It has been years since I have been to this restaurant. Last time I was there I would have given it a negative if I could. But now I can honestly say it is definitely hovering around a 3 star. I used multiple different things in order to form my current "star" judgement including the attitude of staff, cleanliness, parking, taste of food, and was the taste worth the cost or the hassle. So first the attitude of the staff. Immediately when I walked in, I was greeted by two very lovely waitresses, who told me I could sit anywhere I liked. I chose to sit at the bar where I could see into the kitchen. The waitress behind the bar quickly took my drink order and handed me a menu. After some internal debate I ended up ordering quite a bit of food so I could sample a little of everything. Yes, you guessed it, I will be eating leftovers tomorrow too. I ordered a MUG rootbeer, slice of pepperoni, ham & mushroom, an order of fried pickles, 2 meatballs with mozzarella, a chef salad, and limoncello cake slice. I also explained that I have a severe deathly allergic reaction to onion so nothing can touch onion. Upon asking, she explained the salads are premade daily. the difference between the chef salad and the house salad is the ham, turkey and salami sandwich meat that comes cut up on top. So for this the staff would get a 4.5 stars. Now we move on to cleanliness. Obviously I didn't get out a set of white gloves or inspect the kitchen, but all the dirty dishes were picked up, the tables wiped off, the floor swept. Everything looked very sanitized. I would give them a 4 on cleanliness. Now comes the parking. This restaurant is located in a beach town that is 15 minutes down the road from the biggest Marine Corps base on the East Coast. Between all the Marines, Civilians, and contractors, and their families, then you throw tourists in the mix, having an exceptionally small parking lot that is shared by 3 restaurants is an absolute disaster. I have attached a picture of google earth with labels of the restaurants and the employee parking for the one set of restaurants. On to the fun part, the Food!!!
Chef Salad - I like my salad to be green. Today I received a salad where most of the lettuce was almost the same color as the cheese: white, white, white. It had 4 small tomatoes, cheese, and sandwich meat that had been rolled and cut so it was spiraled like a pinwheel. To me, definitely not worth the $6.99 price tag.
Pizza slice - over all not bad. Michaelangelo's cooks New York style pizza which has a tendency to be real chewy. The pizza surprisingly wasn't like chewing on a rubber dog toy, and had a decent flavor. The toppings were good as well. I did have some grease but that is to be expected. Yes it is worth the $3.50 for a slice.
Limoncello cake - probably the biggest disappointment. I love all things lemon, but the slices are taken put of their original packaging, put onto new packages that are individual packages and placed in the refrigerator to keep them fresher longer. One problem with this is, like my slice today, the frosting is great, but the cake itself is soggy and mushy. Was definitely, hands down, 100% not worth paying $5.25!
MUG rootbeer - well it is my favorite rootbeer and the machine was in good working condition so no issues on that front.
Meantballs - these were super yummy. They were also a pretty hefty size coming in at just a little smaller than a tennis ball. Definitely worth the price!
Fried Pickles - I was surprised to find that the batter on these was a bit on the spicy side. I love spicy food so its wasn't an issue for me, but it was a shock. I can imagine it being an issue if someone who doesn't like spicy foods orders them though. And, they were good, but they didn't leave you with that super amazed feeling. I was left with, meh it was good. Definitely not good enough to fight the parking lot battle to come in and pay $8.50. I think if I was there with friends and we were getting pizza I might entertain getting them if it were $6 but not $8.5
So again to recap, the service was excellent, the parking stinks and the food is hot and miss on what's good, what's meh, and what's in the "just don't eat that" category. read more