One of America’s most famous pizza reviewers visited KC. Here’s his first score
Looks like it’s One Bite week in KC.
Dave Portnoy — the Barstool Sports founder who has become arguably the most famous pizza reviewer in the country — was in town Saturday as part of a partnership with DraftKings to promote the launch of legal sports betting in Missouri.
While here, Portnoy released his first-ever Kansas City pizza review.
He gave Pizza Tascio, the local New York-style chain, an 8.1 out of 10, with Portnoy praising the slice’s “good undercarriage.”
Portnoy called in the order — always a cheese pizza, judged on one bite — under a fake name around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, said owner Eli Lombardino. It was a busy night, and Portnoy waited in the pizzeria’s lobby at 1111 Burlington St. in North Kansas City for about 10 minutes before receiving his order.
“He totally caught us off guard,” Lombardino said. “It was just our regular crew there pumping out the same pies they always do. A few people on staff eventually recognized him, but he didn’t get anything special or doctored up.”
Portnoy then carried the pizza outside and filmed his review in front of the restaurant, per usual. He noted that Pizza Tascio was the highest rated slice in the One Bite app, his pizza review platform where users can also rate local pies.
“I don’t think KC is known for pizza, but I am known for pizza,” Portnoy said. “So we’re gonna make it work.”
Portnoy also took notice of the “Viva la Stool” sticker on Pizza Tascio’s door, a nod to Portnoy’s reviews.
“My brother put that on there when he opened back in 2022,” Lombardino said. “I’m surprised the adhesive still sticks.”
The review was short, seemingly due to the cold, windy night. Portnoy deemed his slice “really good, really good,” and awarded it the 8.1, adding that he would be doing “four or five” reviews afterward. Those will presumably also be of local pizzerias and will be posted to his social media feeds later this week.
Lombardino said he and several members of the Tascio crew gathered Monday night for “sort of a watch party” to see if Portnoy would post a review, as he typically does around 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Sometimes pizzeria staff or owners come outside after Portnoy films his review to find out their score, but nobody at Tascio had on Saturday.
“So the anticipation yesterday was very real — we were very excited to find out,” Lombardino said. “When he said 8.1, that was very exciting. I always felt like anything over an 8 we’d be happy with. An 8.1 — I’m super proud of that, super proud of our team.”
Lombardino said they’ll probably make a t-shirt in honor of the score, and possibly drop their $10 two-slice combo deal down to $8.10 soon for a limited time.
“Stay tuned on that,” he said.
Erik Borger founded Pizza Tascio in 2021 in St. Joseph before selling to Lombardino and his brothers in 2023. The local chain now has seven locations in the metro.
And though Portnoy pronounced it “Toss-key-oh,” it is actually pronounced “Tosh-ee-oh.” But that’s a mistake plenty of locals make, too.
This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 3:56 PM.