Apollo 1 Pizza — Restaurant in Palmer

My wife and I had heard that the Apollo 1 Pizza Restaurant is under new ownership and decided to see what had been changed, if anything. The atmosphere and layout of the dining area have seen great improvement. The raggedy carpet is gone and replaced with some nice looking grey charred wood. The divider is no longer in the restaurant, giving a much better aesthetic and more seating. The lighting has changed from that yellow 70's parlor look to a nice clean, crisp set of lights, which isn't even comparable. The place does have a few tv's around, but they are not in your face or loud. They are high enough where the tv's don't catch your eye, unless you are actively looking for them. We sat at one of the booths. Some restaurants have good booths, others for me anyway are made in such a way that you have to lean forward just to reach the table, especially when eating your food. This irritates my back after 45 minutes or so. That is the way their booths are here. I always wonder if it is the booth or the table not being sized right for the gap. The menu looked to have plenty of options, although most were a bit more expensive than what my wife and I had previously encountered. We were served quickly, but the waitress definitely did not seem to be in a cheery mood. She didn't smile at us or ever come back to give us for refills of our drinks. It was one of those times where she just existed to do the bare minimum. She did not even remember who ordered what drink, or that I ordered a salad, or whose food was whose. Most restaurants like this give free bread, prior to ordering or eating your appetizers, but nothing was given here. The food was ok, not great. I started with the salad, which was a typical greens salad. The presentation was nice, but I always want more cucumbers and those little tomatoes. One of each is never enough. That isn't so much a complaint about this restaurant as it is for all restaurants. The croutons were great, but the salad dressings were very limited. For my entree, I had the lasagna in meat sauce, but the lasagna tasted generic and the sauce was non existent. I was overwhelmed by cheese with some meat. For 15 dollars, I wish I had picked another entree. My wife had a pepperoni calzone. She gave it a generic ok as well. The garlic bread was absolutely wonderful. I am certain it is made in house. It was my favorite part of the meal. The place also has a really small bar, which I'm guessing is to draw people now that the other bar across the street is out of business once again. In the space it is in, it feels more like an afterthought than a main focus. By the way, if you want to share a meal because of the price, there is a 2 dollar plate charge. That is another policy I will never understand about food establishments. The customer gets the same amount of food, but has to pay more because of an extra plate? This seems discriminatory in my eyes. As a customer, it makes you feel that you are not worthy to be in the restaurant if you even consider sharing a meal. My parents will never go here because of the prices and plate charge. We may return, but it won't be very...

This restaurant has been remodeled recently and there is definitely an improvement. However, my husband and I always go out to dinner on Wednesdays and tonight was a disappointment. It was "seat your self" seating so we picked a booth by the window. There was only one other person there, sitting at the bar. The waitress comes to our table, doesn't introduce herself but asks if we want to start off with drinks. We place our order while we look at the menu. She returns with our drinks not even 2 minutes later and asks what we want to order. I ask her for a couple more minutes. She doesn't return until 15 minutes later! It was dead there and she was standing by the bar/take out counter socializing with another waitress and the cooks...loudly, and in all honesty, I think she forgot all about us. She finally came back and we ordered onion rings for an appetizer and our meals. She returned in a decent amount of time with a large plate of onion rings and napkins. No plates. We ate our onion rings on tiny napkins that we had to change out every couple of rings because they got so greasy. Then she came with our dinners 6 minutes later, not even giving us enough time to finish the appetizer. I had to remind her that my meal also came with bread, which she brought later on. My husband's burger was satisfying, my portobello chicken was not. The portion was huge, but 92% of the plate was over cooked ziti and the rest was jarred, soggy roasted peppers and a couple huge chunks of chicken in Alfredo sauce that required additional cutting to make bite sized. It was bland and required a lot of salt and pepper. Good thing I asked for bread as it was the only appetizing food I really had. The tables weren't even and they placed trashy looking beer coasters under the legs in an attempt to keep them from wobbling and the whole time we were there the socializing with the staff was loud and unprofessional. They spoke poorly of co-workers and even criticized a pregnant friend's appearance. Then they must have realized that I didn't approved of their obnoxious conversation that we were forced to listen to and then turned on music. The music was so loud I couldn't hear my husband talking to me so we ate in silence. We will not be...

A real Gem. My friend and I passed a Friendly’s and thought, ‘Oh let’s turn around and get some ice cream’. By the time we decided to we were in Palmer. So we pulled into the small mall parking lot to turn around. I saw the word “pizza” and realized I was hungry and asked “…up for pizza instead?” I recently wrote a review on an exquisite Italian restaurant and hardly expected a pizza place with its typical seat yourself booths to have decent entrees or crystals goblets for water, let alone write a review of it. (No goblets) but this review is justified. My friend had eggplant parm that she said was the best she ever had, and noted the thinness of the eggplant slices because it was cut the long way. I ordered shrimp scampi. Delicious sauce with lots of garlic and a hint of red pepper that was a nice addition. Ample offering of shrimp sautéed in the sauce before being placed on top of linguine. I would have preferred that my pasta was more on the al dente side, but that’s just my preference. Our portions were generous. Our waiter provided super service. We ordered desert, so much for the waist line. She had baklava that our waiter drizzled honey over. My friend told me the phyllo dough had been handled well. Like eggplant parm she has handled phyllo dough so she was well versed in both. Me. I asked if the carrot cake had raisins, walnuts, and bits of carrots. (I’m not carrot cake). He checked and yes. What our mains lacked for presentation he made up with the carrot cake. He proudly came out with his creation; the slice of carrot cake with two whipped cream animals with features and horns made from slight bits of carrot. Overall, a nice experience - food and an engaging character for a waiter. Highly...