Pizza Time Caffe — Restaurant in Parkland

Deep breath. Pizza Time Caffe in Parkland.

This a family-owned Italian-American pizza joint with an adjoining dining room aspiring to be something better. It’s related to Pizza Time in Coral Springs, but smaller and atmospherically similar (in that dated 1980s sense) with the stereotypical Roman busts, terrazzo pink decor, and frescoes of Mediterranean scenes. It’s cute and family-owned. I wanted to like it because many people have asked me to try it over the years, and it’s practically in my backyard.

First lands the house salad, which comes with the entree (we ordered the “regular” sized eggplant parm, which we’ll get to). Lovely crisp salad greens, fresh ripe tomatoes. Commercial bottled Italian dressing with a sweet flavor. Sad.

We were told about the garlic rolls that come with the entree. We waited. We didn't get them until we asked about 10 minutes later. The server was apologetic, as the busser was supposed to do it. The rolls themselves had the consistency of white bread, not pizza dough. Rachel and I felt the garlic topping tasted like it came out of a jar. Acidic and harsh.

The parm. The regular size is about twice the size as the small, but only $3 more. A massive portion that will serve at least 3 or 4 people. It's heavily breaded but not well-seasoned, and I thought it was very light on cheese, which is a low-moisture mozzarella you would put on pizza. I'm unsure what brand it is, but it didn't taste like a Grande. The sauce itself was somehow very cloyingly sweet (like pizza sauce at their sister restaurant in Coral Springs) and very salty. The pasta was cooked properly , that's about all I can say in praise about it. Rachel and I each had a bite and were disgusted and left the plate as is and asked for the check.

Price wise, it was actually a few dollars more then Sette Mezzo’s but like 3X-4X more food. The portions of everything I saw go out were huge, and that's probably the main appeal of the place.

We were asked what was wrong with it, and we told them the above. They didn't offer to replace it with something else or cancel the bill.

One and done. And it’s unfortunate because I expect a family-run place like this...

I've left my original review below, but I've added a star for consistent take out quality and somewhat improved dine-in experience. Original review: Great food, but the service during my last visit was bad. I've been going to Pizza Time Cafe for years, and I love their food. However, my last experience there left a lot to be desired in terms of service. I generally accept that they will have trouble keeping up with phones during peak hours, and I'm okay with it. I ate in at Pizza Time pretty late last Friday, around 8:30. We waited for a table to be cleaned because although there were empty tables, none were cleaned. It seemed that bussers were in the back doing dishes, and waiters who were standing around free seemed to think that it was beneath them. After waiting 15 minutes to be seated, nobody came by for a while to ask for drink orders, and when we finally got drinks (three waters and a beer) the waters came in plastic Coca-Cola cups. This was the second time that had happened, but every other table served before and after us had glasses. Additionally, one person asked for no ice and got ice anyway. We ordered bruschetta, gorgonzola salad, and Brooklyn style Sicilian pizza with fresh mozzarella. The food was excellent, but we got the wrong number of bruschetta (6 instead of 12). Our server kept laughing off these small mistakes, but when you are paying close to $30 for pizza, there is an expectation of higher quality service as well. Generally, our server seemed to be more interested in talking with patrons at other tables instead of taking our orders promptly. As a result, she lost her business money because I was going to order another drink. If she had taken our drink orders in a timely fashion, we probably would have bought a $50 bottle of Chianti Classico Riserva. My family became impatient and decided they didn't feel like having wine by the time we...

Overall, this was a three star experience in every category. This is my first time visiting this place. I really wanted it to be a great spot that I can frequent since it’s so close to me. I would give it a second chance, but I must give an honest evaluation.

I showed up just minutes before closing, to be fair. I walked into the small little area where orders are taken. There were a few customers sitting in chairs Waiting for their orders. There was a ton of kitchen staff — I was shocked by how many people were there cleaning up. Food was being handled by some who were snacking on their own food, which is a pretty obvious no-no in any kitchen. Though there were many eyes on me, nobody acknowledged me. It took about 20 seconds for the person at the front to look up and greet me. It wasn’t very welcoming. However, I can look beyond this if it weren’t for the food itself.

Firstly, I walked in expecting to get two slices. Instead, I walked out with a mini pizza that cost me $25 — chicken, bacon, pineapple, and onions. The pizza toppings were scarce. Two pieces out of five total didn’t even have chicken on them. There was very little bacon anywhere to be found on the pizza. And the WORST part — 3 pieces had dough that was RAW. Does that sound like it was worth $25 to you?

The reason that I am giving three stars instead of two or one is that with all of that in consideration, nonetheless, The taste of the pizza was excellent. It was very, very good. But the experience itself, and the astronomical price of such a terrible experience has caused me to conclude by three stars — and I think that’s generous.

In the future, I will stick with another local pizza place where I know that I can get two humongous slices for $12 and have an...