Quick Take:
Location: 213 E Lake Ave, Auburndale
What Mike Ordered: Plain Cheese Slice and Rustica Slide
What Katie Ordered: Plain Cheese Slice and BBQ Chicken Slice
Gluten Free Options: Yes
Vegetarian Options: Yes
Final Score: 4.75/5
Price: ~$10–20 per person
For our twenty sixth stop on our Polk Food Quest, we hit up Pizza Brothers in Auburndale.
Pizza Brothers is fairly new, only around for about a year and a half after buying Sal's Pizza, just a little ways down from the post office and The Abigail in downtown.
They have been rebuilding ever since — with upgrades all around — from the booths to a fully revamped menu and recipes.
We plan on being around and making this a regular spot long enough for us to see all the revamps as they come.
By the way: if you're new here, the concept of my Polk Food Quest is simple: every week I try a local spot, order the most common thing people get, try a few extras, and rank it on taste, value, vibes, and overall.
This week: Pizza!
Which means Katie and I each got a plain cheese slice (the *main* challenge, for us) and then also split a half Rustica, half BBQ chicken 16" pie (most of which came home with us so Ryan can try too).
How Does This Work?
I order the standard item for that category (for the Pizza Brothers that was a plain cheese slice of pizza), plus a few extras so I can get a full feel for the menu.
Then I rank the experience on four things:
Taste | Value | Vibes | 
Overall
Taste focuses on the standard item.
The rest reflects the entire experience.
Taste: 5/5
This is in the front-running for the best pizza on the east side of Polk County.
If you watch my 10-second review video on the plain cheese slice you can actually hear the crunch as I bite into it OVER the timer.
Here's the clip on Instagram and/or Facebook.
The plain slice blew me away.
Here's a quick breakdown for my quick scanners, though:
- Plain Cheese Slice: This is up there competing for the gold standard cheese slice in all of Polk County. If you're on the east side of Polk, this is the spot to stop, no question.
- BBQ Chicken Slice: Still amazing, but I wouldn't call it the gold standard. You could find similar in other pizza shops throughout Polk.
- Rustica Slice: Similar to the BBQ chicken slice, this one was great, but not necessarily make me fall off my seat great.
This is easily a 5/5 overall for pizza (and we're very excited to try their full menu as well); but my cheat sheet would be speciality from Calogero's (woodfire) in Lake Alfred, and Pizza Brother ANYTIME I want a plain cheese slice (or simple toppings).
Vibes: 4/5
The vibes were high at Pizza Brothers as well.
Our waiter, Dante, was incredible, and the owner Luca showed us a ton of hospitality as well.
Luca and his two brothers are doing an incredible job revamping the location, and it's ALREADY giving me small Long Island pizza shop vibes.
So for me, it's exactly what I would want.
That said, I want to give it as fair of a ranking as possible for every visiting (not just to grab a quick slice).
Reminder, I rank vibes on:
- The Physical Location
- Hospitality/Service
- The Interior/Space
It's right in downtown Auburndale, which is blowing up with new local spots, and the hospitality is incredible; so it easily jumps up a few slots.
The brothers are still making updates, so I'm sure it's going to be a 5/5 soon, but for now, I'll give it a solid 4/5.
Value: 5/5
You can grab a slice of some of the best pizza in Polk for $3.25...
Do I even have to say more?
Probably not, but I'll tell you that their entire menu is priced right.
You can grab a 10", 16" or 18" pie for $8.99, $16.25 or $18.25 (priced for cheese), which is just a steal for the quality of food.
Even with a 4/5 for vibes (which is technically higher if you love the NY-style mom-and-pop Italian/pizza shop); the value still is an easy 5/5 for what you get at Pizza Brothers.
Overall: 4.5/5
Pizza Brothers gets a 4.5/5.
They get a slight bump while they revamp the location, but I'll be honest when I tell you that I secretly wanted to give them a 5/5.
They're a 5/5 for what I personally want out of a quick-grab plain slice of pizza shop.
Would I bring my visiting family there?
Already planning on it.
Not only is it walking distance for us, but THIS is the spot I plan on bringing family from both Katie's side (New Jersey) AND my side (Long Island) whenever pizza is brought up.
Here’s how I’d sum up Pizza Brothers:
The plain cheese slice alone is worth the trip.
It's genuinely in the conversation for best in Polk, and for $3.25 a slice, you're not going to find better value on the east side of the county.
Luca, his brothers, and the crew (shoutout Dante) are pouring everything into this place, and it shows in the hospitality even while the renovations are still underway.
Give it a little more time and this easily becomes a 5/5 vibes spot too.
Add in the fact that a full 16" pie runs you $16.25, and this is one of those "everyone in the family will be happy" pizza stops.
Before You Go....
Hey!
I want to know what you think of Pizza Brothers in Auburndale.
Leave a comment below.
The more you share, the better, but anything is appreciated.
Each comment helps The Best Of Polk articles and eventually, the yearly awards!
Have a place you want me to try?
Make sure to comment that as well.
Never Miss An Event Or Story
My husband and I just moved to Auburndale and we went to Pizza Brothers on Sunday. We loved it! The hospitality was phenomenal. Everyone was genuinely happy to serve their customers. I had the chicken cacciatore and my husband had the buffalo chicken pizza. Both meals were great and we had enough for leftovers. jazzy was our waitress and she was terrific. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and our meals.
Couldn’t agree more! Excited to meet Jazzy as well.
Absolutely love Pizza Brothers. Their pizza is fantastic and everyone is so nice. Highly recommend them. As a former NJ person this is as good as any pizza from NJ in my opinion.
I’m from Long Island and Katie is from Jersey and she agrees! There’s a couple more stops on our pizza quest, but this’ll be hard to beat.
We just moved to auburndale in May after 46 years living in california. We’ve been checking out restaurants in area to find our favorites.
We found pizza Bros and love that place.
We have not found a good chinese restaurant we like😔
Any suggestions?
Hey Denise! We experienced the same thing.
This is from Chuck on one of our Facebook posts:
“And let’s face it, Auburndale has the only good Chinese restaurant and all of Polk County. That’s Green Tea on Havendale.”
He also added:
“My favorites are the Singapore noodles, Curry Chicken, fried ravioli, egg rolls, chicken and pea pods. Chicken on a stick. Don’t forget to ask for the real mustard for the egg rolls and chicken!”
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We plan on featuring them soon because of this high praise!