Uncle Rico's Pizza - Schenectady

I remember when the owner first introduced vegan pizzas, he mentioned that he had consulted with several vegans and pizza chefs to ensure they got it right. He even made an effort to use sugar that was not processed with bone char. I was impressed by his attention to detail. The pizza at this restaurant is excellent, especially now that they are using local Halo Food cheese that melts and browns nicely.

I really enjoy the vegan pizza at this restaurant. It has the perfect taste of a local neighborhood pizza spot when that's the craving! The crust is medium-thin and the vegan options are somewhat limited, but it's great that they offer a clearly labeled vegan sauce and cheese option on their online menu. The staff even called us before preparing our pickup order when they noticed we accidentally added a non-vegan topping (breaded eggplant) to our otherwise vegan order, showing their attention to detail. I appreciate that their online ordering system allows you to easily specify the amount of each topping you add, whether extra, light, or normal.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this restaurant offers a vegan pizza option, made with local vegan cheese. The crust and sauce were delicious, and they were very generous with the vegetable toppings I requested. It was a bit strange that they have a separate vegan sauce, suggesting that the regular one may contain animal products. This made me slightly anxious that they might accidentally use the wrong sauce on my pizza. Be sure to specify that you want the vegan pizza, or request both vegan cheese and sauce if you are customizing another menu item.

Uncle Ricos is awesome. They are the only mom and pop take-out pizza place in Schenectady County that has vegan cheese (as far as I'm aware). We will travel across town to get pizza from Uncle Ricos. Peppinos in Duanesburg used to have vegan cheese, but they have new ownership. All in all, I'm super appreciative of Uncle Ricos!

My parents and I came here for lunch on our first day house hunting in the area and we enjoyed it. We told the guy at the counter that we were vegan and asked for vegan pizza and he specified that they have a separate vegan sauce. We then asked what toppings they had and he started rattling off meats...we found that odd and it made my mother a bit nervous that the pizza wouldn’t be vegan, but it seemed to be when we got it. We ended up with a pizza with vegan cheese, red bell peppers, and onions and we all enjoyed it immensely. They did warn us about cross contamination possibilities, which I appreciate. Unfortunately, upon first glance, Albany is lacking in fully vegan restaurants so we have to take what we can get and hope that expands the options offered everywhere!