The 5 stars is for the new water fountain in the outside eating area. The sounds of the splashing water cancels out the noise of the cars passing by. Also, having the rope lights around the palm trunks makes the outside better for after dark, draws attention from the cars passing by, and helps reinforce the Downtown San Jose image by repeating the palm tree + rope-light theme that is already in place at the Circle-of-Palms (Museum of Art), and at the Arena Green (SAP Center.) read more

See all

What a shame! Having grown up eating here I'm sad to report the new reincarnation has none of the warmth and service standards of the original family. Terribly treated. Change the name so as not to mislead old customers. read more

Craving a burger and fries? Look no further. I haven't tried the pizza here, but the Grande Cheeseburger for under $12.00 is pretty good. The portion is huge that you could eat half for lunch and the other half for dinner. If you don't want to eat the same thing twice in one day, you can probably split it with a co-worker or classmate. I usually call in my order and they make my burger quickly. Grande Pizzeria is close to SJSU's 4th street parking garage and Jack in the Box. I'll have to try some other things on their menu when I eat here next time. read more

Grande Pizzeria - Grande Cheeseburger $11.53 (tax included) - Pizza Near Me - San Jose, California

See all

Walk into the place and the Air Conditioner is BLASTING. There's barely anyone sitting inside because it's so cold. Just thinking about it gives me the shivers. Most of the customers are seated outside. Unfortunately doing so means you're not checked up on.. barely AT ALL. This place has absolutely crap service. We got seated and 25 minutes passed and no order was taken. We had to get up to ask for our order to be taken. Upon taking my order, there is no specification if I wanted the Dinner or A La Carte version, so it was assumed . I had to get up to ask if my dinner came with a soup or salad, and told there was a price difference. Then our beverages arrive and it's wrong. "Strawberry Italian Soda?" She asks me, since she's unsure as she hands it to me.. nope. wrong. I'm now starting to get worried. Crap service usually means crap food. And yup. The only thing that helped me shove the food down my throat was the La Vic's sauce you can ask for. The Gnocchi tasted overcooked and mushy and the marinara meat sauce was bland. It was like a fast food version of any pasta you'd ever make. I've made better Trader Joe's Gnocchi at home. No waters were given to us so we had to ask multiple times till it finally arrived, and that took about 15 minutes. We never got checked on after our food arrived so we had to get up to ask for the check and boxes. Yet we get boxes but never the check. So we get agitated for wasted 2 hours of our lives here and decide to just go pay at the counter. As we get up to the counter and stand there, nothing happens for a few minutes. Not even acknowledgement. Finally we ask for the check the waiter says hold on rudely as he starts doing something else. Then I ask if we can spilt the check and he just passes it onto the next person and walks away. As we get our checks she takes my card, gives me the receipt to sign, then finishes my friends' transactions. I have to ask her for my card back, and she didn't even notice she kept it. The restaurant wasn't even that busy, but the servers could care less.. Service sucked, food sucked. The only thing that's probably keeping this place afloat are their drink specials. read more

Grande Pizzeria - Seated by the waterfallll - Pizza Near Me - San Jose, California

Finally tried Grande Pizzeria on E. San Carlos St & 4th. They are doing road work to make bike lanes on 4th so the construction outside is loud & noisy so don't plan on using their outside patio. I liked the inside - they have A/C! Lunch specials M-F 11-2. I went Mon 7/2/12. Personal salads & pizzas are HUGE here. Each can feed 2 people! I think the salad was $4 something, I said I wanted Caesar dressing & the lady gave me a Caesar salad w/ tiny croutons, some parmesan cheese, & romaine lettuce - was ok. & the pizza I got was a Margarita was under $6 - about 6 slices, lots of cheese, not much basil & some diced tomatoes. M. got a calzone - it was HUGE - two giant pieces w/ tomato sauce on the side. E. got a Meatball sandwich comes w/ french fries - that looked good. La Vics spicy orange sauce brought to the table - I liked it with the pizza. Credit cards allowed. read more

