Rock Island Pub & Pizza

Service was slow. Pizza crust was too cooked for my tastes. It was REALLY crunchy and hard and teetering on the edge of being burnet. It came to the table warm instead of hot, despite there only being 2 other tables seated when we arrived. Toppings were plentiful. It was kind of a too much of a good thing made it not so good. There was almost too much piled on. I tried to pick a slice off the loan and everything fell off. It wasnt my ideal slice of pizza. Good for a quick, cheap bite to each. Not my favorite pizza joint due to the service being so slow and not getting the food hot even though there weren’t many customers there. Garlic bread was super cheese and good. Strong garlic taste that wasnt over powering. Wish I had gotten a double order over the pizza.

Best pizza I’ve had in years! Generous portions of toppings, I taste a hint of beer in the crust, which is amazing. Great coke too! Hate the one free refill rule, but I get it.

We only have a few choices of places to eat on this little piece of paradise we call The Rock (aka Vashon Island), and let’s be honest, who doesn’t love (or crave) pizza at least once a week? Not me!
For hot, gooey, tasty pizza to order, Rock Island is a great choice. You place your order at the counter, get your drink (s), and head to your table to wait. And wait. And wait some more.
Okay, yes. They’re kind of slow getting those pies in/​out of the oven. But hello? You’re on ISLAND TIME! So relax. Sit by the fire. Chat up the folks sitting at nearby tables. Give your kids some quarters and send them off to the little arcade room. If the weather is nice, sit outside on the patio. If it isn’t, sit inside by the fireplace and watch a ballgame on the giant TV. It’s dark and cozy, and the service is friendly. The owners in particular. My only gripe is I can’t get any pizza (or their delicious house salad) on Sundays or Mondays, when they’re closed. Then again, almost everything on this island is closed Sundays and Mondays, so I can’t really complain about something 98% of the businesses here do. I just have to be sure I don’t get that crazy-​must-​have-​it-​now pizza craving on one of their closed days. Not fun. Especially when your kid is having the same craving, at the same time. Oops, no delivery available. Guess we’re out of luck until Tuesday!

The Rock reminds me of the type of pizza places I grew up in as a Northern California kid in the 70s; In fact they have a lot of movie posters from the 70’s. It’s order at the counter, food brought to your table style. There’s also a small bar off to one side as well as a tiny game room.
The pizza is a thick crust which is nice but the toppings are what make it awesome. The Tiger Lily is chinese bbq pork, with mozzarella, sweet hot chili sauce, chinese mustard and sesame seeds; with it’s mix of sweet, hot and salty it’s delicious. They also have pasta which comes in huge portions. Sizewise, a small pizza is six slice slices and would be fine for two people. Even the mini might be too much for some people.
The vibe is family, casual. But non families will feel comfortable as well.

If you are looking for an authentic small town pizza place this is it. Its an order at the counter place, so your order is taken quickly, but it can take a bit to get your food. Pizza is solid, can’t say there is much else going on. There’s several combinations and then you have the ability to just customize.
Now, the authenticity you ask? Family is always there, they charge a 2% fee (yes 2%) for using credit cards, the soda fountain proudly proclaims 1 FREE REFILL ONLY, and there is a letter on the wall just before the bathroom that purports the owners came over to a guys house in the middle of a storm and delivered pizza to seattle with some other over the top details.

Enjoyed the casual atmosphere, the pizza and friendly folks.

Really good gluten free crusts! They are crispy and thin, which I prefer to the thicker more doughy regular crusts. Wide variety of pizza toppings too. Especially like the Magpie, Hawaian, and the Greek. These are heavy with cheese on top but they have boxes available to take home extras. The salads are excellent and big. The owners Chuck and Carol are very personable and helpful. Sometimes it’s full of soccer kids and families with kids on weekend nights, but the bar is quieter, if that’s an issue for you. Friendly atmosphere all around.

Opened special for a make a wish child. Really nice people. Their house specialty salad is very good and try their house vinaigrette. We probably had 5 different pizzas and all were very good. I don’t live on Vashon but would come over here just for that pizza

Waited for 15 minutes nobody batted an eye or came over so we left. The lousy service thing is not charming or interesting

*Giving it another 3 star which is «A-​OK» and seems fitting, owner is a nice guy, he sent me a salad as I told him I just moved to the island, really nice gesture
*Had the Belly Buster with added jalapenos, better two days later actually
*I like the prices on wine and beer here and it gets the job done pizzza wise

Good pizza! Good value! Something for everyone. The Portage is delicious! They are very generous with toppings. If I remember to, I often ask for less cheese than normal. Great salads loaded with good stuff like cashews, bacon bits and tomato wedges.

