Papa Bear's Italian Restaurant The Pizza Oven — Restaurant in North Canton

I came to town to celebrate a mile stone birthday with my family and, when I ask them for a restaurant recommendation, they suggested Papa Bears. I wish they hadn’t. The first member of our party arrived at 6:38 PM and asked to be seated on the patio. The rest of the party arrive between 6:45 PM and 7:10 PM. We ordered some alcoholic, and nonalcoholic beverages and appetizers to start off with. It took about 30 minutes for me to get the pop I requested. We then placed our order around 7:45 PM and realized that we didn’t have any silverware. No problem, we asked our server to bring some out to us. Another 20 minutes passes with nothing happening. We noticed that other parties were being serviced inside and parties who arrived after us were getting their food. Around 8:45 PM, when we still had not received our food, I walk in and ask the host if I can speak with the manager. Instead of coming out to speak with me, the manager says the host back-and-forth and it felt like a game of telephone. Once again, I asked to speak with the manager directly and she finally came out and was immediately dismissive. Apparently, 30 minutes before I asked to speak with the manager, they had someone in the kitchen quit and walked out on the job. I told her that we had placed our order at least an hour and a half before this person quit and, no one had communicated with us that they were short staffed when we called to reserve our table or after we kept asking about our food. After sitting there for several hours, and not receiving our food, my family was ready to leave and I asked that our food will be boxed and labeled so we could go. when the food was sent to our table, we realize that none of our orders were correctly done. Most of the pasta dishes we ordered were missing sauce and they gave me the wrong type of pizza. At this point I am extremely frustrated so my younger brother goes in and asked to speak with the manager again. This time, the staff tells us that they cannot find the manager. After insisting they bring the manager to us, we are then approached by a man, not the same person that I spoke with. And speaking with this man I am told that the staff should not of told us that they had someone quit. I explain the communication breakdown and the fact that they got all of our orders wrong. By this time it was 9:26 PM. We had been there for almost 3 hours, with no food to eat so we left. There was not much of an apology from the managers nor were there any attempts to rectify the situation. The only plus side to this experience is that our server it was very nice. I know the servers can’t control what happens in the kitchen, that’s where the managers come in. This was a disappointing experience that didn’t need to happen. A little communication...

Terrible experience. Will never patronize this place again. Papa Bears was chosen as the place, our party of 8 would celebrate my nephews birthday. The server was nice and friendly and took our orders. The food was average, when we were finished eating she brought us the guest checks... the party was divided into 2 separate checks. On one check, one of the persons in our group had ordered the same exact meal as I did. That person (an adult) was charged $6 for her meal, whereas I was charged $13.95 for the same exact meal. (the exact same portion size, everything). I brought this to the attention of a man that was standing nearby, he claimed he was the manager... very disheveled, messy, sloppy appearance. When I asked if he was the manager he replied he was with a" yea I'm a manager", however never offered his name... in fact he never offered anything... when I told him that I was overcharged and showed him the guest checks, he just stared blankly at me without any reply whatsoever. I then repeated several times, thinking that maybe he did not understand and asked to be charged the same as the other person, he then said no he wouldn't because the other person was charged a kids meal price, again I told him I got the same exact meal with the same exact portion. He told me he wasn't interested in making money on the other person. I was taken back by his complete unprofessionalism and attitude. Everyone in our party tried explaining that I was overcharged for my meal and he could care less. After it was completely apparent that this man did not care anything about my satisfaction as a customer and was unwilling to adjust my bill for just $6 (One person in the party should not have to more for the same exact meal as another) I expressed I would never return to his restaurant and will advise everyone I know to choose La Pizzeria Restaurant instead. The man that claimed to be a manger, then became angry towards me and told me not to threaten him. Needless to say everyone in our party and surrounding tables witnessed this event and was appalled by the disrespect and unprofessionalism of this person. This place clearly does not care about its patrons. I do not recommend dining here, there are way so many more family owned restaurants in the area that truly care. Try these: La Pizzeria, Primo"s, Palumbo's and Sylvester's. The food and atmosphere is better and they are thankful for...

For the prospective customers: Food was outstanding and reasonably priced, probably similar to Olive Garden in price. My pizza was impressive, just like the good old days when this restaurant was doing business near the mall. I also sampled the broasted chicken (fantastic and flavorful/juicy), the rolls are great as well that they bring with your meal. Definite must try since reopen, you won't be disappointed on the food for sure.

For the owner: Please, please, please fix your entry area, currently its going to drive away so much business, including my own because I have handicapped folks who can't stand 30 mins waiting for a seat when youre busy. I have attached a picture (I know the scale isnt exact, Id have to come back and measure to give you something more accurate - and would if you'd like) but you absolutely have to fix this. You can't get in the restaurant area once only one family of customers is waiting, the doors/walls are far too cramped and poorly laid out. I suggest removing both the wall/door to your pizza pickup area and the interior set of doors/wall going into your restaurant. I know this presents a possible issue with cool air coming in but you can counter that with an above door heat blower to keep the cool air out. In the attachment below you can see my recommendations: your host counter is currently far too big and useles, move it to separate incoming customers from the restaurant, this helps keep waiting customers' butts out of your eating customers faces in that corner table, if I had that corner table id instantly leave currently. People enjoying their meal dont want to see people milling around nearby. remove the extra wall to the pizza pickup, the window/counter is sufficient, this opens up the entry area to allow for some seating on the right wall as you enter remove the doors going into the restaurant. This allows you move that counter as suggested above and add some seating for waiting folks along the west wall, with the extra wall I propose near the host counter it will block a direct breeze into the eating area.

I cant think of a super ideal way to fix your problem but you have to do something, currently its a huge turn off and is going to cost you a lot...