See all

As an SJSU alumni, I can't believe I've never eaten here until now! My coworkers and I had a great holiday luncheon with about 14 of us eating outside. We had two waiters which were both very attentive and patient with such a large group. I ordered their classic lasange which was pretty amazing! It had lots of cheese on top which I usually don't like, but there's tasted just right. It was full of just the right amount of flavor. A few of my workers ordered the Seafood Linguini which looked AND smelled amazing. They give you a lot of seafood for such a good lunch menu price. ($15). I definitely would like to try the Seafood Linguini and maybe even their pizzas next time. Love the little waterfall in the patio area as well. Great tasting food at a good lunch menu price! :) read more

Grande Pizzeria - Yummy Lasagne! - Pizza Near Me - San Jose, California

This is my first time here and it was delicious! I had a lasagna I couldn't finish it all I'm stuffed I started with an appetizer of a combination of steamed clams and mussels. I was very impressed with the food and the service was great! Rose was my waitress and she was excellent! I highly recommend this place to everybody! read more

Grande Pizzeria - Wow! This is the first time I've ever been to this place and I was very impressed. I had steamed clams and mussels. - Pizza Near Me - San Jose, California

Good food and fast service if you need to eat in a Italian restaurant in downtown San Jose. Very competitive price and big selection on the menu read more

I used to just come for their happy hour, but lately ever since I took my parents here, they've been wanting to come back alot. My parents really dig their food. Our usual orders are the mussels for app, dad loves their seafood pasta. It tastes pretty damn good. I really like their margarita pizza, and my mom is definitely a fan. Pretty fresh ingredients go into the pizza so that's a plus! It looks really jacked too! See image attached. One large can fill us up fast. Their service is pretty good too. Fast and friendly. I think this is our new pizza spot over BJ's. read more

See all

I literally came here for only beer so I have no idea how the food tastes, but Blue Moon on tap tastes about the same anywhere... great! One of the few beers that I actually enjoy. HH 3 - 6 PM and 9 - closing EVERYDAY! Half-off pizzas every Tuesday from 6 - 9 PM! Is this out of competition with Flames? Haha, I don't know, but regardless, it's pretty cheap and smart especially since it's located right across from San Jose State. Perfect for frugal poor students. c: This place would've got a solid 3 stars for just purely the HH, but as I was leaving this restaurant, I saw a GIANT cockroach about 3 inches in length run by and scare the living bejeesus outta me. My friends told me that the bathroom was very unclean and dirty, which makes me question even more about the hygiene of this place. -1 star for that very reason. Dirty dining? :/ read more

Meh. . . exactly. Came here after work with the boyfriend. We both got sandwiches -- for me, the meatball, and for him the eggplant Parmesan. I swear, my face probably dropped when the food was put in front of me. what. is. that. .... The bread was the typical safeway bun, the meatballs were like meatloaf, but really dry and obviously from the freezer, and the sauce wasn't as flavorful. I know it's just Grandeeeeee's and not a fancy schmancy restaurant, but come on! It could be better....I mean it's not cheap. I guess I had high expectations because my boyfriend brings me back amazing sandwiches from Tony & Alba's all the time. So yes, MEH. I probably will not be back. read more

Grande Pizzeria - eggplant parmesan - Pizza Near Me - San Jose, California

See all

I came here for lunch. Lunch menu is pretty cool, they had like burgers+fries for $5, Pizza slice+side salad for $5, and other things I forgot. Also they have slices for about $2.50 from 11-2 only. Their pizza (slices) were okay sized, a little smaller than a Costco pizza slice. Since it's 1 topping only (with side salad) I choose Sausage. The sausage was plentiful and tasted alright. That was about it. The rest of the menu I didn't really look into since I was on lunch, and wanted something fast and cheap. I should've bought 2 slices of pizza instead of going with this, but oh well. --------------------- update 2/6/06 Came here with a couple of motorcycle friends. I think the price is alright, wish it was just a wiiiiiibit cheaper. I tried the Silican steak sandwich which composed of Silican steak? cabbage/lettuce, tomato, and italian roll. For $9 at dinner which includes fries, I thought it was okay. My other friends said it was okay, not spectacular. Same thoughts as well. read more

