Pizza Ponte

Originally posted December 7, 2018 - Funny…almost two years to the day.

Took a trip to Disney Springs this weekend with my Mom and decided to pop into Pizza Ponte.

Closely themed to an authentic Italian pizzeria, it offers a pretty nice view of the lake at Disney Springs, with indoor and outdoor seating. Ponte translating to Stand, and Pizza translating to…well, pizza is a quaint place located next to The Edison right over the bridge from Characters in Flight. - If you were a frequent visitor during the Pleasure Island days, it now sits where BET and Adventurer’s Club once stood.

Pizza Ponte is a quick service restaurant, operating from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm Sunday – Thursday, and from 11:00 am to 12:00 am on Fridays and Saturdays. It offers a variety of pizza by the slice, sandwiches, and desserts.

After I totally geeked out over the awesome Christmas tree decorations, we made our way to the counter where they have an assortment of pre-made sandwiches, pizzas, salads and desserts.
The pizza is already made and reheated, so be prepared that it is not made fresh to order.

The counter set-up starts you off at the sandwiches, they all looked delicious, mostly a simple variety of ham and cheese…but, that’s not what we’re here for.

The next area of the counter has the main attraction. The pizza, for the most part, looked delicious. You could tell that some had been sitting out longer than others as a few options had the nice gleam of freshly melted cheese that makes your mouth water…wait, where was I?

Oh, just a quick mention…

Even though we were the only two at the counter, and there were about 7 people behind the counter, it still took a good 3 to 4 minutes to be greeted, which I guess gave us time to check out all that they had to offer, to be honest, isn’t much in the way of options/toppings. As I stated before, all of the pizza is pre-made, giving you a limited choice, and not much wiggle room to customize.

Their pizza slices are quite decently sized, and they offer a Sicilian cut, and a Cheese or Pepperoni traditional cut (these slices actually take TWO plates to handle them).

We went with a slice of the 4-Cheese and a slice of the Fungi, both Sicilian Style. They were thrown into the oven to re-heat while we checked out the salad cooler, which has an amazing offering of different style salads. I may have to go back to try the Caprese!

Next to the salad cooler is the dessert cooler, and of course I had to take a look there. A nice mixture of your typical desserts, but with a few unique options such as a tri-colored cookie cake. We opted for an assortment of cookies.
By the register, they have a cooler offering Beer, Wine, and bottled water.

We grabbed our food, cashed out, and grabbed a nice table by the window. I will say that I feel the stool to table height ratio is slightly off, making it a little uncomfortable (for me) to eat. I was way higher than my table and had to do quite a lean, so I didn’t drop any food on myself.

Now, I know you’re sitting there going, “Get to the point, what did the pizza TASTE like?!”

The 4-Cheese was absolutely delicious…it was a very flavorful, a nice well-rounded blend of cheese, not one flavor overpowering the others. The ratio of cheese to crust was perfect, the crust was crispy without being too difficult to eat. I give it a thumbs up.

The Fungi on the other hand, was slightly less than desirable. I understand this is a mushroom pizza, and I love mushrooms; however, the amount was a little more than I would have liked. There wasn’t much flavor to the pizza to begin with, and the flavor you did get was all mushroom, no blend of cheese or crust. I was underwhelmed with this one. I debated back and forth between this and the Pepperoni and I kind of regret not going with the Pepperoni.

The cookies we chose were pretty good. We had a trifecta of sugar cookie with a jelly topping, an almond cookie (my favorite), and a chocolate-Hazelnut shortbread, which I really just got all chocolate from it. It wasn’t bad, but it also wouldn’t be something I would get again. I recommend the Almond Cookie, unless you have a nut allergy, then don’t…that would just be silly.

All in all, I feel that Pizza Ponte is a good concept, a fun place to dine, but the value for your money just isn’t there. A 20 oz. fountain beverage is $4.50, and does not include refills.

I won’t be in a hurry to run back, although I would like to try the Pepperoni pizza and Caprese Salad…I have to say, Blaze still holds my heart as the pizza king of Disney Springs.

I give Pizza Ponte 5/8 slices. It pains me to do so, as I really wanted to like it…just a little more dropping the ball than expected.

Until next time!