Romeo’s Pizza Italian American — Restaurant in Freehold Township

Disappointing Wait Times and Quality at Romeo’s—But Worth Another Shot

I recently visited Romeo’s Italian America in Freehold after calling ahead to order a single pizza. I was told it would be ready in 25 minutes, which sounded reasonable—so I arrived about 10 minutes early. Much to my surprise, I was informed it would still be another 20 minutes. Fair enough, busy kitchens can fall behind. But after those 20 minutes passed, I was told it would be an additional 10. Then another eight. By the time 50 minutes had elapsed, my wife (tired from her ongoing cancer treatments and juggling a couple of restless kids in the car) finally asked for an update. The manager’s response was to hand over the pizza “as is,” which felt more than a little disappointing.

Why would a restaurant send out a product at anything less than its best quality? This is Romeo’s brand on the line, and with so many solid pizza options in the Freehold area, overpromising and underdelivering is a recipe for disaster.

Quality and Style Confusion The pizza itself ended up being underwhelming, likely because it was rushed. However, after checking Romeo’s website, I realized we’d made an assumption: we were expecting a “barstool” style pizza, but apparently, you have to order that specifically. It’s a bit unorthodox—I’m used to the idea that pizzerias specialize in one style (Barstool, Neapolitan, etc.). If I had known in advance and requested the barstool style, maybe the outcome would have been different. The long wait didn’t help matters, but I’m withholding judgment on that particular style issue.

Taste and Overall Impression Even so, if the pie had been cooked properly, I’d give it a fair 3 out of 5 stars. It didn’t wow me, and we found ourselves wishing we’d chosen Krispy’s, which is just two miles down the road. Still, I live locally, want to see small businesses thrive, and hope Romeo’s can refine their process—especially if the increased traffic is due to buzz from a local influencer. If that’s the case, they’ll need better planning to handle the surge and maintain quality.

Final Thoughts Judge for yourself—the attached images show what we received. And if you’re raising an eyebrow at the pineapple topping, rest assured that was my 7-year-old’s adventurous palate at work (yes, I can almost hear the New Jersey-based parenting critiques!).

Despite this letdown, I’m rooting for Romeo’s and plan to give them another chance in a few months. I won’t downgrade my review further over the confusion about pizza styles, but I do hope they tighten up both their timing and consistency. With so much competition in the area, there’s little room for error. Here’s hoping Romeo’s lives up to its potential next...

I wanted to write this review as soon as I left the restaurant, because I am very upset. I have visited this place several times within the past year and have always been pleased. Tonight, unfortunately, will be my last night at this place. I had a coupon from them advertising $10 off any order of $20 or more. I called in the morning to confirm about the coupon and double checked when we arrived. In any event, the coupon did not apply and they were unwilling to apply it. They got away with this by saying our meal was actually more money than advertised in their menu. That's how they try to spin it. I got their menu right from the counter from a pile that had all the menus there. It reflected the same price online, as well. So they upped my food bill by $10 to offset the coupon. Our bill was one eggplant parmesan dinner $15, one veal marsala $16, two diet sodas. The total bill, they claim, was $46 and reduced it by 10 to 36. You do the math 15 + 16 + $5 = 36. Now add in the tax and then reduce by 10 and you will see that the bill does not come to what they had. When we complained, the owner's wife said that they are in the process of changing their menus and redoing their website, as well. Well it doesn't work like that. You must sell the item for what it is advertised for, that is the law. Once they redo their menus, both on paper and on their website, they can go ahead and charge a higher price. Until then, they need to honor what they have presented to us.Then they had the nerve to take off $1.95 and call it "customer complaint". This customer will never complain about this place again because this customer will never set foot in that restaurant again. Not a very good...

I walked in on a Saturday afternoon and there were only 2 people sitting down eating, so I was the only one who came up to the counter, and yet the staff were too busy talking to each other to greet or even acknowledge me for a few minutes. I understand giving me time to look at the pizza or the menu, but I think you should still acknowledge people when they walk in and not ignore them so you can keep talking to your co-worker. I ordered a few different slices to try; plain, bar pie, and BBQ chicken. They put them in the oven and took them out after only 3-4 minutes so none of the slices were hot enough.

The plain slice was decent, very crispy which I like, but the sauce wasn't that good.

The bar slice looked good and I thought would be even crispier, but turned out to be floppy and the dough somehow tasted undercooked.

The BBQ chicken was the worst of them, drowned in BBQ sauce to disguise the dry and freezer burned chicken. And I really mean drowned - I didn't even realize there were bacon bits as well because there was that much sauce. I normally love barbecue chicken so it's really saying something that this was the first time I couldn't finish a slice because it was that bad.

Overall - inconsistent and you'd probably be better off ordering fresh rather than what's on the counter. Or just go...