Their happy hour deals for beer are so worth it! Only $2 something for a glass. My coworker and I each had a blue moon, but we also ordered an appetizer. We went with the fried calamari. It was quite a lot of calamari for $9. It came with cocktail sauce and orange sauce. Yes, the orange sauce from La Vics down the street. Orange sauce, good with burritos and quesadillas, also went deliciously well with the calamari. The batter on the calamari wasn't too thick, and the pieces were decent-sized. I would definitely get it again with beer! read more

Grande Pizzeria - Blue moon - Pizza Near Me - San Jose, California

See all

Happened to just walk into this place and was pleasantly surprised! Everything was done right. Flavorful, light and delicious! read more

Grande Pizzeria - Seafood extravaganza! This was delicious! Light , flavorful and delicious. Did i mention delicious?!?! - Pizza Near Me - San Jose, California

I liked the pizza, good taste and perfectly cooked. It was thicker than New York pizza. I didn't give more stars because the restaurant had a weird detergent smell. read more

All my years at SJSU, I've always thought this was a Mexican restaurant. However, I came here today with my coworkers for some Pizza!! For 15 people, I believed we ordered 4 whole pizzas. I was able to try the Combo and Hawaiian slices, and they were okay. I normally love* crust, but this one didn't do it for me. I felt it lacked the crunch and was more on the doughy side. We called in advance to place our orders, so the pizzas came out within 5 minutes of arrival. The waiter (possibly the owner) was attentive and nice. I don't think this would be my go-to place, but I wouldn't totally avoid it. Btw, they also have La Vic's orange sauce here! read more

This is the new go to for our graduate classes on Tuesday night. The people who run the joint are super friendly and the calamari is decent. Their eggplant parma isn't half bad either. Good happy hour specials and a nice way to take a dinner break in between sessions. read more

Some friends and I got pizza to go from here the other day. It was my first time experiencing Grande's pizza. The pizza was on the thinner side, but not crispy thin. It had big, chewy crust. The sauce was minimal with a generous layer of cheese and a lot of pepperoni. This pizza was greasy and could use some blotting. I dare say this was some of the best pizza I've had in San Jose. It reminded me a lot of New York style pizza with big slices you fold to fit in your mouth. I'm not saying this is NY pizza, I'm just saying it's in that family (versus Chicago, New Haven, Detroit, etc.) I can't say much else about the place since we took it to go. The service was nice. The food was ready on time. The pizza was good. The price seemed reasonable. I will definitely be eating here over a chain place for sure. read more

Grande twice in one week? Apparently, yes. In fact, it was two days in a row. I've worked in Downtown San Jose for over 6 years but can't recall ever eating at Grande's until now. It is located next to La Victoria (apparently, they're operated by the same owners?). I came here for a co-worker's birthday lunch and ordered shared a medium margherita pizza and chicken salad with two others. We were initially going to create our own pizza but were quickly swayed when we saw others near us digging into their own personal margherita pizza lunch special. The margherita pizza was fresh and very good. The crust was thin and crispy and the toppings were fresh. The salad was bigger than I anticipated and had a lot of chicken chunks for a salad. Ironically, the next day I was here, we ordered two of the personal size margherita pizzas to split with 2 others in addition to a caesar salad. While we finished the salad, sadly, we were unable to finish the pizza. There was at least 2/3 of a pizza left. Overall, good food, great value. I will definitely come back again for lunch. read more

