So, if your reading reviews on here stop at this one. The fools below complaining about poor quality crust and bland pizza obviously don't know good pizza. We stopped in and had the Sunday buffet. Every single thing on the buffet was fresh and very hot. Staff constantly checking in on us and making sure the food was in good order and buffet was clean. Staff was above the top compared to places we have been in the past few weeks, drinks below half? Always asked for a refill. We were also asked if there was anything we would like that wasn't on the buffet. My daughter usually eats a half of plate of food and is done, even if it's her favorite. She had two plates of what she said was the most delicious sausage pizza she's ever had. My son had chicken, roast beef, Salisbury steak, pizza, potatoes, and tried the cinnamon sticks also. The cinnamon sticks were amazing I might add!! Best part is we were given a punch card with 4 punches on it, and t takes 9 to get a free lunch. Kind of sweetens the deal. All in all, if your looking for a great pizza place that actually cares about their customers this is where you should stop!! We plan to make this a regular stop. read more

Delicious fresh, best pizza in town. Crust is always perfect and the Taco pizza cant be beat. read more

Mama Nick's Circle Pizzeria - Best Pizza in town. Hot, fresh, tasty! - Pizza Near Me - Waterloo, Iowa

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Service and food, tied for which was worse. Shameful that a place that once had a great reputation back in its day has gone downhill.

Got a pepperoni, pineapple, jalapeño regular crust pizza. Super spicy (i was fine with this, hubs had to remove a lot of the jalapeños, and he loves jalapeños). Jalapeños were under the cheese which i think somehow made the whole thing spicier. Got an order of fries. Hot and tasty but just regular crinkle cut food service fries, ranch dressing tasted home made and was very good. Inexperienced server, sweet and friendly but just one slice into the pizza she kept coming back asking if we wanted a box. We were actively eating so it was a bit weird. We needed something quick and easy and this fit the bill. read more

Mama Nick's Circle Pizzeria - Pepperoni, jalapeño, pineapple pizza on regular crust. - Pizza Near Me - Waterloo, Iowa

There is no pizza on the planet like a large George's special! Thanks for continuing to make great pizza!

The wait staff was wonderful. Very polite, and were superb at getting drink refills and removing empty plates. The buffet itself is small, but has a decent selection. There was pizza, a calzone, soup, chicken, tater tot casserole, a salad bar, mushroom Swiss steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, breadsticks (plain & cheese covered), and cinnamon sticks. There was also cake, pudding, and brownies. I was at the buffet for awhile, and it wasn't adequately replenished until as I was almost finished. The pizza is a step below a frozen pizza. No flavor whatsoever. The crust is thick, bland, and that's mainly all you can taste. The tater tot casserole was an abomination to true tater tot casserole. There was cheap, gross processed American cheese piled on it. There was no marinara sauce for the breadsticks. Very dry eating plain. One of the workers was outside smoking in her apron. I work in the food service industry, and know this is frowned upon. With tax, it ended up being $10.15. Save your money & go to Pizza Ranch. read more

Mama Nick's Circle Pizzeria - Pizza Near Me - Waterloo, Iowa

amazing service I went there with my family and we had a wonderful time, would recommend to anyone looking for a good place to eat pizza, would go again read more

Not what they used to be. i don't know what the food tastes like now, i'm scared to eat any of it. i know a few people who work there, and i am told they blow between the pizza and the board to separate the two... because they don't want to use excess flour. What do they do to the rest of the food? I won't even start on how the employees are treated. If you are brave enough to go, know the buffet is closed due to covid. read more

We have been dining @ Mama Nicks for a long time, raised our kids on it and they still can't find any other to come near this where they live. We were just there Saturday night and it was perfectly put together. Try the thin crust, it's not so filling to your tummy as we age. I request mine baked well done! We have finally settled on the Circle Special. I always enjoy a side salad and hubby has a few beers. The wait staff are phenomenal, if they have stayed long enough they provide great service, remembering to keep the beers on the table and have the necessary condiments on the table when the pie is brought out. This business is moving into its third generation of pizza bakers. We personally new Mama, she was a sweetheart. George, her son has been in charge for quite a long time, and now his son & daughter-in-law are stepping into management roles as well. This is real pizza, not the cheap or fast stuff, so adjust your thinking before you arrive! read more

My life long favorite restaurant! Try a George's special or a pepperoni & Italian sausage pizza. George's family recipe Italian sausage is second to none!! The spice combination he uses is beyond delicious. Switch up your pizza with their white sauce instead of tomato sauce. YUM!!! read more

