Friday, February 13, 2009

Pizza from Papa Joe's (Lake Mary Blvd)

I ate dinner at the Papa Joe's located in the Target/Publix shopping center on Lake Mary Blvd in Lake Mary, FL. Their other Lake Mary location was already discussed here on Watch Me Eat, so I'll be comparing a bit.

My dining experience started with some bad air. One of the employees was sitting right outside the restaurant's entrance puffing away at a cigarette. Every customer entering the the restaurant had to walk through her cloud of smoke.

Once inside, garlic knots and pizza was ordered. I was impressed with the garlic knots. Compared to the garlic bread that I had at the other Papa Joe's, these were delicious. The was plenty of garlic, and the bread was cooked to perfection. No complaints here.
Papa Joe's Garlic Knots

I wasn't very impressed with the pizza. I found the sauce to be really sweet (like at the other Papa Joes), and the pizza seemed very hastily made. Everything was uneven about the pie. Some areas of the pizza had hardly any sauce and too much cheese. Other areas had pools of sauce and no cheese. Even how the pie was sliced was uneven, resulting in some huge slices and some tiny slices. Overall, the pizza was edible, but was a disappointment after the good pizza that I had on my last Papa Joe's dining experience.
Papa Joe's Cheese Slice

I did notice that Papa Joe's has some pizza lunch specials that I think I'll need to return for. They advertised having Grandmas pizza and stuffed pizza, both of which aren't very common in Florida.

On the way out, the same employee was still sitting outside, still smoking her cigarette. I wonder if she was getting paid to give lung cancer to Papa Joe's customers? I made sure to do lots of fake coughing as I walked by...

Papa Joe's on Urbanspoon

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having been a patron of Papa Joe’s for many years, I am saddened by what I feel I must write. While the wait staff and front staff are great, I find the kitchen staff to be rude and obnoxious. To have a cook come out of the kitchen and demean a fellow employee with total disregard, I find extremely distasteful. Had this been an isolated incident, I would have attributed it to having a bad day. Unfortunately, this is not the case. I have witnessed this on numerous occasions in the past and stopped frequenting Papa Joe’s, but decided to return thinking this would have been addressed by owners and management. Sadly, that seems not to be the case. I do, however, give cudos to the targeted employees past and present to not lower themselves in kind by responding back in said manner. Though the food is great, I will not be returning again and, cannot in good conscience, ever recommend this establishment to friends or for that matter strangers.

Anonymous said...

dThis problem has not been brought to the owners attention. After this had happened, we did our own investigation, and it has been corrected. The employee that was yelling and screaming is no longer employed by Papa joe's and this kind of behavior is not tolerated. On behalf of Papa Joe's "We are sorry to have to learn of this through the internet, but very glad we did. We wish that you would give us another chance to EARN your business back, and we guarantee that you will not be disappointed.

Anonymous said...

Papa Joes has always gone out of their way to correct any issue, all you have to do is talk to them, minus the rudeness that as customers most of us act in such manner. I'm a Jersey gal, I live by OIA and visit LK MARY for pizza that reminds me of my Jersey roots. If you can't handle stringy mozzarella, grease dripping down your chin, fresh hand tossed crust and family secret recipe gravy, then dominoes cardboard pizza is for you, PAPA JOES pizza must be folded like a taco when eating!!! Momma Mia now thatsa mi pizza!!!!

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