This was the first spot my husband and I had gotten pizza since moving here.
We didn’t know what to expect and my husband is very picky about his pizza crust.
We decided on the Belly Buster.
We were told it would take about 15 minutes but felt like it came out faster than that.
The pizza was piled with toppings and the crust was not too thick and not too thin, and it was delicious.
Everyone that we spoke with was very friendly and helpful.
We will be back. :)

I’ve been here 8 months and have tried Rock Island Pizza several times. The salads are absolutely wonderful and the pizza is very tasty. I like that the crust isn’t too thick but isn’t cracker-​thin and has enough crisp to it.
I’ve never once experienced what others are commenting about regarding attitude. The owners have always been very nice to me and I have NEVER seen a sign posted that says, «We WILL be right back; you WILL be patient», as one other reviewer says they have.
In any case, Rock Island has lots interesting toppings including shrimp (and not tiny bay shrimp either), cashews, garlic, different sauces/​glazes, whole wheat crust, gluten-​free crust, etc.
Others have mentioned slow service and for the most part, service is fine. When they get busy (whether the dining room is full or there are a lot of carry-​out orders), things are slower. Could they be faster? Sure. I’ve never had service so slow that I wanted to walk out, but I have had service that was slow enough for me to look at my watch a few times.
All in all, I will return to Rock Island, even though there are other pizza places on the Island.

It’s pizza, pretty hard to mess that up. I would say it is mediocre pizza. The crust is kinda boring, but the taste is decent. Would rather have Dominos or Pizza Hut!
The worst part is the service. It kinda sucks… And I still can not figure out how it can take so long to make a simple pizza.
When you are stuck on an island, we have found that you are at the mercy of really crappy food establishments, high prices, and poor service.
We have only returned to 2 places on this island more than once. And one of them we will ONLY go through the drive-​through because the last time we were there, we had to deal with three screaming brats that were throwing things around the diner, and of course, white-​trash mommy did nothing to stop them, neither did the restaurant staff.

Easy 5 star rating for us. The pizza was superb! Service great! Ambience? Shared a table next to the fireplace with complete strangers who were very warm and friendly. This was our first time there but it certainly will not be the last!

Great little local pizza joint! They have gluten-​free crusts and a wide variety of toppings so I was able to build my favorite pie. The hotwings were excellent! Probably the best I’ve ever had and I’m a non-​native to Vashon.
The dining area was relatively quiet with the exception of a large TV that was showing local news. One of my favorite features is the fireplace. After a long cold drizzly day, settling down in front of the warm glow of the fire and enjoying a meal that doesn’t dirty any of my dishes is heaven!

Not the best pizza I’ve ever had, but definitely not the worst!
My girlfriend and I got the Momba omba combo pizza? Sorry, name might be a bit off but it has a bunch of mushrooms, Italian sausage, canadian bacon, and lots of cheese! Surprised in a good way by the amount of mushrooms, the price with two sodas came to be about $ 28 for a large.
I think we only waited about 20 minutes, if that, for our pizza to get to us, the place had a decent amount of business, it’s a Saturday night.
This is the best place we’ve had a meal at here on Vashon, considering the price, how good it was, etc.
If I come to Vashon again for a weekend, I’ll definitely be coming here again. Wish I went here last night instead of The Hardware Store!!!

There seems to be a consensus out there — great pizza, crappy service. I second that. I heard from a local that Rock Island has a «locals only» tip on their shoulder, and the service improves once you join the cult.
Until then it doesn’t matter because the pizza’s great and the layout is nice. Especially on a sunny day.
The salad dressings are all homemade and the Orange-​Chipotle dressing is worth a trip to Vashon for it’s own sake. Seriously.

Four star pizza, two star service.
The sign at the counter said something like «We (underscored) will be right with you, You (underscored) be patient.»
If you go here, order at the counter then have a seat. They will deliver it to your table (we learned this after waiting about five minutes without the three or four employees acknowledging us). The Pizza was very good and they had a wide variety of pizza, subs and other food on the menu to choose from.
They also have several beers on tap. A friend saw a sign advertising Guinness Draught and ordered one. It was poured out of a can flat. I was happy to see they had one of my favorites, Mac & Jack’s African Amber on tap here.
2% discount when paying cash.

Décor was so-​so — why all the chairs hanging from the ceiling? Poker on TV? Heavy, busy tablecloths? Odd bric-​à-​brac on the mantelpiece, like a metal armadillo with holes?
But the plate of spaghetti was delicious, cooked just right, and the meat had great flavors. And that’s what you’re there for.