Pal Joey's Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Batavia Township

Pal Joey’s is one of those places you drive by 100 times and wonder if you should try it. It is a somewhat odd location for a “fine Italian food” restaurant, given the building’s history as it originally housed an Aldi and later a Golden Corral. The enormous size of the place with at least 100 parking spaces outside just isn’t a natural fit for the place’s ambitions. The first impression is somewhat carried in to the inside, where you are greeted by friendly staff, but cheap burgundy vinyl table covers and cheap mass production chairs in a massive dining room. So, no, this is not a fine Italian food experience out of the gate.

The menu is utterly confusing. There are different prices for virtually the same dish (red and white Tortellini have different prices, for example), plenty of extras mentioned in the menu, some dishes with extras without mention and most items are, given the atmosphere, simply overpriced. Chicken for a pizza is $4.50 extra, for example, and relatively simple toppings such as ham and basil are priced here as premium toppings starting from $1.75 for a small pizza. A medium pizza can easily cost more than $20 here.

That said, the simple pizza my wife ordered was good. I had a tough time finding anything on this menu that made sense – something that was priced somewhat conclusively and without an outrageous extra cost such as cheese on a sandwich that wasn’t cheap to begin with. I settled for penne pasta with tomato sauce and chicken for $15.25. It’s tough to see pasta and sauce barely worth $5 in material cost to be worth that much, so I expected something amazing. The pasta was good, but the chicken in the dish was overcooked and rubbery. The meal came with a cup of pasta soup that was more a bean soup than a pasta soup, but ok overall. The initial impression of a cheap atmosphere of the dining room was confirmed with plastic drinking cups as well as store-bought Italian bread and butter served in pre-packaged portions, the kind you get in a family breakfast place. It still feels a bit like a Golden Corral and not like what makes sense as an Italian restaurant. Maybe the owners should consider a buffet to turn it into an Italian Golden Corral?

So, it really isn’t fine Italian food. It’s more a family diner in a somewhat odd location with about 90% of the tables empty during our Saturday lunch. The pricing is too ambitious for what the kitchen delivers. If the owners want this to be a fine dining experience, they need to step it up and check out the area what other Italian restaurants within 10 miles deliver for about the same price and 10-20% more. There are excellent choices in downtown St' Charles and Geneva that excel at Italian fine dining and still price their pasta items below $20. As it is, it is one of the places that you wonder how long they may stick around, or if they are lucky enough to qualify for Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares.

On a positive note, the waitress was very attentive, friendly and very patient with me until I found something that I chose to eat.

Probably not...

EDIT: Finally decided to give Pal Joey's in Batavia a try! There were 7 of us and we arrived mid-afternoon Saturday. Pretty quiet, a few guests inside, more outside on the patio. Server was great and very attentive. Unfortunately, they totally messed up our pizza order. It certainly was NOT our servers fault who promptly had them replaced, which we took home. All of the food was very slow coming out. Again, through no fault of our server. This place really needs to do something about their cleanliness. Dirty windoqs, bathroom was pretty bad. We were disappointed.

After patronizing the W.C. location since the 70's, we're DONE! Long story short, we called to make a reservation for 18 on Friday at 5pm and were asked to consider the pizza/salad/pop special at $13.00/ p.p. After checking with the rest of the group, we opted out, requesting that we be able to order from the regular menu. (we all eat pizza anyway, so didn't think it would be a big deal!) Here is how the conversation went: Me: Hi Craig (Greg) - I talked with my family and they would all prefer to order from the menu, rather than do the pizza/salad/pop special. Craig (Greg): Oh, ok. long pause Me: Is that going to be an issue? Craig (Greg): Well, YES, it is. I have several parties that night and it's going to be a problem! Me: Oh, ok. I guess then, we need to find somewhere else to go?! Craig (Greg): Ok, thanks, bye. I was totally taken aback at this response and the lack of effort to try and accommodate us. There was absolutely NO consideration for anything else! "Hey, could you come a little earlier? a little later? We'll be slammed, so you may have a longer wait for your orders". Absolutely nothing!! WE DON'T CARE. We're celebrating our kids and grand kids visiting with us from Canada and we've waited before. Your food is worth waiting for! All they want when they come to visit is Pal Joey's and Portillo's. The fact that there did not appear to be any wiggle room or concession was really discouraging. We all know that there is a shortage of staff at many establishments and it's a struggle to find the assistance these days. However, customer service goes way beyond the servers, the bussers, the kitchen staff, the front end staff and everyone else who pitches in to create that special atmosphere and serve delicious meals. Management is a crucial part of the equation and without good management, you might as well kiss your business goodbye. The attitude, work ethic and respect that you have for others is a reflection of your character and is reflected in all those around you, especially your employees. I'm very sorry to say that the service we received from this particular manager has affected our decision to take Pal Joey's off our list of favorite...

We went based upon a recommendation. Why did they hate us so much to recommend Pal Joey's? Only order the pizzas from here to go. Very expensive for getting frozen food reheated. You can't call yourself an Italian restaurant and not serve Italian beer. Could of went to Jewel across the street and bought mostacolli and a top shelf sauce and would have had leftovers. The portions are reminiscent of Pizza Hut. Very bland. The special of the day was Rotolo. The noodles tasted like cardboard cut into strips. Some spots super dry and the others watery and bland. The alfredo and marinara tasted like it was out of a can. The dish looked good but very deceptive. If I wasn't starving from the wait, I would have sent it back.

We ordered STUFFED mushrooms and she brought out fried mushrooms that were watery on the inside and very bland. She apologized and said she would take off the bill but when the bill came it was still there. Would not have eatin it if the app didnt take a half hour to come out and the main course 41 minutes later.

The table next to us had complained but I didn't hear exactly the issue only the waitress apologizing.

Calamari was bad too. Very rubbery and bland. I hate to say, but Pizza Hut lunch menu tastes 3x as better. Waste of time and a waste of money. Their pizza is delicious but...