The pizza is awful, and drastically overpriced I came into town for a week for work. Ordered delivery, and the service on the phone was excellent, but a 14 inch circle special delivered cost me $30; $35 after tip. The crust was like a saltine cracker, and the overall flavor was awful and bland. I could've got a steak dinner for this price, but even chain pizza at half the cost would've been far more worth it. The delivery was fast, and the pizza was hot. It was just far overpriced and quite possibly the worst pizza I've ever had. Thank God my company paid for it read more

We have passed this place a few times driving into Cedar Falls and due to the lack of gluten free options for my girlfriend we decided to stop and give it a try. She ordered the Vegetarian and I built my own pizza with four toppings. We were among the only ones in the restaurant and most certainly the only ones not eating and yet it took over 30 minutes for both of our pizzas to come out. After about 20 minutes of not getting checked on I asked about our order and magically it was done. Pizza had have been sitting out for a while because of the temperature, not to mention the gentlemen who appeared from the back not once but two times to watch the Nascar race was the one "cooking" our food. The pizza sucked. Sauce tasted like Classico from the grocery store and it was basically frozen pizza quality with the only saving grace being the crust. Finally, to top it off, those two pies were $40??? Gotta be kidding me. Tomasos in Cedar Rapids prices with Jack's quality. Never again. read more

Wanted to love their pizza. Their business has been around for decades. Must be something that draws people here for so long right? We ordered pizza for delivery. Large pepperoni, large cheese, large breadstick, and small sausage. $50 bucks delivered. The delivery driver was super nice and professional. The pizza was just not memorable. Didn't have much flavor. Crust was more like bread- no chew or crispiness to it. It wasn't soggy- just not like great. Some described the pizza as over cooked, bland, too much sauce, etc. we agreed it was probably much better if you ate it fresh at the restaurant and not delivered. I would be interested to try their buffet. Online it sounded really good with a variety of options. read more

Hometown hot spot for sure. Lots of locals when we got there. Pizza was hot when it finally got to our table. Crust is homemade everyday. Tasted great, but I wouldn't say it was worth the wait. I want to give it 4 stars because I like local shops that know how to make their food, but -SLOW, inattentive servers, wait were there any? Maybe we'll call in our order the next time we are traveling through the area. read more

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We got deep dish pizza from here, which is very hard to find in the cedar valley! It was great and had good ranch which is always a plus for us! Overall super well priced and our waitress was great! Will be back soon. read more

The staff were wonderful. But I waiting over 1 hour and 30 mins for my pizza to be done. And there was only like 3 people working. I don't hate on the place a lot but today they were not doing the best at there job. I mean I would go back but not for a long time. But on the other hand it's kid friendly. read more

Love Mama Nick's. We live out of town now but stop sometimes on the way through town . Always good service and the hamburger pizza is still my favorite:) read more

This was a terrible experience. We waited 45 minutes to get food and there were maybe 5 other tables with people in them. The food was not good. In fact no one wanted their left overs. It was painful to pay $75 for this! I would NOT recommend. read more

We had a Deep Dish pizza delivered when we first moved in to Waterloo 2 months ago. The dough and crust tasted really bad. It was really dense and dry. The cheese and toppings were good however, but the dough is a really important part of the pizza! It was also very very expensive. $23 for one large pizza (not including tip). Maybe the other crusts are better, but stay away from the deep dish. read more

Very mediocre pizza. I hail from the pizza capital of the world (Chicago) so I know pizza. I ordered some Mike's Grinder for delivery to my job. The delivery process was timely and the driver was very patient. The pizza was warm, which is expected for paying $25 for a 10 inch pizza (includes tax, delivery, and tip). The pizza itself was not the best. The meat toppings were good, nothing spectacular and there was not enough cheese. The crust tasted like cardboard. Not impressed, save your money. read more

The slowest service that I have ever seen. This was my second time at the place. I wanted to give it a second chance just in case the first time was a fluke. It is not a fluke. The service is so slow. Be prepared to wait 45 minutes before seeing any food and then it is just okay food. read more

Love it, specialty pizzas are amazing, try the crab rangoon, Greek gyro, Mac n cheese, taco, or good ol cheese. Family owned and ran for about as long as waterloo has had electricity. Newly remodeled, nice fresh clean atmosphere. read more

We ordered from mama nicks last night. 19 dollars earned us a small, cold pizza, with a card board consistency and an unimpressive sauce and filling. Disappointing, we won't order here again read more

Ordering was easy enough and delivery on time...but it is terrible pizza, bland and over priced. Only reason i got it was the holiday inn front desk recommended it. Fail. Never again. read more

