I like Avanti's. It has 5 or 6 locations around Peoria area. Great taste, and always popular for family. The price is not bad, and the waitress' service is also good. read more

Poor customer service. I had a huge take-out order and they forgot the side salads but I didn't notice until I got to my parent's. They kept me on the phone forever and had me talk to a few people. Finally, they told me I'd have a credit for the next time I came. Well, I don't live in town so my parents were going to use the credit and when they tried the manager was nasty and told my mom that I HAD actually picked up the bag with the salads and they had it on video. NOT possible, as there were NO salads in any of the take-out bags. Really? Why would I lie about some side salads? I wrote a letter, no response. We will never go back. read more

have been there twice...once for take out and once for dine in. both were ok - but just ok. the gondola was not bad - but the best part was the bread and i had them sub the american cheese for mozzarella. the pastas were ok - but i think i can cook some just as well. not the best italian food, but cheap and quick - works if you dont want to cook. read more

I so agree about the crappy sauce. There is no effort to add herbs, or any spice besides sugar or salt. Bland, bland, midwestern bland! I don't think that people from this region KNOW how horrible their food is. Having moved from Colorado, I was stunned by the large amount of crap served as "Italian" here. This place is no exception. Yuck! Americanized and commercialized is right. read more

We've eaten their several times and love their spaghetti and of course their famous gondola!

Everything looks and tastes fresh. I love their ravoli with meat sauce. Once in awhile I will pick up a loaf of bread with the meat sauce to take home. Prices are very reasonable and a good variety of items to choose from. read more

A decent Italian restaurant although the only real reason I come here is to get a gondola sandwich. It really is a basic sandwich but the bread itself makes it a great sandwich. It's a must have whenever I'm in town. The wife says she doesn't get it, but what does she know. read more

I love it. Great food. Fairly inexpensive. I am from out of town but have to go whenever I am near there. I love the separate take out area from the restaurant. If we don't have time to dine in I can call ahead and grab some pizza burgers to take home. They warm up very well in the oven. read more

DO NOT DO DELIVERY. Very late (1 hour 45 min.) and when it finally came it was wrong. Half of our food was forgotten called manager and he said the forgotten food would take 30-45 min. To arrive. (Which would make our other food cold) Ended up going to get it...nobody was really sorry...a fun night with friends and family was worrying about food. To say the least a BAD EXPERIENCE and lack of employee/manager skills were very dim. So lesson learned. I will no longer be eating Avantis. Which is sad because their food is a staple in Peoria. If you do go do "dine in"or "carry out". I was so very disappointed that it happened to me again!!! The same thing happened about a year ago to us! If it's happened twice to us, I'm sure it's happened to many others. read more

Gondola's are the best. Very inexpensive. We have friends from Georgia that have to have this when they come visit.

I had been to Avanti's, N Rockwood Dr. on Sep.13, 2013 at 8:30pm. I have not experienced such service anywhere in Peoria. This is one of the worst restaurants, which is very bad in serving their customers. If there is any rating for worst service, I would vote 0/10 for their service. First, we waited at least 5 mins for the waiter to appear at our table. After taking our drinks order. Second, we waited another 10 mins for her to show up to take our main course order. She said she would bring us the bread. Third, she took another 10 mins to bring the bread (but no plates and cutlery). She said she will come back with the plates, but never showed up for another 10 mins. Meanwhile, I called up another waiter to get me the plates. After waiting another 10 mins, the waiter again showed up with our main course, but never apologized for being late. Why this partiality? This was my first visit to Avanti's and such a terrible experience. I would never suggest this restaurant to anyone. Unfortunately, I need to select some stars to post. :( read more

i order from Avanti's and love the gondola's, their bread is wonderful and have enjoyed for many years, missed it when i moved away for a while. I have however, been very disappointed lately, i ordered two pasta salads...that arrived about a month ago with hardly any pasta, i believe there may have been 5 pieces of pasta per salad..it had fresh cheese, olives, onion etc but little or no pasta, i did not complain but feel they need to critique their workers so that their food is consistent. Last night i ordered a chef salad...again fresh but i was so disappointed one piece of salami was the only meat on the entire salad..one round piece cut in 4 pieces...not a chef salad i remember, bah humbug. The pizza however was delicious but i am disappointed they do not offer thin crust. It will be a while before i risk ordering again from Avanti s ...sad it has gone downhill over the years...in quality. read more

