Brother Joe's Pizza — Restaurant in Lower Paxton Township

Stopped here after a day at Hershey Park. We thought a pizzeria - better than fast food, right? I stood at the counter to order the 3 plain slices they had out, that frankly looked old but we were hungry. There were two people working ( man and woman), both of whom were rushing to pack up what looked to be a large order. After a minute or two, the man finally acknowledged me and snapped "you'll have to wait 10 minutes". I grabbed some drinks from the machine and sat. Not two minutes later, a young guy walked in wearing a uniform from another store in the same strip mall. Clearly, they recognized him because he was able to order right away - 2 pepperoni slices. I walked back up to the counter to see 2 of the 3 plain slices now gone. The woman finally asked me what I wanted and I told her I had wanted the three plain slices that were there. She said it would another 25-30 minutes before there was anymore plain. I begudgedly ordered the one left and two Silician slices. My 4 year old son ate the plain slice; my husband choked down half a Silician slice. I took one bite and refused to eat more. It was the worst pizza we had ever tasted. Maybe we're spoiled being from Northern NJ, but pizza should not taste like tomato soup.

If this wasn't bad enough, we soon heard the man (I'm assuming the owner or manager) yelling in the back room, with obscene language. I don't know if he was yelling at the woman or on the phone, but we grabbed what was left in my son's hands and rushed out.

Thank goodness for the grocery store next door. We ran in, got some salads and snacks and ate in our hotel room.

I doubt we'll be back in that area anytime soon, but I put this out there for any family traveling to Hershey Park and staying off-site. Take your chances with a fast food...

Uh-oh..they failed Health Inspection,

Person-in-charge does not have adequate knowledge of food safety in this food facility as evidenced by this non-compliant inspection; food employees preparing food without a hair restraint; raw chicken and raw shrimp stored over cheese and other read-to-eat food in the walk-in cooler; boxes of food stored directly on the floor in the walk-in freezer; fly strips located directly above the back food preparation area; time in lieu of temperature is being used to control pizza without written procedures or documentation to verify disposition of food; loose rubber door gaskets were on the bain-marie cooling unit in the pizza area; a broken lid and deflector was on the ice machine in the kitchen area, which is not smooth and easily cleanable; walk-in cooler used for Brother Joe's Pizza is not maintaining a temperature of 41 F or lower; accumulation of bio-film like residue on the ice machine deflector plate in the kitchen area; accumulation of old-food residue on the table-mounted can opener; accumulation of residue on the soda gun in the Vino bar area; accumulation of black residue on the refrigerator door gaskets in the Vino restaurant area; accumulation of static dust on the fan guards in the Vino walk-in cooler and on the fan in the Vino food preparation area; single-service paper plates not covered or inverted to protect against contamination; dish racks stored directly on the floor in the ware-washing area; hand-washing sign, paper towels, and soap were missing at the hand-wash sink in the back kitchen area; no sign or poster posted at the hand-wash sink in the bar area to remind food employees to wash...

I notice that all but one of the positive reviews for this place were written by anonymous users and sound like mindless shills dreamed up by the owner. The one positive review with a face on it was written by one of the managers who was working one of the two times I went there. What does THAT tell you? The people are friendly and the beer selection isn't bad, but dear god, the pizza I had was so bland that I couldn't finish it. It tasted like tomato paste smeared on white bread and topped with something that would have been close to mozzarella if they had added mozzarella flavoring to it, I guess. I'm pretty sure it was cheese of some sort. Not a single spice or herb of any kind was present to ruin the impression that I was eating the most bland slice of pizza to be had anywhere on Earth.

On another occasion, I had a cheese steak. They made it to order, it was made of that Steak-Um type of steak; compressed, molded ground beef, not actually chipped steak. Again, the cheese was probably cheese. I'm pretty sure. Again, no spices, but at least they put more of that plain tomato paste on it as sauce. The hot peppers were okay; it's hard to screw up peppers. You open the jar, you take the peppers out, and you put them on the sandwich, right?

Honestly, it was the most white-bread Italian food I've ever had. It was like they tried to make the whole experience so watered-down and non-threatening that it could be consumed by people who view flavor of any sort as a threat to...