Athens Pizza House Inc. — Restaurant in Smithfield

Great food, hot, fresh, and consistent. The same family has owned Athens since 1988, and they worked at Athens before buying it....the small kids playing around the outside picnic table in 1988 are now the owners who prep and cook your food, which has not changed in 30 years - always excellent. They have been in business so long even with Domino's, Papa Gino's, Tony's opening up all around them - offering $8 large pizzas, coupons, TV ads, lunch deals, rewards points, etc....because their food taste better no matter who is there to cook it. And selling great tasting food (my Lg meatball and extra cheese pizza last week was heavenly) all the time, not just when the owner's around, makes for repeat customers. I like Domino's and buy their pizza often, and I love Ronzios, but nobody makes pizza like Athens, and the Athens Special sandwich and tuna sub with American cheese and tomatoes are incredible. This is exactly the type of food I missed when living in LA for five years - home cooked restaurant quality food at affordable prices....And by the way - small, family owned businesses can't afford to pay the VISA and MasterCard gouge-fees like chain stores do - they don't sell a thousand pizzas a day in their area. The trend now is that more small businesses have to pass these fees on to the customers using the card service instead of raising everyone's prices.....So pay the buck or get your cash ahead of...

Maybe i ordered the wrong thing... Ordered two pasta dishes over the phone for pick up. The person that took the order didn't know what kind of pasta they even have... then told me that they thought Ziti is the only choice. Fine... Ziti it is... So i ordered Ziti with meatballs and Ziti with chicken parm... total came out to just above $20 I asked if they take credit cards... the person on the phone says yes. When i get there, the sign on the door says "CASH ONLY, ATM INSIDE"... great, just what i wanted with a $20 for two basic pasta dishes $3 in bank fees. So i went and found an ATM for my bank got the money and picked up the food. When i came back home i found out that $20 buys me 2 pieces of Banquet brand chicken... (i know that crap when i see it as i eat it every day when i was in college with no money... you can't even really qualify it as chicken) and a few pieces of ziti sprinkled under the chicken. The meatballs were not much better than that. I'm rather sure they're frozen cheap crap as well. In total, if you want this kind of food, just get a frozen Banquet brand meal from supermarket for $0.99 instead of paying this rip off place close to $10/plate. I cannot speak of their Pizza as i've not tried it. However, it's unlikely that i'll go here again due to my experience so far, so this is my final...

This place used to be my pickup-fer-home-eatin' pizza place for a period of around 9 or 10 years. (I still go there occasionally but prefer to sample other local pizza offerings in close proximity to my domicile) On busy weekends this spot sports a distinct Greek atmosphere, and good-natured argumentative boisterousness aside, the service is excellent and prompt. The pizzas are fairly good, though some versions with pepperoni tend to be a little soggy in the middle of the pie. Their greek is fantastic, loaded with feta, kalamata olives, and other veggies shoveled onto a medium-to-thin crispy dough, finished with a hard-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside, crust that provides a good handhold when demolishing it from the opposite end. Located off of Rte.44 (Putnam Pike) on Austin Ave., directly after the Pick 'n Pay on the corner in what's known to natives...