Brick Oven Restaurant
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
9 Reviews for Brick Oven Restaurant
The old staff used to be much more friendly. The pizza is decent. The Caesar salad isn't the best . The dressing is too thin and watery.
Much better pizza than a typical take out/delivery place (like Domino's, Pizza Hut, etc.)
I've taken out pizza two times from this location and in both cases, the pizza was very good with fresh ingredients and slightly almost burnt crispy crust (if you are fond of deep dish pies, this isn't for you).
The selection of toppings is ample and you could go wild and make a really unique pizza if you like.
Service is adequate and friendly -- the pizza took a reasonable amount of time to be ready (maybe no longer than 15 minutes).
I can be pretty forgiving of crappy service at inexpensive restaurants. You know the equation: The more expensive the restaurant, the more I expect in terms of service. However, we went here on a weekend for lunch, and had some of THE WORST service I've ever had. And they were NOT busy.
Our waiter was either new or on coke or stupid or all of the above. He was nervous and spazzy and forgetful. It took us FOREVER to get a server then FOREVER for him to take our order then FOREVER for our food to arrive and FOREVER for me to get more tea and FOREVER for us to get the damn check and then--you guessed it--FOREVER for him to bring back the change. This super long lunchtime experience did NOT sit well with my impatient toddler, and it certainly didn't make me or The Man very happy.
And the food? I honestly can't remember what the hell we had because the service was so extraordinarily craptacular, that it simply obliterates any memory I had of the meal itself. I think I may have had a sandwich, but don't hold me to that.
Maybe this was just an off day with a dingbat waiter, but I won't be going back to find out if they can do it better.
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Let's just get it out of the way right now that I'd give this place a 3.5 and not a 3 if there were such things as half-stars here...
Brick Oven...what a swell place. At first, I thought this was going to be another regular old run-of-the-mill chain restaurant...reason being that, from the outside, the Brodie Lane location is housed within a lovely little carbon copy shopping strip. Glad I ended up shoving down my inner food snob, because this place actually ends up being well above average.
Stepping into the Brick oven on Brodie, ones olfactory glands are assaulted by a pleasant little Italian Mafia family's worth of good smells. They wield litte tommy guns that shoot out a barrage of oven-fired pizza, calzone, stromboli and pasta smells. The pain from the bullet wounds is oh-so-good. As the big enforcer-esque guys hold you down while another shovels tasty food into your ugly mug, you can't help but think, "Gee, 'dis ain't so bad...dis' woody-tasting stuff, ya' know?" Go ahead; garrote me with the mozzarella. Pry at me with the pepperoni and slug me with the sausage. Rail on me with the spinach-stuffed ravioli. And...when you're done...you can cover my bruised and battered body with a bunch of tasty flame-kist pizzas. My headstone'll read, "Andrew G: Lover. Eater of Food. He wasn't a Rat Bastard Like We All Thought. He Actually Kind Of Had Good Taste In Food. So You Should Listen to Him When He Says Go Have Some Brick Oven."
Or something like that.
The Brick Oven Brodie Lane location has pretty decent ambiance. It's big and open, with the brick-oven part of the kitchen in sight upon entry. There are two huge open eating areas to the left and the right. The high ceilings are nice, but it does lend to a noisy eating environment.
One thing I noticed right off the Louisville Slugger(tm) is there are a lot of young'ns in the staff line-up, from the host group to the waitstaff. Not a big deal, as they are friendly enough, but it's just kind of funny in the sense that it seems like this might be a more 'adult-ish' kind of place.
My first trip there was to get some carry-out pizza. I ordered a half-Margherita, half sausage and green pepper, and a half Mediterranean (a "hearty grouping of herbed meatballs with roasted garlic pesto, green and black olives, feta and mozzarella cheeses, red onions, oregano, and olive oil") and a half standard pepperoni pizza. When I got home, I was displeased to find that my half sausage and green pepper was missing, and in its place was another half of a standard pepperoni. So...that's weird. Why would I order two halves of a pepperoni pizza? Wouldn't that just mean I'd want a whole pepperoni pizza or something? I guess that happens when you place your order with a hormones-are-raging teen-ish aged kid. Strombolis all of a sudden become some sort of phallic symbol. And I guess the calzones could make one think of boobs if the hormones are at particularly mind-altering levels. I just don't know.
