Original Antonio's — Restaurant in Avalon

We stayed at a hotel right next to this pizza place and every time we walked by the smell of fresh dough was overwhelming. Not to mention there were always people there to grab a pizza. We had few places to try in one day so we decided to try them right before we left. They have very cool and interesting decor inside, apparently it used to be a bomb shelter back in the day. They have enough seating for around 15 people inside and few tables outside. We saw many people get a to go order as well. We were seated right away and got a beer and a soft drink, they have selection of root beers and beers so that was nice. We couldn't choose between a small and large pizza but decided the small was too small for 2 people. We got a large pizza with quiet a few toppings like mushroom, anchovies on half, mushrooms, olives. Their cheese consists of quiet a few different cheeses as well. We got a nice sized pizza with all the toppings, except by the end we remembered they forgot the avocado but we were still charged for it! Rude The pizza was good, but nothing especially amazing, anchovies were overwhelmingly salty , I mean you could barely eat the pizza with it. My wife ate the pieces without the anchovies. They put oyster mushrooms which was very unique from our pizza places in LA. The price for such pizza was $24 which I thought was kinda crazy, in LA there are way better ones for this price. I do not think we would go back again and also I do not think they serve slices which is too bad because sometimes you just want to grab a slice when walking around on the beach. Way overpriced and they charged us for extra topping they forgot. Oh well, an ok...

Original Antonio's is a bit of a conundrum for me. On one hand the food is more often than not pretty good - they have a brisk take away business for pizza, and for good reason. Their chicken wings are also not bad. The service here is friendly and the ladies (and cooks) work their butts off. On the other hand there are a couple aspects that are either jarring or just annoying: 1. That everything here is served on paper plates or cardboard bowls and flimsy plastic utensils is just plain annoying from an environmental standpoint. And 2., while the majority of the decor is kitschy and eclectic, there are a couple choices that baffle me ...the signage in the dining area that states the 2nd amendment and another that features the Gadsden flag is among a few decorative choices I don't get. This is in every other respect a family friendly place with neat Hollywood and movie star memorabilia...and then there's unnecessary political material that has some questionable meaning to many patrons/ would-be patrons. It would be nice if that could just be left out...and let Original Antonio's be a simply nice pizza joint...

Originally put this on Antonio’s Pizza and Cabaret. This review is meant for Original Antonio’s.

I don’t write reviews but this has been an annoying experience. Only in Catalina for a couple days and have fond memories of this place as a child. The internet says they are open until 9pm. Tried going last night at around 8:40 and they were closed already. Tried again tonight. Got in line at 7:30 and heard (through others in lone, not the staff) they were going to close at 8 (again, internet says 9). Made it to the front of the just to be the first group to be told they are closed. Very annoying since groups ahead were having casual conversations with the host that doing without could have sped up the line. Even more annoying is waiting in line for 30 minutes just to be turned away and not being severely limited on dining options since other restaurants (still saying they are open) were closed. There were still plenty of people behind us in line so I’m not sure why they would have turned away so much extra business when they were listed as being open for...