Garcia's Pizza In A Pan — Restaurant in Champaign

The Gutbuster (stuffed) was a delicacy from that legendary tangy tomato sauce to the flaky buttery sweet crust, it was a true time warp of foodie goodness for my mouth and soul. Full disclosure but have not dined on Garcia's Pizza since The 1980s when school life in Rantoul took me there for lunch like a treat most days or later in high school, their location on Green Street became synonymous with both food, sidewalk loitering and car cruising. They set a certain kind of food standard and obviously a pizza one that led to my own chef life and eventually the publishing of a foodie zine in Savannah, GA. Nevermind their sense of fun and making it all "rock star." I recall getting their pizzas delivered by those geometric pyramid looking electric cars and seeing them sadly junk heaped later and my childhood was made braver by exactly 1 ride in their epic, if not beautiful, hot air tomato balloons complete with stem top I seem to recall? How the kids of Rantoul absolutely thrilled when we caught sight of that balloon coming over our neighborhoods! All of it was real life Willy Wonka stuff and their pizza very much The Everlasting Gobstopper or something really close to it! Did we come to take it all for granted? Yes but only in our realization that the rest of the world past Garcia's was not nearly up to standard and some part of us got jaded and the world around us more commercialized. But the Spirit of Garcia's never really left us as they'd forged so much in us right down to our sophisticated taste buds. In some ways, that's a flavor beyond flavor that cannot be defined or equaled and certainly not imitated. That's food made spiritual. Now, I did approach eating this recent Gutbuster with full objectivity and to some degree, had no true memory but only association with it that was more sentimental. Firstly I'd forgotten how beautiful it was and something out of a Carpaccio painting - pure Renaissance! The scintillating mix of onion and green peppers was so hauntingly familiar in my nostrils. My childhood returning to me! The true wave of remembrance was when that peppery, tangy sauce flooded my mouth I floated 10 feet upwards! Just divinity in a pizza folks pure and simple! Will Dave Portnoy come around and rate it? Who gives a Flying Tomato Brother! This is the pie of the Ancients that knew nothing of the internet or such characters but we'll invite him anyway! Last but not least, I could not resist thinking that the gentlemanly soul who took our order and served it up with such grace and thoughtfulness, looked every bit like a modern day Frank Zappa yet physically flattered both Garcia's founders Ralph and Joe in their wilder 1970s heyday looks but more than that, was very evident in the same passion and pride for the work and the pizza they'd gifted to the world so long ago which was proof the Garcia's legacy being intact and alive as ever and that's good because my youthfulness...

Words cannot describe the miserable and heart breaking experience I felt as soon entered Garcias. The moment I walked in the chemically processed fumes were clouding my judgement on why I was in the filthy run down restaurant that was Garcias. There were random shrubbies and cactuses filling the dirty pile of filth. The line was extremely long and as I waited I watched the people around me slowly disappear. I sure wish I had gone with them. My guess is that they went somewhere..anywhere else for an edible meal. As we waited to order it took roughly 30 minutes!! For a slice of pizza. When we got up to order the older gentleman took a string of cheese off of somebody's pizza and ate it! In front of customers, ridiculous. It took 10 minutes as he went to check on other people's food, probably just looking for more to eat and scraps left around to fill his hungry belly. He dropped my money on the floor then didn't offer took pick it up. He handed me a cup with root beer dripping down all sides then I walked to a dirty seat filled with crumbs and filthy napkins. I could not even throw them out because the garbages were so overfilled. Upon waiting for our 4 slices of pizza the workers were setting them onto the counter without calling out the names. One happened to be mine unfortunately I never found out. While listening to my rumbling stomach I watched a the gloveless employee scratch his back and pull down his shirt without washing his hands or putting on gloves.. The meal we received was completely incorrect and cold. I was appalled by the complete lack of any restaurant etiquette. The bathroom floor had puddles of water on it. Safety precaution. One of the many. Finally I got my greasy cold food, not at all worth my hour of waiting. Believe it or not it took longer to wait for my food then to write this review. All and all if I could give zero stars, I would. Unfortunately Google doesn't give...

Nuclear disappointment.

I always start with the cheese slice at a new pizza spot, so I got the cheese combo meal. I was excited about this place because they advertise as pan pizza focused. Garbage. Utter garbage food. The first red flag - food related at least - was when I saw them remove a premade rectangular slice. It looked frozen but I thought, “ eh let’s give em the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps it’s just premade slices that are refrigerated.” Perhaps it was refrigerated and not frozen but it sure tasted like they were frozen. This tasted on par with little Caesar’s pizza meal deals. Difference being that little Caesar has tasty breadsticks.

Which brings us to the sad excuse for breadsticks. Definitely not homemade. Most certainly from a restaurant depot, unfrozen then baked with a little Parmesan on top. And that’s fine too honestly. I’ve had some good restaurant depot type sticks and they’ve been great. This one was not.

But perhaps the dips would save the breadsticks! Nope. The nacho cheese was the restaurant depot canned cheese. The marinara in the other hand was pretty decent. It was dark and had a little flavor but it wasn’t enough to save the breadsticks.

The menu. What. In. The. Tangled. Mess. Is that?!? That menu is messy and poorly organized. They don’t even have the prices of slices up there, nor does they have the prices of the meal deals.

I was surprised when I walked in during the lunch hour and it was desolate. Now I...