A Dallas institute, Campisi’s has been around since the 1940’s and is accustomed to being at the top of the list when it comes to best pizzas in the DFW area. My first experience came during Memorial weekend while staying in Rockwall for the weekend.
Founded in 1946 as Campisi’s Egyptian Lounge by Joseph Campisi, Joseph is well known for his connection to organized crime. In fact, Jack Ruby was a regular at the restaurant and ate there the night before he shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Today Campisi’s focuses on what they call “Roman” cuisine and operates 8 DFW locations which constantly wins awards for its pizza. The brand new Rockwall location is where we decided to dine.
The one in Rockwall is located in the Harbor area right next to Lake Ray Hubbard. This location has a more limited menu compared to the others, not offering any pasta dishes, just pizza. That was OK with me because that is what I wanted anyways. The restaurant is rather small with a small patio, bar area with some high tops, and tiny dinning area. How it works is you order at the counter, they give you a number, and a server brings you out the food when its ready. I haven’t seen many pizza places set up like this. We ordered a medium pepperoni pizza and some Joe’s “Famous” Garlic Toast with melted smoked provolone cheese. We also grabbed a couple Peroni’s from their small drink menu which also included a few different wines.The Garlic Toast came out first, and it was simply AWESOME. The smoked provolone cheese had the perfect smokiness and the toast dissolved in your mouth like butter. I was really impressed, a must try. Next was the pizza, which was oval shaped on thin crust. I don’t know if the oval shaped pizza is a DFW thing, but I had never seen it until I moved here. I Fratelli’s, another superb pizza joint, also does the oval pizza concept. The pizza was pretty good. The thin crust had a buttery taste to it which I liked and there was a perfect amount of cheese, pepperoni and crunchyness. The thing that got me though was the lack of flavor with the cheese, especially after how flavorful the cheese was on the garlic toast. The cheese falls short of I Fratelli’s whose cheese has much more flavor on top of a similar buttery crust.
In essence, Campisi’s is still a really good pizza joint. Not too pricey and the Garlic Toast was worth going for alone. Pizza was not bad by any means, but I have had better considering all the hype there is behind the place. The concept is a little odd too by waiting for your pizza but I can live with that because they probably do a bulk of their orders as carryout. If you haven’t been, go try it out, but afterward try I Fratelli’s and let me know which one you like better!
Price: $$
Pro’s: Joes Garlic Toast (Phenomenal), Not too Pricey
Cons: Pizza was good, but have had better, Weird Operation.
Rating: 77% Approved
Website: Campisis.us
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