Brucci’s Restaurant Review

It’s TEAL DEAL season! This year, being that I’m an “All in” Jaguars fan again, I will be starting a special page that will have reviews of the Teal Deals that are provided to the season ticket holders of the Jacksonville Jaguars. One thing I like about these deals are that they often get you to try something that isn’t normally in your restaurant routine. Check out the Brucci’s Restaurant Review below:

13500 Beach Blvd. Suite 36
Jacksonville, FL. 32224
(904)223-6913

Location: It’s in the strip mall on the corner of Beach Blvd and Hodges. The one with WalMart in it. It is a couple stores down from the now failed Bubba Burgers restaurant.

Teal Deal: Receive $10 Towards Your Minimum Purchase of $25 at Brucci’s Pizza

Food: I was wanting some pizza, so the wife logged into the TealDeals.com website and picked us out one that we hadn’t been to yet, and off we went. One pizza that caught our eye was the one on their website, it was one of the ones pictured. It had sausage, along with other toppings, and HUGE  feta crumbles all over it. You had me at feta. That was what we wanted. After pulling into the strip mall, I immediately saw that the sign was off (we were there at night). They were open, but the big sign for the restaurant was off…marketing 101 fail. ALWAYS have your sign on, if people are driving down Hodges and see the sign is off, they are just going to keep looking for somewhere else (end rant).

Once we were seated and had looked over the menu, we discovered that the pizza wasn’t a standard pizza, if we wanted the one in the picture, we were going to have to build it. That pizza would have easily cost us around $35. No thanks. We decided to go with the 16″ “Gourmet” (Menu description: Fresh spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, artichoke hearts and feta cheese for $19.99) and we added pepperoni and bacon at $1.79 and $2.79 each.

The bacon was more expensive because that is a “gourmet” topping. We also swapped the black olives for green olives. We threw in a couple drinks to get wash it all down and then waited for the food. The wait wasn’t long, so that was nice. Once the pizza arrived, the first thing I noticed was that the feta was sparse. Nothing like the amount in the pictures on their website, not even close. I hate that, when it’s not the same.

I can accept that there will always be a variation but this wasn’t even remotely close. To me, they are just setting the customer up to be disappointed. Back to the food… the pizza was actually pretty good. The crust was crisp and the pizza went pretty far out so there wasn’t an excessive amount of ” naked” crust. Another thing was the green olives were sparse as well, and several pieces didn’t have any on them at all. The wifey noticed as well and I hadn’t even voiced the thought yet. 2 of 2 agree, toppings could be more generous.

Extras: When we walked in, there was live music. To the right of the entrance is a bar area with a couple flat screens to watch whatever sporting event is on. All the seating is straight in front of the oven/pizza prep area, tons of booths. It was close to the end of the night, so there weren’t a ton of people there but everyone seemed to be happy and having a good time. I can’t remember what night it said, but on the table there was a special designated night that was buy one get one free pizza. That would be my suggestion if you are going here, and don’t have a Teal Deal.

The good:
– Local restaurant, not a chain
– Fresh ingredients
– Lots of seating and a small bar if you just want a beer (no liquor)

The bad:
– Stingy with the toppings
– Extra “gourmet” toppings are 2.79 each