I just want to say a big thanks to John's!!! I noted some disappointment on this very board that they didn't deliever to me, and they responded by sending me a private message and fixing it. Thats service! It is refreshing to have a place that actually cares what the customers think and are actively trying to make their place better. Besides just awesome pizza, this is just what I want from a new business. THANKS so much. I am a customer for a very long time.

PS My delivery pizza was top notch! Couldn't be happier. Heres to many years of John's downtown

came here for lunch a few weeks ago, on a thursday afternoon. The server kept messing up our order and the order of the table next to us because the waiter had put the wrong table numbers on each order. So our order would goto the other table while we'd get the other table's order.

the pizza itself was very good, especially since we only had an hour for lunch. But we tried to order dessert but they were out of both tirimisu and the chocolate mousse cake. we got coffee instead, but at least it was on the house.

And my friend went last week, on a sunday night, and he said that they ran out of tirimisu then too.

Has anyone else experienced a dessert shortage while eating at John's?

I ordered delivery for lunch. It arrived warm, so I threw it in a 450 oven for 3 minutes - then it was hot. Tho I would rather have a warm tasty pizza - burn marks rock - than a hot gunky one. And most of the pizza in JC is gunky (gooey nasty and yecky with a definite wet component). Sorry.

Anyway, good ingredients, nice balance, crust gooood.

Finally somebody that can cook a thin crust pizza.....

Welcome to the neighborhood John's Pizza.

Tried John's last night and i have to say it was excellent. We sat at the bar, the service was quick and friendly and the pizza was perfectly thin and crispy. I tried the ceasar salad and really didnt think it was worth the $9..it was small and there was really nothing special about it for the price, but this is my new place for pizza with out a doubt!!

Pizza was pretty good in the restaurant (way better than 45-minute-old delivery) but whatever you do DON"T order the garlic bread. It was soggy, bland and just plain awful. I mean, the frozen bread from the grocery store would be WAAY better. This was just gross. Complained to the waitress but got charged for it anyway. The owners should be embarrassed. There are several fantastic bakeries in JC and Hoboken but they obviously don't care enough to serve decent bread. Definitely won't return.

UNDER A SKYLINE VIEW

Friday, May 09, 2008
By CHARLES HACK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Diners at Paulus Hook's newly opened John's Pizzeria can chow down on New York-style pizza while gazing at their favorite Jersey City buildings, thanks to local artist Richard La Rovere, who was commissioned to paint a mural of the city's skyline viewed from the Hudson River.

Looking for original art to enhance her restaurant, owner Lisa Castellotti wanted to create a mural reminiscent of a giant painting that shows a view over Manhattan's skyscrapers at her family's Times Square restaurant.

So she asked La Rovere, a lifelong Jersey City resident, to paint a contemporary view of the waterfront after finding his pen and ink and water color drawings of city street scenes on the Internet.

"It's a great conversation piece," Castellotti said. "When people go to our store in Manhattan they read it. I see people doing that here and pointing out where they live."

La Rovere, 52, who has lived most of his life in the Heights, was happy to take up the challenge of painting the largest work of his career on three canvasses, 6-by 6-foot, which when laid side by side create a bird's-eye view looking west at Jersey City's Downtown skyline.

The panorama stretches from the old Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal at Liberty State Park to the 14th Street Viaduct in Hoboken.

Street blocks are represented by simple blocks but drawn in detail are landmarks and buildings such as the Goldman Sachs tower, the Jersey City and Hoboken city halls, the Newport development, the Beacon condominiums, the Powerhouse, Dickinson High School and Hoboken's public housing.

Although trying to accurately reflect the grid of Jersey City, La Rovere has taken some artistic license, for example floating Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty upstream to fit in the frame.

La Rovere, a freelance artist, holds a degree in commercial art. As well as doing work for architects and real estate agents, there is a collection of his art at the Jersey City Museum.

His work can be seen at www.cityofjerseycity.org/larovereprint.shtml.

I am a tad disappointed at the fact I am not in John's delivery area. I live on 2nd street back by Monmouth. I guess its too far for them, but I have got food delivered from Hoboken before and thats further, so I guess they are trying to save on gas. I love the pizza, but I want to eat it at home.

I tried John's last weekend and I am a fan of thin slices - the pizza, although not the best I've had, was very good.

I did notice they lowered their prices for their martinis a few dollars compared to what people reported in this thread, although they are still not a great value. Also, it would be nice if the tables didn't have those big round bases so you could pull in your chair more.

