Palermo's Pizza — Restaurant in Palm Bay

Palermo's Pizza- Palm Bay, FL- 4.25 Stars

“I do not cook. However, if I did, I'd cook all Italian food, all the time.” – Ne-Yo

As I pulled onto the Causeway to once again head OTB for a review, all I could think of was that being a food critic is not for those that are concerned about their waistline as yet another Pizza joint came up on my name generator. This time it was Palermo's Pizza in the teeming metropolis that has become Palm Bay. Now, I am not a gambling man, per se, but I bet if you polled every pizza joint in this here US of A, there would be a guy named Tony working there. Like every other pizza slop house, Tony's on the register here as he asks for my order. In a heavy Italian lilt, he informs me that he is also the owner. I asked Tony for some Garlic Cheese Bread, one pepperoni and onion Stromboli, and an order of their Baked Ziti along with a canned beverage. The restaurant has only three tables, it is obviously geared more to take out than dine-in, not that that's a bad thing.

I had my order before too long, snapped some pics and dug in as the inviting aromas wafting up from the plate was overwhelming my olfactory nerve. I grabbed a slice of Cheesy Garlic bread and popped it in my mouth. This is impressive! The large order of bread was exceedingly, but not inordinately so, buttery, garlicky and quite cheesy. Talk about a great start to a meal, this is it. Moving on to the Stromboli, (which is essentially a rolled up pizza), as one can garner from the picture, this baby was packed to the hilt with above grade Italian perfection. The ingredients were so fresh I could swear I heard an Italian butcher with a Palermo accent yakking away as the flavors Tarantellaed their way across my tongue. Tony is obviously not cutting any corners when it comes to quality ingredients. Cin cin to Tony!

Finishing the sample of Stromboli, I never eat the whole dish, just enough to be able to judge it, I moved on to the Ziti. The Ziti, like the Stromboli and Cheesy Garlic bread, was a huge portion. You are certainly getting your money's worth at Palermo's Pizza! The meatballs were out of this world delicious and obviously not of the frozen variety. The side salad is also enormous with big chunks of tomato. I must say, I am impressed with this tiny hole in the wall. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that I am pretty sure Tony is like me in that he just likes to stir the pot a bit as he offers New York Style Pizza, Chicago Style Pizza and a Hawaiian specialty pizza with ham and, yep, you guessed it, pineapple! I am loving this guy!!! Palermo's Pizza just drives home the point that the best local places are often small out-of-the-way joints, you know the old adage, “good things come in small packages” is spot on in this case.

The Big Boy says,” For some great Italian influenced fare made with top-notch ingredients, Palermo's Pizza is the place to go.” #bigboydiningout...

Ew, I can't believe people like this place. I'm going to do what I can to keep this short because people don't really like complainers. I'm from up north so I do have a standard of preference for the pizza I eat. My first time trying it, the pizza was a bit more greasy than your average pizza. I was willing to overlook it and try again because one of the workers (I assumed it was the owner) was nice. The second time things went to hell.

My roommate at the time and I both ordered a deep dish each with coupons. I guess whoever rang up our orders screwed up. I have no idea how he managed to do it TWICE but apparently we were undercharged. Didn't really think much of it until we got home and roommate had a voicemail from someone in broken English telling us "I know you good guy so come pay more". Felt a little bit like harassment when they still called after the voicemail. We lived about 10 mins away and had considered offering up the difference on the next visit but it is relatively unprofessional to screw up and then pin a customer with the blame and waste time calling when you have work to do. We were driving so picking up the call is just unsafe. The deep dish pizzas were disappointing so we just decided not to bother ever going back.

Edit: Just looked at their website. "We Deliver All Day- Every Day". Now I know that someone there is a few fries short of a happy meal. According to Google Maps, they aren't even open as long as other pizza joints. Today (Sunday) they aren't even open until 3pm and closes at 8:30. All day isn't 5 and a...

I ordered a calzone on garlic cheese bread from online for pickup. I arrived for pickup 30 minutes later from the time of order per the instructions on the order. The calzone was ready but the garlic cheese bread had to be made which I had to wait for. The worker stated this was standard procedure as they didn't want the garlic cheese bread to dry out waiting on pickup. Hmmm...

The calzone itself was much smaller than other competitors for a greater price. I had the ham and pineapple calzone with extra ricotta cheese. The ham was okay but the pineapple, oh my goodness the pineapple (and this is Florida!), was very bad. The pineapple was faded yellow and had almost zero taste with no sweetness whatsoever. It was the worst pineapple I had ever eaten! I ate a few bites and couldn't stand it so in the trash it went. What a waste!

The garlic cheese bread is in name only. The product was made by opening a 6 inch hoagie roll. Yes, a sandwich bread. Then, mozarella and garlic went on it to which was melted in the oven. That's all it was. I couldn't believe it! I asked about it and was told that's how to make garlic cheese bread. Are you kidding me?

In my opinion, this calzone and so called garlic cheese bread combined with customer service standard procedure that food would not be made until customer arrived for pickup all added up to a bad restaurant experience. Although I don't know anything about other products like their staple menu item, pizza, I will never be back Palmeros...