Palace Italian Restaurant north — Restaurant in Florida

Let me start by saying this was my first visit here, though I've lived nearby for almost 8 years. I've had a pull in me to try it many times, I just never made the effort. Today I forced myself to stop, and the reasoning was two fold. 1. I wanted pizza and 2. I've been reading multiple reviews on this place from Nextdoor, Google, FB, Yelp and the restaurant's website. I would say the overall rating combing all the reviews is like 4.6/5. I could go with that. So I go in to place my takeout order. I ask how long for a pizza, the guy says 5-6 min. Surprised, I ask if they've got like the super cooker ovens? He said yes we do, and we both laughed. I decide to wait. I give him my order of a white garlic pizza with ham & spinach and 6 garlic knots. I didn't specify what size pizza so, without asking, he assumes I want the large $30 pizza (my bad & his bad). I was taken aback and said, oh yeah, no, the small one. So my total still comes to $29.92 for the smaller pizza (only 2 sizes to choose from) and 6 garlic knots. I almost declined but, the reviews had me pay the bill and proceed. The guy comes back to me and says when he corrected the size of the pizza he pressed bacon instead of ham and did I still want it? While deciding he offered multiple corrections. He offered free dessert, 50% back on my current bill or a $15 gift card. I accept the gift card and tell him if it's good I'll be back to spend it. I get home and I have to say I'm quite impressed with the pizza. I normally have to ask for extra cheese, but forgot, because no one EVER puts adequate cheese on a pizza. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of cheese. Good spinach amount and and the bacon was ground instead of whole or chunks. I greatly appreciate that because, who wants to fight a piece of bacon? The classic dough was super soft but had a really good chew to it, even when you got to the crust. We all know most of us throw that part away or give it to the dog LOL. The garlic knots on the other hand were left into long and one side was well done. The bottom side and the inside were as good as the pizza dough with very good seasoned garlic & oil in the bottom. All-in-all, I enjoyed my meal and the atmosphere during my stay was pleasant. I will absolutely be using my gift card. 😉 Good job Palace...

I really wish that I could give zero stars and still make a comment. The worse dinning experience of my life! We stopped in Saturday afternoon (2:45pm). The dining area had mostly empty tables with 6 tables seated; none of them had more than four people. When we came in it took about 10 minutes for us to be greeted and another 10 minutes to be seated. When the waiter seated us he also seated another couple that came in after us. He sat us in a different section than the other couple. In this section there was one other table seated with three ladies. We took about 10 minutes to look over the menu. While waiting for someone to acknowledge that we were there , the ladies flagged down a waitress complaining that one of them still hab not received her food, the other two had their meals. The waitress said she would tell the waiter who had this section. Still no acknowledgement that we were there. After waiting a while longer (15 - 20 minutes) longer we noticed that the couple who had came in behind us had already gotten their drinks and salads. So, my husband stopped the waitress going by and ask if she was our waitress. She said no that she would get our waiter. Then aapproximately 5 minutes later she dropped off a basket of bread. Still no one taking our order. The lady at the other table still had not received her food. So my husband started waving his arms to get our waiter's attention. When the waiter finally came over, with a very aggressive demeanor, he ask my husband what was the problem . My husband then ask him what was his problem that we had to wait so long? The waiter said he didn't like my husband's impatient attitude. My husband ask me if I wanted to stay or go. So when I reached for my purse and started to stand up the waiter started screaming "get out of here, go on get out of here, I'm not going to serve you . Go on get out of here". All the while getting up in my husband's face. Then he followed us to the door yelling the entire time. He kept getting in my husband's face as though he was trying to get my 69 year old husband to fight him. Needless to say this was the first and only time we will ever stop at the palace Italian restaurant,...

I wouldn't even give this place a one star rating! I order a Togo order (3 slices of pizza to go) I thought I wouldn't have enough time on my lunch break at work to eat in but once I arrived I found out I had ample time so I asked the cashier if we could change it to eat in (I would then order drink and pay tip just as any other customer paying would) he said ok walked away and few mins later after I have been waiting as people are being seating he comes back and a lady walks over to tell me if your going to order to go it needs to be to go but we'll let you sit this time. I was furious that someone would even say that to a PAYING customer. I then asked what the big deal was and they proceeded to tell me that prices are different if you order to go than if you order in. I said ok well I would like to see a menu showing the price difference on a SINGLE slice of pizza taking out vs eating in. The guy argued with me saying she said it was fine this time so just leave it at that. I knew they were lying about a price difference which is why I asked for proof. He walked away AGAIN to go get the lady that said rudely at the beginning I needed to eat out if I ordered out. They then both came back to me to argue some more saying there isn't a price different I said I knew there wasn't so what is the issue here?! (By this time now I am going to be late back to work arguing about sitting in the restaurant to eat) so I am getting a bit frustrated I told her to just let me pay for the pizza so I can leave and that I didn't appreciate the rude attitude I asked to speak with a manager she wouldn't allow me to speak with anyone but her wouldn't even give me the name of the manager or owner. She then threw my credit card at me and it hit me and landed on the floor. I at this point was furious. Come to find out THIS NO SERVICE SKILL HAVING LADY IS THE OWNERS WIFE!!! How can you run a business with that type of service?! I am beyond myself on how poorly I was treated as a PAYING customer. I will drive all the way to south Lakeland to eat before I ever step foot in there again! No wonder why there's never anyone in there eating! You don't know what customer service is if it slapped you...