Great place for junky pizza in large slices and made the way you want them. One thing I've never liked about pizza, is when you order with friends, you have to eat what they like, and most people like different things on their pizza. Here, you can customize your pizza down to the slice. I think that's awesome! Instead of being forced to buy a slice of premade pizza, you can fresh order a slice, or two, or three, and have each one as different from each other as apples or oranges. My boyfriend and I, and a few friends, came here for a late afternoon lunch one day. They had stopped serving all their usual foods like pasta, due to the time, but they were still making pizza. We each ended up ordering a ton of different custom slices. The pizza came out pretty quickly, and it was very colorful and interesting to see the different combinations. Mine turned out wonderfully - I ordered two slices of tomato, bell pepper, jalapenos, and mushroom. See picture for how wonderful it turned out. It was delicious, and everyone ooohed and ahhhed at the color! The only negative (besides lack of food options in the middle of the afternoon) was the waiter misunderstood what pizza toppings our friend wanted, and he also didn't bring us water though we asked. He seemed a little out of it.. read more

Grande Pizzeria - Pizza Near Me - San Jose, California

The spaghetti sauce is composed by fine ingredients, that have not been able to find at other restaurants. They have a wide variety of Spaghetti and additional dishes. read more

Grande Pizzeria - Pizza Near Me - San Jose, California

Came with my wife recently and made it just in time for happy hour. We had planned to get a few drinks and head over to christmas in the park. There are really good deals on drinks during happy hours so we decided to order a cheese pizza. We absolutely loved the pizza! It was the least greasy pizza I've ever had and was baked really well. Overall had a great time and am planning on coming back. read more

The Margarita pizza here is one of my favorite pizza's ever. I have to eat this every I'm in San Jose. Service is quick and simple as well. The other options on the menu are simply decent but will satisfy your stomach. There is free parking on the side and more than willing to serve to a large group. read more

Grande Pizzeria - You should try it - Pizza Near Me - San Jose, California

This place is great I love eating here with my family. They have a Lot of good selection. The manager Juan is great the workers are very attentive. Every time I come in there always pleasant. My husband doesn't really like pasta and this is the only pasta he would eat. He loves the sea food pasta. I love the pizza and the calzones read more

A-m-a-i-z-i-n-g. Francis our server was truly amazing, smiled every time she spoke to us, the fooood omg! We ordered chicken wings extra crispy for appetizer SO FREAKING GOOD!!!!!!!! Clam chowder and side salad , ranch sauce tasted home made & clam chowder tasted like sfo's! So delicious!!!!! We sat at the bar top were we can see the Chef working hard you can tell there very clean here!!! Our food, fettuccini chicken Alfredo delicious! And others got philly cheese steak amazing!!!!!!! Everything was perfect food & service Francis was truly Amazing highly recommend this place read more

Grande Pizzeria - Full bar - Pizza Near Me - San Jose, California

*This review is about customer service. We had a very large group of high school students, plus chaperones (60 people). Grand Pizzeria was so accommodating and friendly. Thank you guys so much! The manager and staff were full of honest smiles and served all of their customers with such courtesy. I observed that they were able to attend to their regular customers with equal prompt attention and care. Food: While I only had a side salad, which was fresh and huge, the pizza looked Amazing and our students and chaps Loved all them (handmade, fresh-tossed cheese, meat, pepperoni and vegetarian pizzas). ...I saw a few giant chicken Caesar salads. They were really large salads, served with sliced, hot chicken breast on top. If I'm back in the area, I will definitely be back! read more

As an SJSU grad., it took me the full four years and then some to finally go right across the street to Grande. I'd just finished my teaching credential program, and some of my peers wanted to get a drink here to celebrate. Only, I was hungry, and ordered a calzone. And it was a mighty large calzone when I got it - quite good, very cheesy. I realized that I had always wanted well priced, good Italian food, but always got the extremes of the spectrum - pricey Italian, and poor-passing Italian. Grande stood in a positive middle ground, which made me come back afterwards. Their happy hour has plenty of good items that are large in portion, good in price, and taste quite good. I usually go for the personal pizzas. And speaking of their pizzas - good stuff. Nice slightly burnt crust (I respect places not afraid of giving their pizza the char it needs), lots of toppings, and again large portions. If you by chance go to SJSU, don't walk past Grande next time for the burrito places (granted, they are good), try it out. Gamble a lunch happy hour on it. read more

