Italian Pavilion - Pizza and Italian Food Restaurant — Restaurant in Derby

Imagine, like I do, because it was not so very long ago. The Ansonia Mall was open and you could go in on the side that looked towards the Holy Rosary Church and experience a unique slice of pizza pie....

When the Italian Pavilion was in the Ansonia Mall many years ago the pizza was out of this world! Unique and like no other thin crusted Neapolitan pizza I had ever tasted before. I would watch from spinner bar stools with the Italian flag colors how their pizza was made and I would taste the very, very unique and beautifully subtle flavors and the fresh ingredients and this helped me to more fully understand the beauty of the pizza experience....

Pretend it is the late 1980s or early 1990s:

Unbelievable sauce that had that deep plum tomato taste, like it was made from tomatos that had just been pulled from a long deep blast in the Mediterranean sun and then slow-cooked for hours and hours until thickened and done. The sauce would then be splashed in the center of the pie-to-be with a big ladle and spread out, round and round, from the middle only leaving the naked crust round the outside, sticky with its olive oil coating. This crust was then allowed to rest underneath & behind a soft towel, just close enough to oven for the warmth to rise and proof the dough. When the time was right, the pizza to be was brought out and sprinkled liberally around the outside edge with a good oregano and with its sauce still intact, a delightful cheese mixture was then distributed liberally on top. Toppings, if requested, would be added and the pie would be baked in the stainless steel pizza oven until it had that extremely light and airy crunch of perfection. I am at odds with myself to say this because I normally enjoy my pizza with crust that is very, very well done. Crust like those you will find on pizzas cooked in the very dark-depths of the coal or wood-fired ovens of those legendary New Haven pizza pie establishments. That is exactly what set this unique and slightly sweet tasting crust and flavorful pizza pie apart from all others and made it just awesome!! IT WAS UNIQUE! IT WAS WONDERFUL!!

This was when Mario and the Italian folks actually cooked the pizza however.

Speed forward to the present day:

Since they moved to their new location, Mario stares at the football game all day while the Albanians he has working for him make something that resembles pizza in looks, but the sauce has no flavor & tastes like it is from a jar and the crust is a chewy, rubbery concoction. It kills me to say this – believe me, but sadly it is true. If only they would quit the two medium for $12 specials, clean house of the chain mall pizza makers and go back to the way it...

We went for my daughters 15th birthday dinner because she wanted Italian and we have been there and it is close to home. It’s time for me to order my food and although there were any vegan options my waitress said they can’t make a ziti pasta in Garlic and oil with broccoli. Ok sounds good. I told her I do not want the grated cheese that goes on there. Ok. I was assured they wouldn’t. Good came out with grated cheese. So a new order is put in. Order comes out looks good and right before I am going to eat I see a very tiny piece of chicken. So I check and there are crumple of tiny pieces of chicken mixed into my dinner plate. I asked for a manager which that person never showed their face. Waitress took it back and I left without eating anything. Horrible experience. We will not be going back. What bothered my the most wasn't the cheese bc that’s a mistake but the second time the plate must have had chicken in it and they realized that it wasn’t supposed to so it was taken out hoping that I wouldn’t see it. That’s disrespectful due to the fact that I am a vegan but what if someone was allergic to something and they told them and the chief did something like...

The food was good. The desert however was not the greatest. We took our deserts to go since the restaurant was closing. I had a canoli and the filling tasted like home made whipped cream. It was good, but not what you want a canoli filled with. I suspect the preparer was in a rush and accidentally grabbed the piping bag full of whipped cream instead of grabbing the bag of canoli filling. My fiance had the tiramisu and she wasn't really impressed since the lady fingers weren't soaked in espresso as tiramisu typically is. Also the first layer of the tiramisu was stuck to the lid of the styrofoam to go container. A lot of the disappointment could have probably been avoided by not staying until closing time and eating desert there instead of taking desert in to go containers. The calamari, fettuccine alfredo carbonara, and chicken marsala...