Papa Kenos Pizzeria — Restaurant in Lawrence

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

I'd love to give Papa Keno's 5 stars, but it's not possible, because I recall a time when the customer experience, food and pricing were worth 5 stars. I am sympathetic to the plight of this long-lasting stand-out downtown eatery. Unfortunately, the newest ownership inherited quite a mess a few years back. I get it - college kids with virtually no experience are cheaper than high quality experienced locals and the new owner needs to turn a profit.

However, if cheap labor ruins your business, is it actually cheap?

Regardless, the combination of service, price and quality of food has earned 1 star, especially with the prices having inflated so much. The staff are not welcoming to customers, which would be forgiveable if the staff were at least fast and attentive. They are not. Generally, these college kids have their faces buried in their phones or are blathering with each other instead of engaging with the customer when one approaches to order food, despite the fact that the cashier now only does cashier duties and just stands around behind the front counter. The laziness is readily apparent and the prices have never been higher. Every time I've been to this new location with the new staff, there's at least 2-3 front-of-house staff standing around doing nothing the entire time and then they have the temerity to flip the iPad and ask for a tip. You have to walk up and order at the counter, you refill your drinks, and you bus your table, so exactly what service is provided that warrants a tip? The front computer telling the cook(s) my order? I don't think so. In addition, the food quality is all over the map, and they simply don't have reasonable pricing anymore. Sometimes the food is as great as it's ever been, but at least half of the time other it's a huge disappointment, with sun-dried tomatoes charred into oblivion and etc.

Also, what's with the new sports-bar ambiance? What a nuisance distraction. It tells me the new owner that moved to this location didn't really get Papa Keno's in the first place.

The high prices in combination with the lazy indifference of the staff, and lack of consistent food quality makes this, sadly, a pass for me. It's a true tragedy to witness the decline of what used to be my favorite downtown restaurant. I had so looked forward to introducing my children to my favorite restaurant, and it's been incredibly disappointing for me. There's certainly hope, because this could be turned around with not much more than slightly better prices, much faster service, and replacing lazy staff with professionals or even just cutting the front-of-house staff numbers down so they are actually busy doing something other than screwing with their phones.

P.S. It sure would be nice if they'd fix the change-making machine when it breaks and swap the bills for change when...

It was a beautiful Friday the 13th evening, in Lawrence. The town was bustling with new students and the anticipation of a new school year. I was there to meet someone that I had never met before. So my attention was placed on my friend with him I was meeting. I ordered the 18in carnivore. I acquired the pizza. And ingested about half of it. Things that I noticed as I ate it is the flavor was fairly good. But it seemed very thin on ingredients. It also seemed undercooked. With a thin crust like that it was still doughy. It was kind of peculiar, cuz we waited nearly 45 minutes for our pizzas.. When I opened up the box the following day to have cold pizza for a snack, I noticed the visible absence of ingredients on the pizza. So I pondered the issue, and thought that I should report this to someone at Papa Keno's there in Lawrence. Generically i am very quick to compliment things that I find that are positive . I find it enjoyable for me to recognize those things that are being done correctly. So I decided to contact the store on Saturday afternoon, and ended up speaking with a manager. I had asked for the owner, but he was not available. So I just basically stated that I was disappointed in the product that I received the night before. I told them that I didn't want any compensation or any consideration towards another purchase, I just felt it would be important to let them know that I felt that their pizza was inferior to most every other Pizza that I had as of late. As matter of fact, is a ate the pizza Saturday, was reminiscent of a frozen box Pizza.. I called and expressed myself openly with the manager, who didn't really seem to care. So I'm making this review, I take these reviews seriously, and I just felt that I needed to share this. Thank you...

The folks who served us were all amazing! We went to Papa Keno's for dinner during Pride so it was incredibly busy. We got two slices (one cheese and one Italian sausage) as well as two fountain drinks. The pizza was fresh and hot, and I loved the big chunks of sausage. We had to take some home because the slices are so big. I also really enjoyed the old-school red plastic glasses for the drinks. I haven't had Big Red in years.

The atmosphere was extremely busy and loud so if that's not your thing, you might want to visit on a weekday. There's a small arcade in the back as well as an awesome graffiti wall. The whole place is very chic, with a young vibe. That makes sense for a pizzeria in a college town. The (single) bathrooms were small but clean and they weren't gendered so we could use either.

I don't remember anyone's names (and it didn't seem right to pull them from their work to ask) but the young woman with the glasses and the baseball cap who took our order was very friendly. We also had a young man with long hair bring us our food. A young woman with many tattoos bussed the tables in our area. They, along with all of the other employees, were working their butts off to keep everything flowing. I've worked food rush during events before and the whole crew really showed their worth. They all deserve accolades (and raises) for pulling...