Ordered anchovies pizza but they thought they were out of anchovies. When they checked, they had anchovies. Pizza was average. Ordered mozzarella sticks, they were out. Ordered Corona from menu - they don't carry it as my more. Asked about microbrews and the waitress said "I don't know what you are talking about". Greek salad was iceberg lettuce with Kalamata olives and feta cheese and some crazy looking green dressing they called "Greek" but unidentifiable. More like a Midwest deep fry restaurant with midwest versions of pizza. read more

I would say our experience was probably similar to Rachel's review, but we did have pretty decent service. We had a 14" pizza, regular crust, pepperoni, green pepper and mushroom. It took maybe 20 minutes or so, but it's pizza so that was expected. It didn't blow our minds or anything, it was just ok. This was recommended to us by a co-worker who just thought the world of their pizza, but again we didn't think it was that great. The sauce was bland, crust wasn't dried out but just plain tasting, like flour and water. Pizza crust should have a little richness to it, usually by adding olive oil into the dough. This had no such taste. The toppings were a little skimpy. And for the price I would have expected more. I'm probably being nit-picky because of the sterling recommendation and then it didn't turn out as great as we hoped. I wouldn't avoid this place, I just wouldn't go out of my way to go there again. The other thing, which is harder to overlook when the food is mediocre, is the decor. Just terrible. Pictures of pheasants, hunting dogs and ducks on the wall. I know this is Iowa but this is supposed to be an Italian pizza place. Ditch that junk and make the atmosphere a little more appropriate. read more

No clue why the overall rating is low, this place is great. Lunch buffet is way better than any other place around. Home made sweet bread and cakes, walleye, excellent chicken and everything else. You can tell they start with good ingredients and care about what they are cooking. Give it a try, you won't be sorry! read more

Absolutely the best bacon Cheeseburger I've ever had! My boyfriend and I were craving a good burger after a long day at the water park and he suggested Mama Nick's. At first I wasn't so sure because it's a pizza place and I had never been there before. I honestly was expecting a mediocre burger but was very pleasantly surprised! The burger was cooked and seasoned perfectly and was so juicy! I'm already craving another one! read more

Great pizza. We ordered the George's special and Mikes special. The Mikes special was very spicy. Both were great pizzas . Yes it is expensive. But it is the best pizza I've ever had. Much much better than Pizza Hut. But lately I don't consider what Pizza Hut makes pizzas. Expect delays on Friday and Saturday night because they are very busy. They are busy for a reason. This is great pizza. read more

I came here for the first time after driving by for awhile. If you come here for pizza, you won't be disappointed. The pizza here is delicious and so fresh. Homemade dough and a great sauce. Tuesday night pizza buffet is the best. If you're in Waterloo add this place to your list. It's a must! read more

My rating is based on the fact that the "specials" advertised on their website are not valid. When I called to order a 12" 2-topping pizza fir $9.99, I was told it was $11.99 and that the 6-pc. boneless wings were also priced incorrectly. As a business, either you honor your specials, or you don't , and they don't. This is very unfortunate, because their food is well-known to be very good. Updated after food was delivered: Well, the boneless 'wings' were rank - undercooked and felt more like mystery meat than true wings. The pizza was average - no better. My 2-star rating is a stretch. read more

If I could give no stars I would. It's not good at all buffet had very few options especially in pizza not worth the 10 dollars won't be coming back anytime soon. read more

We have pizza here every week. Always friendly and delicious! Quicker than they say and great service

We had a group of 12, the service was okay. The pizza was "awful". The crust was like dry paste and hardly any sauce or toppings with a lot of crust bubbles on top with nothing on them. The onion rings were no better and the garlic bread was just as bad. We do not recommend this place. read more

we have been here once before, and it was ok. The second time we went was last week, and it was disgusting food. The buffet was what we got and the only edible thing on the bar was the cold foods and the spaghetti. My husband took a piece of cake at the end of the meal, and I don't know who baked that thing, but it was raw inside and tasted of salt with a spoiled taste of frosting. The servers were nice, I didn't have a problem with that. It was just inedible food. We won't be back. read more

My fiance and I stopped in there last night, he has had food from here before, but always delivery. there were a total of 20 people in the restaurant and all except for 1 table had their food. we ordered food and that was the last we saw of the waitress for 30 minutes. When she appeared back at our table she said that our ticket never printed to the kitchen and that they were just now starting on our food. 20 minutes later we got our food, my alfredo was luke warm at best, but at least his was hot. We started eating and she did not come back to our table for another 15 minutes. I was very disappointed in the quality and the service. they didn't charge us for the two beers we had and took 25% off the bill, but not once did a manager come out to talk to us or did the waitress ever apologize. Will not be eating here again. read more