PaPPo's Pizzeria & Pub Downtown Springfield — Restaurant in Springfield

Im not usually one to complain about places on this kind of stuff but tonight was the last straw. The food was absolutely AMAZING, as it always is. Our waitress however, is a whole different story. It took 15 minutes for her to come back to the table to get mine and my boyfriends order. Mind you, they were NOT busy And then our appetizers sat in the window for 10 minutes and when she finally went to get them, she stood by the window with them in her hand and was talking to other employees. So our appetizer was cold when we finally got it. She did not come back to check on us at all. During this time of eating our appetizer and waiting for our entrees, her and 2 other employees went off to a corner towards the bathrooms and were drinking on the job. Over poured alcohol at that.. Finally our food came up and it sat in the window for 5 minutes before she asked someone to bring it to us (I know, thats not a big deal, but considering previous things... I was done..) After getting our food, still never came to check on us. She sat at the bar talking to, what I assume is employees off the clock because they went behind the bar and made their own drink. Had an attitude the whole time while waiting on us as well.. This is not the first time we have had this issue with this waitress. And it is very sad because we love Pappos food so much! Its almost to the point of not going anymore. For the simple fact, I usually don't get off in time to go to the one on battlefield...

I want to start with the good and then go to the bad.

The good: Service was 4-stars... She was friendly and efficient. Food presentation was immaculate.

The bad: my food was at best a 2 out of 5. I got a side salad with the house vinaigrette and Mama's meatballs. The vinaigrette was overpoweringly sweet and ruined the salad. The meatballs were subpar. I appreciate that they were handmade and should have been very good but the sauce and seasonings were terrible. The sauce tasted like bland pizza sauce with chunks of tomato in it. It really had an overwhelming aftertaste that was difficult to deal with.

If not for the fantastic bread (the reason I gave a 2 instead of 0) that came with the meatballs, I probably would not have eaten any of the meatballs.

Though I'm saying that this is bad I'm not saying it cannot be fixed with some better seasoning such as better or different Italian seasonings, garlic, salt, and pepper.

I saw a lot of people come and go before I went in and while I was dining, so there has to be a reason why they are so popular that eluded me on this visit.

I am going to give them another try in the future. I'm just not going to do it...

If you are vegan or can't have dairy the manager is unable to feed you proper food. You can get gluten free crust and the oil sauce but at $1.50 per a sprinkle of ingreadiant is a rip off. Go to Hyvee, Pricecutter, or Ruby's and just buy a frozen pizza for way more appealing taste and cheaper price.

When my fiancee and I gave suggestions for improvement the server apologized and said in layman's terms it will be past along but no changes will be made.

Update 9-6-18: I spoke with Brittany the General Manager today and was informed there are actually 4 sauces that are considered vegan. There is also the opportunity to bring in an unopened package of vegan cheese for them to use on the pizza and give back to the customer the same day. Due to food service policy of health code and so no other employee accidentally uses it the vegan cheese must be unopened and given back, which is fair.

I still don't like the oil sauce but the options posed are interesting as long as there is no honey, egg, dairy, etc. Something to look...