I'm guessing that the 1-star reviews have some personal gripes with Andover Pizza (mentioning another customer by name...huh?), and are not actually offering a legit review given their zero Yelp friends and a similar number of reviews.
We pass by Andover Pizza nearly every day, but had never eaten here. Yesterday, after a long day on the road, my wife and I decided to stop for a late lunch. First off, I was surprised by the decor...I'd always assumed it was a total dive take-out joint, given the run-down tiny strip mall location. While it certainly isn't fancy, it is spacious, pleasant, and clean, with cool old photos of historic Andover on the walls. There is a separate bar/dining are and pool table in the other room.
Being nearly 3:00, it was also very quiet, so it's no real surprise that we were greeted immediately. Our hostess/server was a very pleasant young woman who appeared to be the only person working at that hour. I'd guess they have more servers at dinner time. She took our drink orders while we perused the extensive but typical pizza-joint menu. Several salads, lots of grinders, specialty and build-your-own pizzas, and a pretty decent selection of entrees and apps.
This is when it got interesting...we weren't there for pizza. We just wanted a couple of sandwiches. I had a hankering for a chicken parm grinder. While the menu listed meatball parm, eggplant parm, and veal parm, it only listed a "chicken cutlet" grinder. I asked if I could have it as a chicken parm grinder and was told yes. The server then didn't seem to have a clue what actually came on the grinder. "Does it come with peppers and onions?" We can do that, sure, assured the server. "With marinara sauce?" Oh, she said, you want sauce on it, too? Huh? Of course! Then she asked if i'd like cheese on it. Wait, what? What kind of PARM sandwich doesn't have cheese? She seemed a bit confused, but dutifully wrote down the details and repeated them back to me a couple of times, just to be sure. My wife went through a similar ordeal placing her sandwich order. We added a side of fries (nothing is included with our sandwiches) and were asked if we wanted those as an app or with our meal. We said with the meal but they came out well before the sandwiches anyway. That said, they were pretty much perfect fries, hot and crispy, and plenty to share.
I should mention that all the while several people came and went picking up take out orders, and our server was also steadily answering the phone taking more orders. It was obviously busier in the kitchen than the two or three tables occupied in the dining room.
It took another five or ten minutes to get our grinders while we tried not to fill up on the fries. When the grinders arrived, they had obviously been left in the oven just a bit too long. While certainly not burnt, they were very well "toasted" along the top. The server knew this and didn't wait for us to say anything -- she immediately asked if they were too crispy and if we wanted them redone (no, they were okay). Extra points for being attentive.
Besides the slight over-toasting, the sandwiches were actually quite good, and large for half subs. There were plenty of grilled onions and peppers, lots of meat, could have used a bit more sauce. The server happily gave us a bowl of extra marinara. Neither of us could finish more than half of our half.
While our server was a bit scattered, she was also very pleasant and reasonably attentive considering she appeared to be running the entire front end herself. Assuming the other offerings on the menu were at least at tasty (but hopefully not over-toasted) I'd say Andover Pizza was pretty good, not great, but much better than expected given the some of the other reviews. They pack 'em in at night and they've been there awhile and have even expanded, so despite the 1-star naysayers, they must be doing something right. It's no gourmet italian joint, but I'd certainly return. read more