I have been coming here since my mother brought us as children for spaghetti. I also have had the opportunity to compare the spaghetti here against Original Joe's. Hands down the spaghetti at Grande Pizzeria is much tastier than Original Joe's. I'm not saying Original Joe's is bad but if you want a more cost effective and tastier spaghetti dinner, here it is read more

I go to sjsu so it was convenient to go here and grab dinner with my boyfriend. The menu looks very exciting and have a lot of options. I got the lasagna for $15 and my boyfriend got the cheeseburger for $11. They are very generous for the portion so I thought I just found my perfect place to eat. That was before I eat the food. The lasagna sauce was salty and the pasta was hard and under cooked. I've never had a bad lasagna until now. Couldn't even finish 1/3 of it. My boyfriend cheeseburger was plain. Literally nothing special, a meat patty with some veggies. The buns was all soggy which makes it unpleasant. Overall, my experience with the food there is bad, the only good thing was the fries (because you would have to be really bad to mess that up). For the price, you'll be better off at cheesecake factory. read more

I am so sad it's closed! They had the best bruschetta bread ever and fresh salad and great pasta dishes and pizza! And the manager MIQUEL was so helpful and friendly! You were definitely going to be missed! read more

The service there is great and friendly. I try out their tomato sauce spaghetti and it taste alright. It's not that bad and not the best spaghetti out there. They have side bread along with your order while you wait for your dish to arrive. This place is best to go with a partner because if you go alone, it feels very uncomfortable eating alone, what even worse is having no other customer beside myself in the restaurant. read more

Pretty good pizza and pasta. The service is definitely solid. It is near the SJSU so the prices are attractive. Well, I am sure students might find it a bit pricey, but you really get what you pay for. This place does use quality, fresh ingredients. Unfortunately, I am yet to find anything on the menu that will keep me coming back regularly. I have tried one pizza (combination) and different pastas (ravioli and spaghetti), but nothing that made me want to return again and again. I think they need to cut down on the amount of menu items and really focus on what they can truly do best. read more

Grande used to be my favorite pizza spot in town, but it's just not the same anymore. They replaced the flavorful sauce with something pasty, which was the first mistake. Then I noticed that the crust tasted different. I used to love ordering my large salami and sausage with the fluffy crust cooked extra crispy. Sadly- the crust now tastes like cardboard. Good thing I have my memories. I can't possibly imagine buying a pizza from Grande again with the food tasting the way it does! read more

I'm really surprised more people don't come here. First of all they have AWESOME happy hour prices. You can get a pitcher of good beer (Hefeweizen, Sierra Nevada, etc) for only like $6.50! Most of their mixed drinks are under $5 and they make them pretty strong. Seriously the best happy hour prices around. Happy hour is from 3-6PM, and 9-11PM by the way. I haven't really tried much of their food but I haven't heard bad things from my friends. I always get the calamari, which is delicious. You get a huge plate for under $10. I also tried the pizza which is pretty good. Not great but above average. read more

When I was going to SJSU, this place rocked. The pizza was delicious although the service was a bit slow. The calamari and combo pizza was the best I've had in a while! I went here again two years ago, and it just sucked. The pizza was cold, tasteless, and thin. None of that stringy cheese anymore on my pizza. Poo. I went here over the 4th of July, and we ordered a medium chicken, olive, and artichoke pizza. It was delicious, and between the 4 of us, I only had to pay 7.50 (including my root beer). Pretty sweet deal! :) read more

I'm so sad this place closed down... I used to go all the time during college at SJSU. I would come back every now and then... their food and happy hour was great. Will be missed. read more