After dealing with Pete Nicol, their customer service rep, I will never order from here again. Avanti's got my order wrong, no big deal, it happens; but bringing it to their attention and having them do absolutely nothing about it after they admitted they were wrong is completely unforgivable. I'm tired of restaurants merely saying "sorry bout that" when you get screwed out of a salad or get the wrong order. It seems they don't value their customers at all. Try Olive garden, the food is WAY better. As a side note, their gondolas are skimpy and the ham quite fatty. La Gondola has better quality meat at the same price. AVOID this place. read more

A long time established restaurant in Peoria, now East Peoria and Normal. The lasagna was as good as a frozen Stoffuers or Encore from the grocery store. Soggy flat noodles with layers of sauce covered in their meat sauce and a thick piece of wt. cheese. The bread is always good. The meatballs again are an institutional frozen entrees. So much for the true Italian restaurant. We are in Peoria, Rizzi's, Biaggi's, P.V.II, are superior. Avanti's is the McDonald's of Italian. read more

since WHEN DO YOU NEED NOT NOT TO WEAR GLOVES to make sandwiches. im reporting this to health department. to walk in not one person making gondolas had a glove on. read more

Tried this place because everyone raves about it. Got the "magical" gondola. Way to much bread and not remotely close to enough meat and cheese. The bread was no better than subway and subway gives you a hell of a lot more meat and cheese on your sandwich. This place is so far over rated that it is kind of nauseating. If you like a slice of meat and a slice of cheese between a thick hunk of average white italian bread then by all means... get a gondola. Otherwise just go to subway. read more

This place is disgusting. Unless you are twelve years old and want to eat bland, lifeless cuisine in a roomful of screaming babies, I would suggest finding another spot. Anyone who likes this restaurant seriously needs to eat around a bit more. Life is just too damn short to have to eat even one meal here. read more

The pasta is okay, but kind of bland. the bread was my favorite part of the meal. I don't know what their sandwiches last like, but if you want pasta stick with Biaggi's or Olive Garden read more

Folks in Peoria seem to think this place is amazing. We don't get it. This is not Italian food. It's super processed and prepackaged tasting. Their bread seems to have sugar in it--which I found not at all appealing. No one in our party of five found any compelling reason to return here. read more

I've always been a fan of Avanti's, ever since I was a kid. It's definitely Americanized Italian, not authentic Italian. Pasta dishes with simple sauces -- meat, marinara, alfredo -- but their pizza is decent and then there's the bread. I'll stop on my way home and pick up one or two loaves instead of buying supermarket bread. I don't know what they put in it but it's incredible. Worth making a special trip. read more

Ordered a pizza with no sauce a few weeks ago,noticed when i got home it had sauce so i called to let the carryout know about this ....whoever runs carryout or whoever was on the phone said i would have a credit..Today i ordered a hot ham n cheese and pizza with no sauce the argumentative manager of carryout pretty much said i was lying ....like i need a free pizza please...Was just trying to get the right order and to feel like i'm trying to steal a pizza makes me sick to my stomach.Will not return to any avanti's till this girl who runs carryout takes a checkup from the neckup and the place takes there customer's order more serious than the current carryout manager does read more

Avanti's and Peoria go hand in hand. The gondolas and spaghetti are our favorites. The hamburger pizza is pretty good too. GREAT Food.

I am from out of town on business and although there were mixed reviews on this restaurant, I thought it worth a try. I wish I had gone elsewhere. I would not classify it as a restaurant, rather it was somewhat of a dinner - the kind you expect to see at a truck stop off an interstate. Kinda plain, a bit tired, and a very depressing atmosphere. I guess you indeed get what you paid for and perhaps I should have gone with the signature dish. I had the house salad and the meatball sub. The salad came and I could tell the lettuce had been sitting out for some time. It was not bad, but had that limp texture of something that had been out for some time. It didn't matter too much as it was *drowning* in Italian dressing. Way too much dressing.. but it did hide the blandness of non-fresh lettuce. Overall it was eatable, but not overly satisfying. My meatball sub was a disaster though. I have on very rare occasions - when eating ground beef - discovered a tiny bone fragment. I guess the ground meat grinders nick the bone when stripping it from the cow and inevitably some bone fragments may get into the meat. It is so rare though that I can probably count on one hand the number of times it has happened to me in my lifetime and when it does I immediately lose my appetite. Well, I bit into the meatball sub and I got several bone fragments!! After picking them out, I charged on (with a reduced appetite) and the next meatball had fragments too. It also had grizzly parts that were hard to eat. After I hit grizzle in my third meatball, I was done. I couldn't eat anymore and left 75% uneaten. I can only think that they get the absolute cheapest ground beef and this has a high count of bone and grizzle. Ugh! Oh well, the diet coke was large and good. The overall dinner was insanely cheap as it came to $9.50... $12 after tip and all. But since I ate very little, I was still hungry and had to go elsewhere to try and erase my memory of hard little bone fragments in meatballs. On an odd side note, the bathrooms were very clean, fresh smelling newly renovated, bright and pleasant. Much more cheerful than the restaurant area. They should put some tables in there...;-) it seemed nicer than the main restaurant.. kinda. read more

