Poppa Rollo’s Pizza

We went to the new Hewitt location today for lunch & must say that it was pretty good. Our waiter was very attentive & quick. My husband ordered a calzone (Italian sausage, pepperoni, cheese & sauce) & I ordered a personal pizza. I should’ve said light sauce so that’s my fault but the sauce is very bland. Was it the best pizza ever no but it was good for the price. The wait time for our food was long which was odd seeing how there was just one other couple in the place.

I loved our server but this wasn’t my favorite pizza. The crust was bland, cheese was ok, the sauce too was bland. however, they did load us up on toppings. Pricing was fare and the atmosphere was kinda cool and different. I will not be coming back due to my admittance of my pizza snobery. i own it, you can’t help it once you’ve experienced NJ pizza. Its an art.

Love hole in the wall joints like this that have been around for a long time! They have little quirky thinks like Garry Larson comics on the wall near the secret bathroom and old stained glass light fixtures that give the place a moody vintage quality no modern place can provide. Under the stairs is a little door with a faux brick wall that you have to go though to get to the bathroom and secret party room. Then in the arcade room there is a Mona Lisa replica & some other fine art… and another secret in that room! Old tin ceiling and vintage décor from the «good ‘olé days» complete the awesome ambience! You even get a free pitcher of beer on ur bday with your ID and a pizza purchase! They even have arcade games in the entry way! The upstairs loft had some tables and booths for people with kids next to a big screen TV and play area. :). Bugs bunny cartoons playing in the background! Love it! Pizza bread number 1 is ok but needs more butter/​olive oil on the bottom to compete with pizza hut’s pan pizza breadsticks. Hamburger pizza was ok. I might get the thick crust if I come back. Make sure u put ranch and jalepeno son ur pizza that they give u on the side to make the pizza even better! Food is ok, but I would come back for the overall experience. :p :p

Veggie pizza is great. Lots of toppings. The pepperoni pizza has tons of pepperonis and the best I have ever had. It is slow, but that is just the way it is here.

This location is run poorly. We will never come back. Our party of 10 arrived at 5:15 on a Tuesday, with multiple tables and booths wide open. We were immediately told that we would have to wait an hour for a table. No other parties of any size were waiting on a table. We respectfully asked for clarification since there were more than enough empty tables. The manager told us that their tables when pushed together wouldn’t make the correct number, even though that was not the case. There was plenty of open seating available. Bottom line, their hosts and the manager forfeited our business for good with their unwillingness to accommodate guests.

Turning forty-​six this year, Poppa Rollo’s is a Waco institution. They’ve been at their present location since 1979. Be prepared to wait on Friday and Saturday nights. They have several rooms, but the main room is decorated in old Italian-​restaurant kitsch. They had the Three Stooges on the television and whimsical music playing over the speakers. The feel in general is of another era – the late 70’s perhaps? They’ve won awards for being kid-​friendly, which is understandable. I didn’t see any where we were, but perhaps they were in the arcade room. We went because we had a generous coupon for a medium pizza, and we enjoyed our vegetarian pizza. Our waiter even brought out some pickled jalapenos to put on top. We also ordered side salads, complete with baco-​bits and iceberg lettuce, which came out late with our pizza, but they comped them. Maybe it is a three-​star restaurant, but it’s hard to complain when you only paid for tip.

This place cranks out a very different style pizza. Think of a pie that is overflowing toppings when it comes to your table – especially if you order sausage or hamburger. I prefer their thin crust.
The décor is certainly dark and a bit busy for my taste. But the servers are super friendly and they get it right.
We went late one Tuesday night and split an extra large pizza. The server came to our table shortly before our order arrived and sheepishly announced that the kitchen prepared a large. But, an extra large pie was being made and will be ready shorty. Without skipping a beat, she also offered to bring the second pie in a to-​go box.
Love or hate their pizza, the service was exemplary that night. Keep it up!

This pizza was pretty bad. We ordered the gluten free one, which didn’t help I’m sure… but in general the ingredients seemed low quality and the taste was barely bearable.
Staff was very friendly though, so that’s a plus.

FAVORITE pizza place in TEXAS! Obsessed with the hamburger pizza (also we get Alfredo sauce instead of pizza sauce) and its like HEAVEN!

I went as a friend said this was THE place to go in Waco. I have to say, I enjoyed it. I had a custom built pizza and a salad. WOW, great size salad that was crisp and well made. The pizza was good, but could have had just a bit more sauce as it was somewhat dry despite having lots of moist toppings. The flavor was good!
Best part was the streaming 3-​Stooges films running. I saw a couple of episodes that I had not seen in 40 years!

