Papa Del's Pizza Factory — Restaurant in Champaign

Our presence in this restaurant was treated as if we were an inconvenience for the entire dining experience. From the moment my mother, father and I walked in the front of this establishment at 7:45 pm on a Saturday, there was no host present at the front and we stood for 10-15min. We observed many servers walking by turning their heads away and offering no greeting or acknowledgement as if it wasn't their problem. It wasn't until the take out attendant behind the host stand only looked over and said "someone will be right with you" then returning back standing idle behind the counter. The host emerged from the kitchen, didn't apologize for the wait, greet us at all, just asked "how many" and brought us to our seats.

The service continued to spiral as our server who also didn't greet us or ask if we've dined here before just asked "what can I get you to drink" I asked what was on tap and rather than say anything, he turned his face and just rudely pointed at the back were the bar menu was. I said I'll need to look and will start with water and before my Father/Mother could order he hurries away and I call him to say, "Sir, you didn't ask my parents if they would like anything" he replies well I'm just gonna get the waters, "I'll be right back". From then on, it seemed it was not going to be a pleasant exchange of interactions as anytime the server engaged with us, his expression turned flat, his words short, and we were further provided minimum effort. Because of dietary limitations, my mother ordered a side salad and again, the server didn't ask if she'd like it brought out with the pizza entre, and of course the salad was brought out first before our Calamari appetizer, which was rubbery and poorly breaded.

I noticed the family of 8-10 nearby had issues with a pizza coming out late and the demeanor of our server who was also taking care of their table was completely different. He smiled and was apologetic and seemed to make jokes, yet when he turned to face us, we received the same flat approach since we had been seated.

When the pizza finally arrived and my mother's salad was at full room temp, I excused myself to the men's restroom which was a mess. Paper towels everywhere and overflowing the trash, sinks were filled with soapy residue, toilets filled with you know what. Not very consistent with cleanliness requirements. As I walked back to my table, a busser was pushing his cart filled with dishes proceeded to nearly run me over without uttering a word. I had to put my hand out to my side on his cart to stop him, look him dead in the face and I assumed he spoke Spanish and I asked in Spanish if "everything was ok, and he should watch his movement". He said nothing and only looked off into the floor. By this time it was clear to me this was a total disaster of an experience from top to bottom. Please check the camera on this night to confirm. It was by far one of the most disrespectful things and the busser should be reprimanded if not replaced

I had the manager, Brianna, come to the table and I explained the dissatisfaction my folks and I had with the treatment from the moment we walked in. Her response was "the server has had complaints before, and that he has been noted for this kind of behavior". Re-Train or dismiss him. "The busser doesn't speak English only Spanish". Yo Hablo Espanol, and speaking a certain language DOES NOT excuse blatant rudeness. They have courtesy in every country.

It's Saturday night, the most opportune night for restaurants to put their best foot forward, make good impressions, make good money, and advertise why people should dine there over other places. People can get pizza wherever, but what keeps them returning is atmosphere and hospitality. A sense of care as if you're a guest when you walk in the door not an inconvenience.

All in all, I'm thoroughly disappointed. Not only in the experience but myself for paying the bill and leaving a tip, as little a tip I did leave. But one thing I know for sure, my family and I will not be returning to Papa Dells for...

This was my second visit to this restaurant, and I left extremely disappointed. The first time was actually pretty good—the food was solid and the service was fine. Unfortunately, this second visit was the complete opposite.

From the beginning, our server (whose name I won’t share even if I knew it) was noticeably rude and seemed disinterested in serving us. That’s not ideal, but as someone who’s worked in food service, I get that people have off days.

We ordered two pizzas and some appetizers. We knew the pizzas would take a while (about 50 minutes, according to the menu and my own experience) and we were fine with that. We got our appetizers and waited patiently. Just as I was noting to my group that it felt like we had been waiting well over 50 minutes, our server returned, not with our food, but with a receipt. She said, “I’m so sorry, but your pizzas were never made.” It turns out, after asking a few more questions, she completely forgot to ring them up and check on them...

At that point, we had been waiting an hour and a half, and it was already 9 p.m., which is their closing time. She offered to start the pizzas then, but we obviously didn’t want to wait another hour. I declined and, while disappointed, I still understood—mistakes happen.

What made things worse was that she tried to charge us $14 for the appetizers. After we’d waited an HOUR and 40 minutes and never got our main dishes, they couldn’t even comp the appetizers? Honestly, I was so over it and just paid it to leave, but when I got the receipt to sign, the total had mysteriously jumped to $56. I was shocked. I checked my bank account, and sure enough, they had charged me $56.

Only after I brought this up did they remove the appetizer charge, and even then, it was presented as if they were doing me a favor.

I’m giving two stars—only because my first visit was decent. Otherwise, this would’ve been one star, or even less if I could. Really...

On a cross country drive my husband decided it was worth the added drive time to go to Champlain for Papa Dels pizza. He remembered the pizzas fondly from his undergrad days in the 70's. We looked up the website which recommended allowing 45 mins for pizza cooking time for takeout. When our GPS showed us to be 50 minutes out we called in our order. I asked the woman on the phone if they had a pizza with a good variety of toppings...something like " the works " or the kitchen sink. She said "yes", I asked her what the toppings were. Instead of reading the actual toppings that would come on our pizza she read the list of every topping option available. I started removing toppings and then she said she read the wrong list. We started over. I asked for anchovies on one half of the pizza. She said it would be an hour or so before it was ready. We drove into Chaplin went in to pay for the pizza. The woman at the desk had extensions that went nearly to the floor which she kept touching and I was immediately grateful she was not working in the kitchen. I paid and tipped and was told it would be another 20 minutes before our pizza was ready. We drove around campus for 20 nostalgic minutes then returned to the pizzaparlor. A pizza was brought out to the warmer. The girl with the extensions asked me my name I told her my name she handed the pizza to me. When I got to the car I saw that the pizza was not the one we ordered. I took it back. Seriously, she took the pizza and stuck it right back into the warmer. She went into the kitchen for several minutes and returned with our pizza. Given the smirk on her face I was afraid to eat it. Back in the car we encountered a hot, soggy, dripping , runny mess (with no anchovies whatsoever). My husband declared it used to be better or maybe beer made it seem better. After trying to eat a slice we tossed it in the trash and continued...