Despite the mistake, I'd say the pizzas were above average. The oven-fired thing lends a lot of weight here. The crust leaned more towards the thin side, but I wish it was a little more well done. Of particular note was the Mediterranean; I was expecting overpowering, but it wasn't. That was impressive for a pizza with the kind of stuff it had on it.
We decided to go in and sit down on the second trip there. I ordered a stromboli (pepperoni, sausage, super light mushrooms, riccota and mozzarella) and Incredibly Hot Wife ordered baked spinach-stuffed ravioli. The dough used to make the stromboli was pretty awesome...but it maybe could have been just a tiny bit less doughy with more fillings on the inside. It was certainly giant. I like to use baby arms as means of measurement when it comes to things of this shape, and I'd say it was probably one-and-a-half...almost two...baby arms worth of food. The sauce it came with was average. I needed to add some pepper flakes to make give it a little kick. The stuffed spinach ravioli was really good. When something has spinach in it, I tend to avoid it because I don't like slimy green vegetable things unless it's covered in lots of unhealthy-but-really good tasting something-or-other foodstuffs. In this case, the spinach foulness was wrapped in the ravioli pasta shell, mixed with cheese and covered in red sauce. That's a good combo. It fools me into thinking that it's something I could eat regularly.
The Brick Oven is a place I will most likely continue to eat at when I want either good standard Italian fare that isn't from some awful chain that has the words Olive or Garden in the name or a more unique-tasting slightly-overpriced pizza.
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Brick oven does passable pizza. The crust is thin, but often a little blackened. The cheese is nothing to write home about. But the Portabello Mushroom & Prosciutto Pizza is actually quite nice, and we usually start with the Caesar Salad which is also not bad. I tried several duds on the menu until I found these, so I'm not inclined to explore further. When we're in the mood for sit-down pizza on our side of town, this is where we go.
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I really enjoy Brick Oven's pizza. So much, in fact, that I've never had any of their other entrees! Their crust is pretty thin -- not cracker thin -- but thin enough were the outside is crispy but the inside is a little chewy. I'm a big fan of their Margherita pizza -- fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil. Yum!
I have both dined in and gotten pizza as take out (I'm not sure if they deliver). I like the atmosphere of the restaurant. The tables are spaced well apart. There are actually two separate dining areas which is nice. I like the rock work. Service is usually pretty good.
The reason I probably don't eat at (or from) Brick Oven more often, is because their pizza is pretty pricey. It's GOOD, I just don't know if it's that good. A medium (6 slices) usually runs $11-13. A large is more around $17-19 (depending on toppings). And I know it's a restaurant so you would probably expect to pay more than say, papa john's, but when you are picking the pizza up to eat at home, it just feels wrong to pay that much. On the plus side (at least there used to be, I haven't noticed it lately) there were almost always $3 off a large pizza coupons in the chronicle.
Tasty pizza, but on the pricey side.
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It smells great when you walk in, like lots of garlic. The food was very good, but maybe not great. Good service & warm atmosphere.
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This restaurant is the best! We came in on a very busy Saturday night and were greeted with smiles and had the best service ever. Our spinach and artichoke pizza was to die for, the wine was perfect and the chocalate mousse cake is highly addictive. The manager, Christine, came by just to see how we were enjoying our dinner and made us feel as if we were the most important customers in the restaurant. My husband and I highly reccommend this Brick Oven!!!!
this place has been in business for 25 years. yes, it's austin. but seriously, it's not that good. mediocre. actually, it depends what you get. the european pizza is a huge addiction of mine, i'll probably eat it for the rest of my life. other than that, meh. all the sauces with any cream in them are really smothered with it. it makes you sick after 10 bites and they all have the same heavy cream taste to them. the marinara is nothing special, and the pasta and sauce are always a watery combo.
some of the pizzas are good, i guess, but if you "build your own," PLEASE add some romano or asiago cheese because i don't know what's up with the mozzarella but it is sick by itself. and god forbid you ever get just a plain slice... pre-made and disgusting.
the only dessert made there is the tiramisu, which is pretty good, but not out of this world. the other three cakes are all refined, store bought rip offs.
the wine is nothing you can't buy in any grocery store for half the price, but at least on $10 bottle tuesdays you can walk out with the rest of the bottle if you don't finish it. really only a plus if you're single and still need to be able to drive home.
olive garden tastes better and that's kind of sad. vinnie's or romeo's kick ass though, and have a better selection in everything. poor brick oven.
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