We went to the new Hewitt location. The pizza was good. The crust is thin and crunchy, cheese is under the toppings on the supreme with very light sauce. I like a softer crust with more sauce but this was fine.
The two stars is for the service. We went on Friday at 7 and I expected a wait because I knew it was a popular place. What I did not expect was a two hour meal for pizza. It took an hour to cook a pizza and we waited for probably 15 min for the check because the waiters appear to have tables strung across the restaurant. They need to get their logistics straight.

I have been eating and looking forward to eat at Poppa Rollo’s for around 11 years. I have made trips from Dallas to Waco for the pizza! This is a completely different place than what it was. The pizza was HORRIBLE. The crust tasted stale and old. The toppings were scarce. NOTHING like what it was. Save your money and get a frozen pizza from the grocery store. It will taste exactly the same.

This review is for the pizza. Crust has changed to premade crust, topping quality has changed and the quantity of the toppings has slimmed down. We asked the owner or should I saw the original owner why it’s different and he knows, but would not answer. Why change something that has worked for 40+ years. Their loss, two times of poor quality pizza is enough for us. It’s seems like it is not going to change back. Save your money and get a pizza from Pizza Hut.

Went to the Hewitt location and loved it. Has secret doors to different areas. Kids arcade games — earn tickets for prizes — and tvs with cartoons on. Pizza comes with bell pepper. Service was great. Moderately priced.

Don’t be deceived by the outside appearance! Love the inside and authenticity of the old school pizza parlor and arcade. Pizza and beer was delish. Try the Rollo’s special.

This review is for the new Hewitt Drive location.
Pros: Locally-​owned, fun décor, and my kids and I love the hamburger pizza. My sons say it is their favorite pizza in town and I think it’s pretty great too.
Con (a BIG one): One of the things that caused us to choose Poppa Rollos is that they serve a gluten-​free crust and have taken the time to give detailed information on their menu about which toppings contain trace amounts of gluten. My husband is very gluten intolerant and so this was a big draw for us.
The first time we went to Poppa Rollos my husband ordered a gluten-​free cheese pizza. When the pizza arrived he confirmed that it was, in fact, gluten-​free and the server assured him it was. As he was eating the pizza he raved about how good the crust was — better than any he had ever had, just like a regular crust. We left the restaurant with him saying that he was thrilled to finally find a pizza joint with a really good gluten-​free pizza.
Later that day he got really sick and spent the better part of the next three days in the bathroom. Anyone with a true gluten intolerance knows what this is like — really, really miserable. We weren’t sure what the cause was and concluded that he must have a virus because he was so ill and we couldn’t imagine where he might have gotten gluten contaminated.
Fast forward a week and we were back at Poppa Rollos for more pizza. My husband ordered the same thing — cheese pizza with a gluten-​free crust. When it came out, the crust looked and tasted completely different from the one he had at our first visit and was much more like the mediocre gluten-​free crust we have been served at other restaurants. We called the manager over and it turns out that the crust he was served at our first visit was NOT gluten-​free. No wonder he was so sick!
We explained the situation to the manager and he offered us half off on my husband’s pizza that day and was kind of casual about the whole thing. To me this was not nearly adequate compensation — our whole meal should have been comped with *profuse* apologies. I understand that it takes time to train kitchen and waitstaff in a new restaurant and sometimes it takes a while to get all the kinks worked out. But serving gluten-​intolerant guests regular pizza crust is no small thing.
Bottom line — at least at the Hewitt location, be sure to DOUBLE and TRIPLE check your order if you are gluten intolerant.

Great service for large family group. Several pizzas today but the Straight Tomato was our fave. Great service & all food/​drinks came out as ordered and immediately out of the oven. Cool atmosphere.

I stand firmly by my previous review. We got our pizza to go this time in an effort to avoid the wait and general shenanigans with the service. Still an odd hassle to get the pizza to go… Order was lost for a bit, then found, then cancelled by some random lady (?), then it was already paid for, then it wasn’t… I left money on the counter with the gentleman that was trying to figure out the system and wished him the best.
Such delicious pizza! Why, oh why, can they not work out the logistics?

My girlfriend and I come here a lot to watch the Baylor games and sit in the hidden bar area in the back. You need to enter the bar area thru the hidden wall where the rotary payphone is hung. The secret bar is a smoking area so beware.
But besides the secret bar area, the salads, pizza and pitchers of beer are really good.
We will be back :)

This is the worst pizza I have ever had in my life. I had to throw the pizza away after just eating one slice. The place is a bit run down, and it has a very unique décor. It kind of wants to be a dave and buster, but not close at all.
Sorry Waco, you’re just not cutting it for me when it comes to pizza.