Reviews Ledo Pizza

New location, still classic. It's in a new location (as of more than a year ago) but the Original Ledo's is still making the same classic pizza as it was back when I used to get drunken, late-night pies in the late 1970s.

If you don't know about this place (which is apparently not under the same corporation as the Ledos chain), it's been the University of Maryland's #1 pizza joint since the mid-1950s. It used to be in a dark, booth-and-bar oriented storefront restaurant about a mile from campus. Great place to roll up for beer and bacon. The uncooked bacon pizza was Ledo's top choice for many students, the kind of pizza where you had to throw wads of napkins on top to soak up the grease. It tasted damned good, though, and greasy treats like that are de rigeur in college.

Now Ledo's is in a bigger, brighter, Terp-focused place just off Fraternity Row. It's like the Vous (i.e. the Rendezvous beer bar, a longtime frat favourite) with pizza. I was in College Park recently and looked it up for old times sake. No change, and that's a good thing.

I was trying to analyze what makes Ledo's stand apart from other pizzerias. It's not just the rectangular shape (Ledo's is not big on round pizzas.) I'd say the crust -- it's more cracker-like than doughy, New York style rather than Chicago. The cheese is ample, but not gloopy. The bacon is still great, (I noticed the "uncooked" option is not on the menu, but they'll do it that way if you ask.) It's also the atmosphere -- if you're remotely connected with the University of Maryland, you'll be at home there.

While I wouldn't go WAY out of my way for the flagship Ledo's (I was driving back to my mom's home in Southern Maryland after going to a labour union protest in D.C. when I stopped there) if you're in the College Park area, you've gotta try a classic Ledo's pizza or you just haven't really experienced Terp-town.

The food was great, as was the service of the employees! If I had any issue with Ledo, it’s their coupon rewards policy for online orders. Many times a reward would be provided, such as a free pizza or a $5 off my next order, only the rewards would be set to expire the same day that they were provided. Not helping is that despite the rewards being in the system, there is no way to remove the rewards from my account, even after they have long since expired. While this isn’t an intrusive issue when I order food, it’s still an issue to work on for the online/app ordering system.

Conveniently located, staff very courteous. Food is good and price is reasonable.

We use to eat here often before change of ownership, but with changes in eating habits just getting to try pizza with new owners. We had cauliflower crust pizza and it was fantastic. Obviously does not taste exactly like regular crust but with pre-cooked bacon, pepperoni, mushrooms, tomato, and extra cheese was delicious. My wife was full after eating half of the 8 inch pizza.