The Parlor at Mack's Inn — Restaurant in Island Park

This is a new (opened July 2020) Pizza, Salad, Ice Cream, and Chocolate Shop (Bluebird Chocolates). I decided to order two pizzas. They offer personal pizzas made in a wood burning oven. The skill of the pizza maker was apparent. The pizzas were perfectly done (which takes skill.) The Margherita Pizza was made in a very traditional Italian way (I used to live in Italy) with red sauce, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil. My only issue with the pizza was the basil was clearly wilted dark green before baking and it should be bright green and very fresh. The crust was absolutely outstanding. Crunchy on the outside and chewy throughout. The sauce was tasty (clearly used quality tomato product). Because it's from a wood burning oven, there is always - ALWAYS - going to be some black char (from flour) on the bottom of the pizza. It wasn't burned but some people don't understand that this is how a pizza made in such an oven comes out. The Pepperoni pizza used a different cheese mix (as it should) and was very tasty although it had a little too much cheese for my taste which makes it little more difficult to eat. And while I found the small pepperoni tasty, I think such an expensive personal pizza ($12.95) could have used a higher quality pepperoni (like the Righteous Slice in Rexburg.) The price is a little high but it's a tourist area - but for us locals it is too high.

I do have a few things worth noting. The pizza maker didn't wear gloves when placing ingredients on the pizza. (I doubt any germs survive in the hot oven and while such would be totally acceptable in Italy, it shouldn't be done here.) They only serve Pepsi products. For those of us Coke snobs, you'll need to bring your own beverage or get a bottle of something else. My biggest complaint was at checkout, the only calculated tips were 20, 25, and 30% which are TOO high for a counter establishment so I passed and personally tipped the pizza maker when he handed me my personal pizzas (which he placed in the jar.)

The restaurant itself was exceptionally clean EVERYWHERE. I arrived early (11:30 on 9/9/20) and there was no line. With the quality of pizza they make I suspect they get VERY busy (or will be!)

I gave this place 5 stars because I was SHOCKED at how good the pizza is - and how clean it was! I live in Ashton and I will go here, Mad Moose [St. Anthony] for pizza ($8.95 with unlimited toppings.) or Righteous Slice in Rexburg. No more pizza in Ashton. The Parlor has some room for improvement (this place is owned by the Marriott franchise and Cafe Sabor owner(s?)) so I hope they'll take criticism seriously and keep the pizza quality high. A few years ago there was no good pizza in eastern Idaho and now there are three excellent and very different options - but all serve personal pizzas.

As an update, my wife and returned for Pizza. Just as good. My wife was as surprised as by the quality of the crust and the perfection of doneness. We also tried about 12 different varieties of chocolates. Since this is really a pizza place, I'm not going to modify my rating based on the chocolates. Honestly, we were universally disappointed in everything except the turtles (which are just chocolate and nuts - how can you go wrong!?) and chocolate creams. If you want better chocolates in the area, I recommend Christmas in Montana in West Yellowstone.

Finally, the pizza oven is small (4, maybe 6, pizzas at a time). I've seen this brand oven - or similar - used elsewhere (I used to travel a LOT) but ALWAYS with two ovens side by side (using both when busy). I suspect (and evidenced by other reviews) that this place will not be able to keep up with demand during peak periods. The oven is simply too small. So be prepared for a long...

The food was VERY good, but that isn't the reason for the review. From the chicken on the caesar salad to the quality of the pizza and ice cream, nothing was less than great, which doesn't seem to be commonplace in this area.

Anyway, what really stole the show was the quality of service during an extremely busy dinner rush. One lady was running the register while the 2 cooks were making food and delivering to tables. The restaurant had every table full and enough people in line to crowd those that were seated. After we ordered (for our group of 9), I noticed another register at the other side was dedicated to the alcohol. Disappointed, I thought to myself there's absolutely no way I'm going to be able to get beers with how busy these guys are. Nonetheless, I reluctantly walked up and even though the guy was absolutely swamped with making and cutting pies, he quickly asked me how he could help me out and got me 6 drinks.

After bringing the drinks back to the table and waiting for food, one of our kids knocked over a beer and it got everywhere. We cleaned most of it up with paper towels from the bathroom but one of the cooks noticed and still recleaned the table and brought out the mop and bucket for the floor. I couldn't believe it. The floor could've waited, in my opinion, with how busy they were. In Las Vegas where I'm from, employees would have been incredibly put out and overwhelmed in this situation and these guys passed with flying colors. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them working was the owner. Before we left we grabbed NINE ice creams all scooped by one lady who didn't lose her smile or grace one time. Blown away by the service is an understatement. Wish you guys could run a training center for some of the restaurants in my neck...

We’ve gotten food from the parlor 2 times in the last week. The pizza was fairly good because of the unique flavors and toppings, but I wouldn’t classify it as really good wood fired pizza or anything. The first time we bought pizza, we bought 6 of them for takeout. We didn’t really have any big problems with that order. However, there were only about 3 huckleberries on the huckleberry chicken pizza. I was very surprised when we came to the restaurant a few days later and a couple of the pizzas that we reordered had way more toppings (like the huckleberry chicken and the chicken cordon bleu). That kind of felt annoying, since they were a lot more scant the first time and tasted way better done the second way. We also requested a small change to our salad. They made a few of getting the order in right, but it came out the way it was listed—alteration not made. The veggie delight (pizza name?) was one of our favorites both times. Good flavor balance.

I give the food a decent 4 stars. Not amazing, but decent. We bought chocolates as well, and some were pretty good, but others just okay. I give the chocolates a 4 as well. I’ve had worse and I’ve had better.

Bathrooms were in good shape. Parking is good sometimes and hard to find at others. Beautiful...