Papa Paul's Brick Oven Pizza & Pasta — Restaurant in Litchfield Park

Updating to September, 2023 Post Covid when the world is a different place. I do not wish to dilute my earlier reviews but need to add that today, I had a fabulous experience. Papap Pauls' has never disappointed me. Whether I'm brining a group or its just me on my own. My server was Shay (I do hope I have spelt that correctly) who was super friendly and professional. This is the kind of customer service all hospitality establishments should strive to achieve. She was sweetly patient with my 'old lady chatter' and ensured that I had ecerything I wanted and all was good. It was. That delicious Roast Beef sandwich teemed with the refreshing Mrs Syltmar, was just divine! ... TC It's me again. Mrs FussyDrawers. I don't usually give Five Stars straight in the door. But, today I had no choice. I have not had such an overwhelming urge to wax lyrical about a place since my review of Basalt, in Howick, Auckland, New Zealand. We are not well blessed out here in the wild west Valley of Greater Phoenix. There are some gems but I just didnt feel like going down the same road again. I had seen Papa Paul's in old town Litchfield Park but ignored it. Possibly because I have been avoiding a fast food pizza shop called Papa something else. But today I was doing a little research for Wine events through 2019. I walked in. I gasped. This was no neighborhood pizza takeout. My feet were like lead and I couldnt move. Leaving was impossible. So I didn't. Foolishly I didn't catch the delightfully professional server/maitre d' s name. Short blonde hair, she would be just as at home in the most upscale establishments in London or New York. I scoured the menu and found gorgeous yummy things I could enjoy with friends and something smaller (Basic Bruschetta) to enjoy at the bar with a glass of wine, today. The wine list was good. I am not complaining at all. If you want a $500 bill for one there are other places you can go. This was all that I wanted and nothing that I didn't. Perfect for my group of West Valley friends. Possibly going to have to get there early though as it appears I am not the only one to be totally delighted with this newcomer to Litchfield Park. Fabulous!!!

Addition to Review: I have visited this establishment several times since I first wrote this Review. Today, I treated myself to some heavenly Proscuitto and Arugula pizza and a most drinkable glass of wine. Chambrey, the young woman whom I encountered on my first visit, was my server. Nothing has changed. The same absolute professionalism persists. I enjoy a wide range of foods from various nations and genres but I could 'enjoy' anything on the Papa Paul's menu for the rest of my life.

If you haven't been there yet - GO!! This is truly a highlight of living in the West Valley...its right there. No need to travel to the east valley at all. Q: Google, can I give...

I am not one to write reviews, but I don’t see any other option. I live in walking distance to Papa Paul’s, and this has been one of my favorite restaurants in the west valley. The location, the atmosphere, the service and the food have always been five star. Tonight, however, was infuriating. I took my mother to dinner as we have had a rough couple of weeks individually, and as a family. The night started out fine, and our server was Shaye. I haven’t had her as a server before, but she greeted us promptly, and brought our water and drink order right away. She wasn’t super familiar with the specials, but that wasn’t a problem. Our appetizer came out in good time, and the night was nice. I ordered another drink before we finished the appetizer, and that came out right away. When Shaye served our meal, and cleared the our appetizer plates, I requested fresh silverware. My mother and I sat there for over 20 minutes with no further service. Finally Shaye came back to the table to see none of the food had been eaten, and asked how everything was. My mother told her I had no silverware, and I let her know that I would like the check and would not be paying for the entrees. She just said ok, and left. She then dropped the check at the table without saying anything. No apology, no anything. It felt incredibly dismissive, and like we were the problem. After we left I called to ask for the manager. Another Shaye answered the phone, and I was confused, but she said she was the manager. I said I thought that was unusual that there were two Shaye’s, and she said she has a server with the same name. However, she is Peter Mahoney’s (the owner of the restaurant) daughter. I tried explaining the situation, and was met with nothing but hostility. Zero apology. She proceeded to tell me that she WAS going to offer me a gift card, and that they “took care” of the charge for our entrees already....but, she wasn’t going to let me “shame” her server who just got busy and made a mistake. I have never been treated so rudely in my life. The worst part about this is that I live here, I love this place, and I will NEVER patronize Papa Paul’s again. I did hang up on the owners daughter because my anger got the best of me, and I said the F word. I regret that, and know that I shouldn’t talk to anyone like that...even after having been treated so poorly. What a...

We got 3 pizzas to go. Large “Quattro Formaggi” (4 cheese), Large sausage & ricotta, Medium Brooklyn.

The crust was undercooked, tasteless, and appeared premade. It appeared the crust was not made in house. It was slimy for most of the interior, and the crust wasn’t thin crust but also didn’t rise, and it has no seasoning or oil or anything on it. It also had evenly spaced pock-marks throughout all the crust and was very perfectly round. Plus the crust didn’t add anything to the pizza. It was just...there. All that together is what led us to believe it is machine made/pre made.

The Brooklyn was the best of the three. It was the most normal; tomato sauce + pepperoni + sausage + red pepper. It was fine. Edible.

The other two pizzas were just... not good. Firstly, they had no sauce. I guess that’s our fault for not noticing the toppings list didn’t include a sauce, but I think most people assume SOME KIND of sauce will be on their pizza. Tomato, white, BBQ, SOMETHING. But the cheese and the sausage pizzas had no sauce at all.

I could have accepted the absence of sauce if the pizzas were good. It could have been a learning experience for us, to learn pizza could be good without sauce. But that was not the case; it was dry and bland. No sauce plus undercooked and tasteless crust meant 2 of the 3 elements of what make pizza...pizza...were not good.

That leaves us with the last element, the toppings. Some of the toppings were fine. The ricotta, sausage, cheese, pepperoni were all good. The onion has a very unappetizing purple appearance and tasted of nothing. There was an over abundance of red peppers, which were also tasteless.

However the most infuriating part of the toppings is demonstrated in the attached picture. The top pizza is a large and the bottom pizza is a medium. To the customer’s eyes it appears the same amount of toppings are applied to both, the only difference is that the large actually has a topping-less crust area. So when you get a large, all you’re really paying for is some more wonderfully undercooked and tasteless crust.

In summary: slimy, doughy, ugly, tasteless. Frustratingly...