Good food, low prices, great service. If this is what you want then this is the right place to go.

What did we ask our Peoria friends to bring when they were going to viist us in Alaska? Avanti's bread..as much as they could stuff in a suitcase. read more

Man was this place bad... I went here because some friends of mine in the Peoria area grew up on this place, and they love it. This has to be the worst pasta I have ever had; overcooked, bland, watery, just completely unappealing. My friend had the Gondola, not even pronounced correctly for which they tried correcting me, it was worse than a pre-made sub sandwich from the gas station. I Guess when you have nothing but fast food around here Avanti's sounds good? read more

Good food for a good price! Never leave this place unsatisfied. Gondolas are delish and always enjoy their appetizers. Have never tried their pizza but it looks really good as well. Not expensive, but a nice enough place for date night! read more

We stopped in at Avantis on Sunday afternoon for lunch after church. I had not been there in awhile and looked forward to some good old Avanti's food. We were seated right way and our waitress promptly took our drink and food order; however, we waited quite a awhile for some bread (face it, we all go to Avanti's for the bread). I ordered a pizza bread deluxe with meatballs, onions and peppers. The bread was somewhat over toasted but the sauce with onions and peppers was awesome. The meaballs were disappointing and had no taste whatsoever. Our waitress kept us supplied with bread but our waters were left empty for quite sometime. Overall, it was a cheap filling lunch and the 3 of us ate for less than $25.00. I might go back, I might not. Used to love their piazza so that might draw me back. read more

worst meal ever. do not do deliver. it took 2 hours instead of 45 minutes. pizza dry. pizza burger was Hal the normal size. I have been a loyal customer for 15 years. the last dozen times I have been disappointed. I am now done read more

Basic and nothing special. The bread is sweet, and it's OK, but I don't understand the raves. I'm a townie and have eaten here many times, but usually it's a meal of last resort because I'm starved and nothing else is open. If you're a big Chef Boyardee fan, then Avanti's will really wow you. And that should tell you a lot about the Peoria food scene, because Avanti's is extremely popular. Mention Avanti's anytime you're out, and at least one person will start raving about the bread. read more

i am a huge eater and am content with restaurants at every level of the class chain. avanti's was fundamentally inedible. i couldn't eat the way overcooked, flimsy pasta soaked in some form of fake chicken stock i was given. it was truly repulsive. i'd been warned and should have heeded. unless you're twelve and have an undeveloped palate, choose elsewhere. read more

wonderful sub sandwiches - when family from Peoria visits other family members who have moved away, they always bring some Avanti's

We frequent Avanti's Rockwood quite often and have rated the food and service as 4 star until our last visit. On our way home from a school function, we stopped to pickup two deluxe gondola's to go. When we arrived home to prepare the gondola's for dinner, we found one was not a deluxe but a regular, no big deal right! As we began to eat, we noticed that the gondola bread was stale and difficult to chew. This is not typical, instead of interrupting our dinner to return the gondolas, we decided to "munch" through, as it would have cost me more in gas and time to return the gondolas than they were worth! After dinner, we contacted the manager, Jim of the Rockwood Avanti's to complain of the breads poor quality. After explaining the issues, Jim response was not one of understanding or even close to being customer orientated. Jim's reluctance to resolve and make the issues right with the customer is sad! If I owned a restaurant and my manage treated customers like Jim treated us, he would be fired on the spot. As for the Avanti's restaurant chain, I have left a message with their corporate office. If they elect not to work with us, the customer, we will not return to any of Avanti's restaurants. read more