New to San Jose and looking for cheap drinks, a couple friends discovered this place for me. The happy hour from 9-11pm was a godsend. It's almost as cheap as buying the beer yourself! Pitchers of Blue Moon were 6.50 and Budweiser was even cheaper. Good prices for margaritas as well! Downside: they close at 11. Maybe it's because it was the summer, and the campus isn't super active, but this place was dead from 9-11. So I can see why they close then, but you'd hope that Saturday night, a place would be able to stay open later than 11 if it had prices this good. read more

Was looking forward to trying this place out since I attend SJSU and my best friend who works at SJSU said it was a great place to grab a bite. Sadly, it really missed the bar for me. I had came in the early evening to have dinner with my husband and best friend. The place was super slow with only one table outside and us inside. The server was nice and gave us time to look over the menu. They have various options but I decided to get their version of a calzone and my husband got a cheeseburger. My friend ordered an individual pizza. Portion wise everything was great, taste wise not so much. The burger was just an average burger according to the hubz. It looked nice for the gram haha. My friend's pizza looked tasty and she said she enjoyed it. My calzone was meh. The dough used didn't have really any seasoning it was just pizza dough. The inside of it had cheese and pepperoni and at the side a meaty dipping sauce. The cheese inside wasn't appetizing at all it had a grainy type of texture almost like queso blanco but it was suppose to be mozzerella.The meat sauce was flavorful but eventually I got heart burn from eating it. The other issue I had with this place is how late the food came out. Literally my husband's burger came out first within 10 minutes then 20 minutes later my friend's pizza, and then another 15 minutes later my calzone. My husband always waits for me to get my food so we can eat together, so he ended up waiting 35 minutes to eat his burger. So his burger and fries were cold. For the place being slow that evening you would think they would try to serve the table the food at the same time that way it's not awkward sitting there watching everyone else eat or in our case postpone eating until everyone got their food. The last thing that was kinda annoying was how the server would come up every five minutes after he dropped off my plate. My friend were casually chatting about some things and it felt like he was ease dropping because it was slow. Since we were talking we took small bites of our food, and he asked maybe 3 times if the food was ok. I hadn't even ate my calzone yet so I said I have yet to try it haha. All in all it's alright, personally not my cup of tea. read more

I really wanted to like this place. Reasons why: Its near my house and I pass it on my walk to work Its got a nice outdoor seating area i'm on the hunt for a neighborhood hang out for drinks, giants games, etc. a large sign outside reads "DOUBLE HAPPY HOUR" I'm probably not gonna go back. Reasons why: although their happy hour is loaded with mega-cheap drinks, i ordered a common Manhattan that proved to be a difficult task for the sole employee. Also, my girlfriend and I were the only ones there except for a table full of "frat boys" and we still waited a semester to be served, and again when it was time to pay. Also, no bloody marys. bummer read more

Random fact: Did you know that Grande's owns the La Vics right next door? And this whole time I thought they were stealing orange sauce bottles without them knowing. I'm a big happy hour guy, and Grande's definitely is a favorite for that. Pitchers for CHEAP, I mean, CHEAP. And not just watered down beer, I'm talking all the good stuff (Blue Moon being my favorite). And there's a nice bar in the corner stocked pretty well. The venue itself is great for large parties as well with an outdoor patio that faces San Jose State, so you can make all the other kids jealous while you're out there enjoying beers. Perfect place to celebrate a birthday or pre-game before some debauchery in downtown SJ. The best part is not too many people come here (probably cause they don't know about their epic happy hour) so you can find yourself being served alchy pretty quickly. Now I can't speak too well on the food. I've only given their pizza a chance which is alright, especially for the price. Didn't really bother on anything else because the menu seemed $$$. Therefore, I stick with happy hour brews only. If you're looking for a good place to have drinks for cheap and have a good time, Grande's is your best bet. read more