A good dine-in option for pizza, I'll be going there again.

So the John's Pizza in JC is affiliated with the one in Times Square?

I tried john's last weekend, and enjoyed the food. I'm not a fan of thin slices, so I wasn't overly impressed with the pizza, but the calzone and pasta was really good!

bigmark,
It's good to have you all in the neighborhood - there was a need for a casual dining place where you can sit down, have a meal and a couple rounds of beer for about half of what it would cost at the high-end places in the n'hood. I now forgive you for closing the upper west side John's.

WOW! thanks for the tremendous response .In reading all the comments we at Johns would like to offer thanks for all the compliments and offer apologies for any disappointments.
I'd like to point out that we've kept an eye on your comments and have acted.Staff changes and price changes have been implemented.
We have been open for just a month now and have really appreciated the way the good people of J.C. have welcomed us with so much warmth and support
Our staff is being fine tuned and have been trying their best ,some have fallen by the wayside, sometimes during a meal as was the case on our second night,but some have risen to the task We look forward to your continued support and hope that by being responsive to your constructive criticism we can better serve our community THANKS AGAIN !!!

Went this weekend. Nice resturant, but the pizza is just not my cup of tea. Pasta looked decent though.

I've been there three times and it's always been good. It's been a while since I went to John's on Bleecker, so I can't really give a comparison.

The pizza does cool down pretty quick, but otherwise it's great pizza and I've never had a problem with service.

I'm not sure if you're all having the same waitress or what but my experience could not be more different from what you're reporting.

Went there about a week ago with a friend in the late evening. We ordered the fried calamari and a pizza (and beer, of course). Waiter was attentive but not obtrusive. Calamari came out first - it was crisp and light. Pizza was out next, piping hot. Crust was thin, crisp and peppery - perfect as far as I'm concerned.

Overall - I very much enjoyed it. The space is beautiful and will be even better now that spring is here and those doors in the front can open up.

Relax. Have a beer. Take a load off.

It's funny you should mention that about the appetizers... when I was there with mygirlfriend, I overheard the couple next to us ordering. They ordered a pizza and a couple appetizers. The waitress told them that the appetizers would probably come out after the pizza. So the woman said, "How about you don't put the pizza order in until after we get the appetizers then?". The waitress looked like she saw a ghost and was both confused and amazed at the brain power behind this idea. She actually said, "Wow, that's a really good idea!". What a moron. Like I said, the pizza isn't bad (before it gets cold), but the rest of the food is horrible.

I completely forgot that I knew somebody in Newport that I could drag out to this place, so I ended up going last night. It was strange when we first got there, as there wasn't really any indication as to whether we should seat ourselves or not. Eventually, one of the waitstaff noticed that we looked confused and led us to a table.

Pizza came out pretty quickly, and the waitress was very attentive (almost too attentive). We didn't order any appetizers, so we didn't see that odd appetizer situation that NAS saw.

Definitely agree that the pizza gets too cold too quickly. Another issue is that the pie becomes soggy due to (I think) steam emanating through the bottom of the pizza and hitting the metal platter below it. I think a workaround to both of these would be to put something warm underneath the pie at serving that could wick away the moisture, maybe a pizza stone or similar... but if John's won't do that, then the best ordering workaround would be to get at least four people and order a pie at a time. As far as the flavor itself, while it's hot, it's a pretty respectable pizza. I only really have Grimaldi's in Brooklyn to compare to, and it's not as good as them, but it's still a decent pizza.

John's = Garbage

Not only is this by far the worst pizza I have ever had, but this is one of the worst restaurants I have been to.

While the waiter I had when I was there was decent, the food was horrendous.

Here are some other observations we had while there:

Observation 1

Patron: "We would like to order some calamari and a small pizza"

Waitress: "Ok, just so you know, the appetizers might come out after your pizza, they take a bit longer to cook"

Huh??? Consult dictionary for definition of appetizer.

Observation 2

Patron: "We ordered our food an hour ago, but the people next to us [myself] walked in 20 minutes ago and already have their food. You just brought us our food and the pasta is undercooked and my wife's meal is burnt"

Waiter: "Uh...yeah...let me go get my manager"

Manager: "Hi, what seems to be the problem?"

Patron: "We've been here for an hour waiting for our food, several tables have been seated after us and are now finished, and when we finally got our food it was not edible."

