Around 6:30 on a Thursday evening, the hostess stand at Grimaldi’s on the Las Colinas Urban Center strip has a short paper waitlist going. Not a mob scene, but enough of a line that you’ll want to put your name in before you wander over to look at the canal. That’s your first sign that something here is worth the minor inconvenience.
Most people expect a chain experience. Grimaldi’s started in Brooklyn, expanded, and now operates about two dozen locations across the Sun Belt. The Las Colinas outpost, on Cypress Waters Boulevard near the water, looks the part of a corporate rollout — clean brick facade, awnings, the same red-and-white checked tablecloths you’ve seen in photos. Everything points toward a forgettable evening. Then the pizza arrives.
The coal-fired oven is not a gimmick. It runs somewhere north of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and it does something to the crust that a gas deck or a home oven simply cannot replicate. The underside chars just enough — you’ll see small dark spots — while the interior stays chewy rather than doughy. The edge bubbles and blisters and holds its structure when you fold a slice, which is the only civilized way to eat it. This isn’t the floppy, grease-pooling pie you get at most suburban pizza spots. It’s also not Neapolitan in the precious, artisanal sense. It’s just a very good New York-style pizza made the right way.
Grimaldi’s keeps the menu short by design. No slices, no substitutions on the base pies, no gluten-free crust. You order a whole pie. The classic — fresh mozzarella, crushed tomato sauce, basil — runs around $18 to $22 depending on size, and it’s the right call your first visit. The sausage addition is worth the extra few dollars: fennel-forward, coarsely ground, not the pre-cooked crumbles you’d find elsewhere. Calzones are on the menu and are oversized in the way all calzones should be.
The wine list is Italian-leaning and reasonably priced. A Montepulciano d’Abruzzo or a Nero d’Avola will run you around $12 to $14 a glass and pair well enough that you won’t feel the need to scrutinize the list too hard. Beer selection is modest but covers the basics. Service is straightforward — attentive without hovering, the way a pizza place should run.
Parking is in a shared lot with the other Urban Center restaurants, which means it can get tight on weekends. Friday and Saturday evenings will have you waiting 20 to 30 minutes for a table. Weekday lunches and early dinners are considerably easier. The patio works in cooler months if you want to look out at the water while you eat.
The reasonable knock on Grimaldi’s is that you’re getting a chain, however well-executed. Fair enough. But in a city where coal-fired pizza isn’t exactly on every corner, the execution matters more than the ownership structure. The crust is the argument. If you’ve been nursing low expectations because the sign out front looks like every other restaurant in this zip code, that’s precisely the expectation this place is designed to quietly defeat.
Grimaldi’s Las Colinas is located at 500 W. Las Colinas Blvd. Pies start around $18. Open daily for lunch and dinner.
