a pepperoni and extra cheese and eggplant with ricotta. The crust is thin at the center and nice and fluffy at the outer crust. Nice. Also, the crust and sauce was not too sweet. We have encountered that at several places. Sweet sauce? Yuck! While some NY style pizza can be overly greasy, not so with Isa's. The pepperoni and extra cheese was really yummy. My kids downed a whole pizza themselves. I personally loved the eggplant and ricotta. It had thin slices of oven roasted eggplant, mozzarella and lovely dollops of ricotta. A nice change. I make my own vegetarian pizza that is fantastic. This pizza could compete with mine. The delivery was a little slow and the cost was a little pricey, however, I am tired of bad pizza. In fact, I don't eat pizza unless I think it will be good. Call me a pizza snob, but I believe life is too short for bad pizza, cheap ice cream. and stinky wine.

positive

At a certain point, the bad service goes from amusing to just intolerably bad. Taking over an hour to eat at a lunch time place is a no go. Offering to refill two people's diet Pepsi and then switching the glasses is something we avoided on this particular trip, but has happened in the past. Really only go here if you aren't on a schedule and don't mind fairly mediocre food.

negative

After reading about the wait most people have at Babycakes Cafe I decided to give another breakfast place a try (I'll try Babycakes one day...). So I Yelped a spot and was instantly intrigued by Rise and Shine. It was the location-not far from where I live- and those darn cute flower umbrellas that they have hanging from their ceiling. It was busy but with a ten minute wait on a Sunday Morning I'm not complaining....The flower umbrellas were so cute and everytime the door opened the air spinned some of them around-Whimsical I tell ya!!! Anyways, I did also enjoy all the mosaics on the walls as well-Artsie!!! The food= An option for bread is a cinnamon bread baked in a flower pot with a knife stabbed in the top served with butter and strawberry jam. Let me tell ya one is not enough- It was so good but I wish those flower pots were fatter for more darn warm yummy bread. Cute idea though... I loved reading that the Chicken in the Chicken and Waffles was a chicken breast-YAY!!!!!! So I picked that and it was really good. The breading was pretty tasty and spicy as well and the chicken breast was pounded flat so you got a pretty big piece. My daughter got a short stack of pancakes-So fluffy and good too...Now on to the grumpy BF who already was having attitude-He got eggs,hash browns and bacon-He was not impressed and hated his bacon-Oh well, so sad....I tried his food and it was fine he is just too particular about his bacon but like I told him thats why you have a voice use it and request what you like!!! I will be back and the BF can wait in the car....

positive

Stayed here four times over five years. Each time it got worse. Was assigned a smoking room when we specifically asked for nonsmoking. They had a convention and said no other rooms were available. The room stank of smoke, was filfthy dirty with cigarette burns on the furniture, drapes and bedspread. There were no toiletries. Asked front desk for housekeeping and they never came even after two requests. Stay away!
negative