Manager: "Oh, well how about I give you a 10% discount"

Patron: "Uh, no, at this point we just want to leave your establishment and never return. Thanks for wasting an hour of our lives."

Observation 3 (My personal favorite)

Couple: "So, this is our second time here...so far, not so good...why did we come here again? Oh yeah, because last time the waitress quit in the middle of our meal and we thought we would give them a second chance."

This place is horrible.

You heard it here first - this place will be out of business in 3 months or less. I've been to some sub-par establishments in the Hook, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine a place could be so horrible.

Too bad on the no slices bit. I remember watching some food documentary on some of the original pizza places in NY being very angry at newer places serving slices, as it took away from pizza as an art form or something like that. I guess John's falls under that school of thinking as well.

Ah well. I guess this just makes it more likely I'll visit the NYC location with friends as opposed to the JC location by myself.

Regarding the cold slices bit, has anybody been to Grimaldi's in Brooklyn? I seem to remember (my memory's pretty awful) that the pie was actually served on a raised platform, which would only serve to cool the pizza even faster than sitting on a table, but maybe there was a candle underneath? Grimaldi's pizza was pretty thin as well, so I'm curious as to whether it's more than just the pizza getting cold that makes the John's pizza not so good.

My JC pizza eatings will continue to happen at Esperanto's, whose big ol' greasy slices of heaven continue to draw me in.

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Sorry, no slices. I think it's one of their mantras, like Taqueria with their "no guacamole" thing.

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Oh yeah, the pizza gets so cold so quickly. I guess there's just not much to hold the heat in those paper thin slices. You're best bet is to eat it at the restaurant if you want to see just how good it is. The first slice when our pie was brought to the table was fantastic, but within minutes it was very cold and not so good.

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I had this guy too. i asked for some water after he forgot the first time i asked for it and it was like i asked him for his first born

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It's hard to find decent help these days. This guy probably is depressed to have such a low commision (tips) paying job. He probably doesn't value the job and I'm wondering how important his bills are if he has any to be concerned with. For if we don't work we don't get paid.

What's with that grumpy old guy waiter? He's incredibly rude and makes you feel like your imposing on him just for being there the entire time your eating dinner. I don't need little miss sunshine waiting on me hand and foot, but this guy is just foul.

Went to John's twice last week, once for takeout and the other time had dinner outside... when I ordered takeout I too noticed that the pizza was kind of cold by the time I got back to my office (and its not a long walk!). Having dinner there was much better, the food was great. Definitely want to try the white or bruschetta pie next time!

Had an early dinner here about 2 weeks ago. Husband ordered a pepporoni calzone, they delivered calzone - no pepporoni. Oh well...Mistakes happen, no big deal. They made us a new one. I had the margharitta pizza. Food was good. Nothing spectacular about it all. I think they must have franchised because I recall John's in the Village being delicious. This was not delicious. Just good. This is also too pricey for JC. But, I'll go back.

I placed an order for pick-up Sunday night "come by in 20 minutes"...20 minutes later I'm in the store and ready to pay...so far so good. It was a bit strange to pay for the pizza in the middle of the room, but I didn't care I was looking forward to a good pizza. I bought a large Margherita pie and a side order of meatballs. So far so good. Ten minutes later I'm in my living room and ready to begin the long awaited pizza and a couple meatballs...to my amazement the pizza was COLD and the meatballs lukewarm. Due to Sunday night Laziness I did not walk back to the store and throw the food at them, I reluctantly stuck the food in the microwave and ate...completely unsatisfied! This is my first Experience with any John's pizza...I guess it can only get better, hopefully.

I don't think I've seen the answer yet, does this place serve slices or just whole pies? I can't eat a whole pie by myself...

Yup, the older blonde woman was my waitress. So bad. She messed up our order, but not as bad as she did with the two tables next to us!!! They were furious. Like I said though, the pizza was pretty good. I agree that Bertucci's is better though (and much cheaper). Just a little harder to get too for me.

I just went there this evening. It was ok nothing great. If I was blind folded I would have thought it was a regular slice. I had a pie with sausage no taste a bit bland. Grimaldi's in Hoboken wins hands down. John's can be hit and mis I had a slice in the Times Square location and it was tasty, went to their West Village joint decent as I stated "hit or mis".

Went to John's the other night with the kids and another couple. We enjoyed our meal. We orded two pizza's with toppings and couple salads. We agreed we'd go back, but next time we'll skip the $14 martinis.