Rotolo's Craft and Crust Pizzeria

Basic Information:

Pizza: Rotolo's Craft and Crust Pizzeria

Number of Locations: 30+ across 9 states; based in Baton Rouge, LA
Location Reviewed: 1314 Maxwell Blvd. in Ruston, LA (north side of I-20 between exits 85 and 86)
Website: https://rotolos.com/
Date of Review Visit: February 2026
What I Ordered: Simple Man (10" Deep Dish Pizza) with sausage
Price: $28.06 (includes drink and tax but not tip)
Photo:

Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

 

Detailed Review:

Crust: What a surprise to find a true Chicago-style deep dish crust from a pizza chain based in Louisiana!  The crust has a great texture that is nice and crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside.  The crust has an almost bready taste.  I love this crust.  Score: 10/10

Sauce: This pizza has lots of sauce, but the sauce has a slight bitter and overspiced taste.  I prefer to taste more tomatoes in my sauce.  Score: 7/10

Cheese: This pizza has plenty of cheese, and it is applied directly to the crust in true Chicago style.  Excellent! Score: 10/10

Toppings: This pizza has plenty of sausage, but the sausage is a little too spicy to put on a pizza for my taste.  In their defense, they do advertise the sausage as a spicy sausage, but the server told me it isn't that spicy even though it's pretty spicy.  Maybe I should have ordered the pepperoni.  Score: 8/10

Overall Taste: The spiciness of the sauce and sausage overwhelm my taste palette, so the overall taste is not as good as you might expect.  Score: 7.5/10

Pizza Appearance: This pizza looks like a beautiful deep dish pizza; the sauce and crust dominate the appearance.

Dining Atmosphere: Rotolo's has a pleasant somewhat upscale casual dining atmosphere.  They were hosting the Inside Tech Basketball radio program for nearby Louisiana Tech University while I was there.

Customer Service: The service was friendly and fast enough considering the burden of the radio program.

Monetary Value: The price is expensive, but the quality is quite high.  They gave me a 15% discount for finishing the entire pizza.

The Final Judgment:

I love good deep dish Chicago-style pizza.  While Rotolo's is not the best option in that category, it is good enough that I will come back here because I was so surprised to find this style of pizza in northwest Louisiana.  Score: 84/100