Davanni's Pizza & Hot Hoagies — Restaurant in Saint Paul

Every region has it's local chains that you love and hate. They'll never been as good as you remember, but you still crave them. My hometown of Madison WI has Rocky's, Culvers, etc. LA has In-n-Out. Cincinnati has Skyline Chili. Rockford has Beef-a-Roo. Chicago has Portillo's. Etc. Davanni's is Minneapolis claim to fame.

They have pizza, hot subs (why they call them hoagies I'll never understand) and other fast Italian dishes. Some locations have wings and alcohol as well.

They are most known for their red sauce. You cant go wrong with anything that uses red sauce. Pizza? Meatball sub? Cheese bread? Yup. The pizza is particularly good.

My tried boneless wings and a southwest salad. Both were disappointing, but what would you expect at an Italian fast food chain?

Besides those items, anything I've tried over the years that does NOT use the red sauce was not memorable. Pretty sure I tried alfredo, some other kind of sub, maybe a chef salad. Nothing made an impression, good or bad.

Most of the locations look circa 1980 which I love. Some are open late.

Consistently good quick food all over the twin cities. You can do...

They are more concerned with filling takeout orders than serving dine in guests.

I came in with a friend and ordered 1small pizza and 1 small hoagie. The dining room was virtually empty, maybe 2-3 other tables. They brought my pizza out and no hoagie. Was told 3 minute wait for hoagie. After about 15 minutes and no hoagie I gave back pizza and got a refund. What restaurant serves people dining together their food at different times. My pizza was getting cold waiting for friends food. No explanation they just kept saying 3 minutes more, 5 more minutes, it's almost ready. But they were making takeout sandwiches and those people were being served. Seriously.... I need to wait 15 minutes AFTER you made a pizza for half the order for a half hoagie.

I will say.... The manager refunded me my money and offered to give me the pizza. I was not at all interested in the pizza, my appetite for Davannis was gone. Instead of free pizza train your staff that the food for a single table should come out at the same time. Not bring one customer's food then 20 minutes later bring out the other...

Right after I ordered, I notice the absolute filthy condition that the kitchen was in. Including pizza sauce caked all over many of the surfaces (ovens, floors and walls. The back splash of the hoggie station resembled a crime scene. After carefully examining the kitchen in its entirety, almost every surface was dirty. To make my visit worse, the young man crafting my hoggies noticed me examining the condition of the kitchen and moved to the inside corner of the kitchen as if to hide his actions and started snickering to a coworker. I was hoping my experience wouldn't hinder the quality of the hoggies  that I have come accustomed to, but unfortunately hope wasn't enough in this case. The bread was absolutely dry and there was an off putting taste. I could not bring myself to eat the rest out of fear of how they might have been tampered with. This is the only location I have ever had a bad experience with. I will never visit this...