Geppeto's Pizza — Restaurant in Hickory

I've eaten at Geppeto's for 24 years. It's great for pizza and American-Italian food, but it has some issues with consistency and a small, but noticeable decline in quality. I aim to present a fair and honest review about my 100+ trips here.

I'm a pizza fiend. They put what I think is an adequate amount so I never order extra cheese. They have a flavorful sauce that has a bit of spice. The crust is a bit bland, but enough flavor to not feel like a waste. A cup of the pizza sauce improves it greatly.

Aside from pizza, I really like both the bread sticks and cheese sticks. I don't care for their marinara, so I always get pizza sauce instead. I'm about 99% positive the mozzarella sticks are the battered mozzarella sticks that Sam's Club sells. They taste exactly the same and have the same coating. That doesn't matter as much because there are plenty of restaurants that don't make their own mozzarella sticks.

Where I do take issue is the cheese ravioli. As someone who has eaten plenty of fresh pasta, I know the difference between fresh and frozen ravioli. Theirs is almost certainly frozen. The texture is mushy and soft, definitely not al dente. Their other pasta suffers the same fate but to a lesser degree as it is from dry pasta rather than frozen.

The calzones might be my favorite thing on the menu. I get the cheese calzone more than any other item on the menu. It's a great size. It could easily make two meals depending on your appetite. Their dessert pizza is awesome, though I rarely get it.

Most of what I order is pretty consistent. The pizza, however, doesn't always have a consistent cook on it. Sometimes the dough will be almost raw and the cheese barely melted while other times the cheese might be dark all over. I don't know if it comes down to who made it, the temperature conditions that change how the dough rises, or some other factor I don't know about.

When dining in, the pizza is amazing and food is at its best. Delivered, it often doesn't hold up as well, though I am about a fifteen minute drive away. It's still quite edible. Mostly, I order takeout. I have my own hot bag so the food is still pretty hot when it gets to my house. I would dine in before anything else.

Service and ambiance never mattered to me, but I know it's important to most people. I've never experienced any issues with staff when I've dined in. Everyone has always been polite and attentive. It's a little dingy inside and feels old, but who care's? I'm here to eat, not look at an art exhibition.

They had a salad bar before COVID-19, but it is no longer available, and from what I've read, it isn't coming back. I know the salad bar was a draw for many. I can understand why they closed it. Initially, with the fear of germs, many avoided shared food stations like salad bars. I imagine it is hard to maintain a salad bar, especially since they also had pizza, pasta, and desserts. There was also a lot of waste from customers whose eyes were bigger than their stomach. It was a pretty good deal though.

Speaking of deals, I think they have a lunch special, or did at one point, but I've personally never found any coupons or discounts. It would be nice because I think Geppeto's biggest detractor is that it's expensive. I could go to Longhorn Steakhouse or Texas Roadhouse for the price of a single pizza and calzone. I understand that with inflation, prices need to rise because they have to pay employees and the owners need a paycheck too, but aside from maybe Da Vinci's and Mellow Mushroom, this might be the most expensive pizza place in Hickory.

It also sucks that they charge a 4% fee if you use a card. I understand that card companies charge fees, but to me, that's the price of doing business. Passing it along to the customer is anti-consumer. Cards will most likely completely replace cash at some point and most businesses don't charge this fee explicitly (though I wouldn't be surprised if it was accounted for in the prices).

Overall, I hope this didn't come across as too negative. Geppeto's has great food and I would heartily...

My fiancé and I went to eat here on Friday, December 29th, 2017. We had been here several times before, but we have never had as poor of an experience as we did last night. It started with us waiting 10+ minutes to be seated, even though there were multiple open tables, and no one else in the lobby with us at the time. Several servers, managers, and kitchen attendants walked by without greeting us once. My fiancé had to loudly express concern on us not being seated before we were finally greeted and guided to the dining room. Once seated, we were offered drinks and plates for the pizza buffet. In the hour we were there, we were checked on twice by free will, and once by force when I had to ask one of many waitresses who passed our table for plates to revisit the buffet. Our drinks weren't refilled on a timely basis, and the service was all around terrible. To top it off, our waitress brought our check out extremely early, almost as if we were being rushed. The restaurant was not busy. There were at least 5-10 tables still open the entire time we were there. I was very disappointed, seeing that we had never had a negative experience prior. I can understand a busy restaurant and lack of sense of urgency, but when we are blatantly ignored all night, and expected to tip, I expect to at least have a full drink at all times. It's going to be hard to convince us to come back after leaving this sour taste...

I called in an order and a young lady who was being trained put in the wrong order. But the manager credited a free large for next time. I collected on it. I must say every single thing I’ve ordered ( and my family and I have been going for years) has been excellent! Not only does everyone ALWAYS have a great attitude! But the food is always great and hot! The restaurant is always spotless! The atmosphere itself is almost like u have been away at school and your coming home to eat at families it’s just that great!! I would recommend this place to everyone and honestly feel Gepetos deserves more then 5 ⭐️ Move over dominoes, papa Johns, Pizza Hut bc Gepetos is the BEST and I promise u that u have not ate good food until u have been here!!! Thanks Gepetos Team you guys do an AWESOM job!!! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️...