15 March 2009

#57: Ledo Pizza

Date Visited: 8 March 2009

Meal: Lunch

Diners: 4 - Me, Wendy, Andy, & Alicia

Experience: Ledo's has been a fixture in Leesburg since we moved here. We only visited once so before, around 1990 or so! On that visit, the thing we all remember is that we ordered a pepperoni and bacon pizza with extra bacon, and that we nearly died from bacon overdose. It was literally piled on. So we figured that it had been long enough, and we would give Ledo's another try. Ledo's is a nationwide pizza franchise.

I was impressed by the clean, bright decor, and Italian countryside themes painted on the walls. It looked a lot nicer than it did almost twenty years ago. The place was fairly busy on the Sunday afternoon we visited.

For this visit, I ordered the featured Calamari appetizer ("enjoy our new, tender, breaded Calamari served with seasoned waffle fries and your choice of LEDO sauce or spicy LEDO tartar sauce for dipping"). It was pretty good, the calamari was indeed tender, and the spicy tartar sauce was a nice touch. No one else in our family would try it, due to the assumed "ick" factor. For my entree, I got the Buffalo Chicken Salad ("crisp, white meat, chicken served on a cool mix of lettuces with grape tomatoes, Blue cheese crumbles, bacon and red onions. LEDO buffalo sauce and Blue cheese dressing served on the side"). It was also pretty good - the chicken had a nice crunch, and the mix of Buffalo and Blue cheese flavors was a good combination.

Wendy got the Traditional Cheese Tortellini ("jumbo cheese tortellini tossed in your choice of LEDO marinara or creamy Alfredo sauce. $7.99 add mushroom or green peppers $0.60 each, add Italian sausage $1.00, Grilled chicken"). She selected the Alfredo sauce option, and added the grilled chicken, which she said was good, but the tortellini itself was a little overdone.

Andy got the Turkey Bacon Ranch sub ("sliced turkey, bacon, tomato, provolone cheese, oven toasted, served with ranch dressing and lettuce"). He ate it all (a good sign), but said it was a bit sub-par.

Alicia got the Chicken Calzone ("LEDO sauce grilled chicken with onions & mushrooms"). She ate about a quarter of it (generally a good sign), but wasn't overly impressed either. I think she didn't realize how many mushrooms were involved. I ended up with the leftovers for lunch the next day.

I also ordered a small Meatlover's Pizza ("pepperoni, sausage and meatballs"). It was unanimously judged not very good. I got the leftover slices for lunch the next day, in addition to the leftover calzone, but I'm not picky about lunch at work.

We tried to order a variety of menu items to sample what Ledo's had to offer so we could make a fair evaluation. Unfortunately, our overall impression is that we were not very impressed with the food. The service was good. We'll give 'em another try some time in the future.

Location: 1037 Edwards Ferry Rd., Leesburg, 20175

Web site: http://ledopizza.com/

Total bill: $55.07 + $10.00 tip = $65.07

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so surprised to read this review! We LOVE Ledo's, and our family includes 2 very picky kids.

One daughter routinely orders the Italian wedding soup, the other, the kid's tortellini. I always have a house salda. My husband loves the calzones, and we all like their pizza. The crust has a unique sweet taste to it that makes Ledo's a regular on our restaurant rotation.

J.A.W. said...

Anonymous:
It's been my experience that Pizza restaurants are things that individuals and families seem to have strong opinions about. I think it has a lot to do with the kind of food you've grown up with. I'm glad that you and your family like Ledo's, but we just don't. Thankfully, even little Leesburg has lots of choices in this genre. Thanks for your comments.

Anonymous said...

While I like Ledo restaurant it is not as good as the original Ledo's Restaurant in College Park. And note the difference in spelling. At one time Ledo's Restaurant (the original) was going to francaise. Somewhere in the process something happened and there was a falling out. So the francaises were allowed the name Ledo without the 's and without certain ingredients in the sauce. There is a notable difference.