Finally tried the infamous Satchel's Pizza and I was a little disappointed to be honest. Ever since…read moreI came to Gainesville, the biggest food rec has been Satchel's by far. This is a very popular, iconic eatery in the area and gets busy. The atmosphere and ambiance is quite unique and like nothing I'd ever seen before. A very eclectic scene, the indoor and outdoor area is full of artwork, plants, and even stuff like old planes, buses, etc. There is truly nothing like it elsewhere! They offer both sit down and takeout options. You can opt for takeout and find seating in the takeout area or you can receive dine-in services. I recently dined here during move in--it was EXTREMELY busy and I would recommend going during times where mass amounts of students and their families aren't in town. We ended up putting our names down on the sit-down list and were told to expect up to a 1.5hr wait for the three of us. Although I ended up receiving a text about 50min later that our table was ready. The service was just ok. They were clearly swamped, but I was expecting them to handle this a little better considering they are used to this.
We ended up being seated outside and ordered immediately. To start, we got the Satch Salad with ham and for our pizza we ordered the large 18" pie with pepperoni, ricotta, and basil. The Satch salad is highly regarded featuring red and green leaf lettuce, carrots,
cucumbers, apples, a hint of finely diced red onion, Romano cheese, freshly diced tomatoes, a sprinkle of almonds, sunflower seeds, and pecan pieces, tossed in a secret house vinaigrette. The small salad, which feeds up to four, was quite large and the perfect size for the three of us. The salad had ample amounts of toppings, but it honestly was just ok. The dressing didn't have a prominent flavor, which was disappointing because so many people rave about it. We received our pizza at least an hour later. The wait was very, very long and honestly too long for what we received. The pie was large, with plenty of pepperoni and ricotta, but it just wasn't very balanced. It was so heavy, with so much sauce you couldn't even pick it up and eat it by the slice (had to use a fork and knife). Now I will say the sauce had great flavor, but there was way too much of it. It was also hard to taste the elements of the pie due to it being served straight from the oven and being extremely hot. The "buttery crust" many people mention wasn't very buttery and was just like average pizza crust. Not to mention, the pizza was burnt on the bottom and clearly overcooked. I was really surprised at how mediocre this pizza was after hearing so many fabulous things about it. Nothing was comped for our long wait either--which wasn't expected because everyone was waiting this long for their food too.
Overall, Satchel's didn't blow my mind and fell very flat to me. The atmosphere is certainly memorable and very unique. I appreciated the fun, hippy-like vibe with all the various nick-nacks, but the food wasn't my favorite. The salad was just ok and the infamous dressing didn't have much flavor. The wait for the pizza was insane, especially considering the execution of it. I understand part of my not-so-great experience is due to the time in which we decided to dine here. I would definitely like to return to get a better judgement of the food and service. Not all the pizzas seemed to be the same either--I noticed pies with less toppings (or lighter toppings) had much less sauce, thin, and eatable by the slice. So I am not adverse to coming here again, I'd actually really like to because I don't think my experience was the best representation of what this restaurant is known for!
