Brother's Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in West Virginia

This is mostly a review of, I assume the owner's, attitude. I lived in town a few years, and typically their food has technically been good. But there has been experiences and realization of allergies that's lead to this review.

First off, like any small-time restaurant, their ingredients will vary. Two visits ago, my mother was wondering if they changed their meat for steak and cheese sandwiches, as she was having to pick unpleasant chunks out of it. This normally isn't a problem, and wasn't the recent time before or after that, those visits were as expected.

But we've also had some negative experiences with the french fries. They normally have long pencil thin fries, but one day in particular had thicker cut fries. I didn't have any myself that day, but my mother and friend did. My mother in particular commented how under done they were, and I ate one of hers as a test, and it was definitely more of a soggy strip of potato than a properly done fluffy french fry. I think my friend's greater tolerance though, and saying their fries were fine (despite visually looking as under done), contributed to the owner not wanting to believe there was anything wrong with my mother's. Especially when they also claimed they didn't change fries. Which due to 2 more occasions after that, I call bullcrap, as another visit they had crinkle cut fries, and the most egregious one that had my mother and I asking each visit "what kind of fries do you have," were the seasoned fries, like the same kind of season on Arby's curly fries.

So I can't trust them regarding this issue either. I learned since then, I'm basically allergic to potatoes (and other foods), and must stop eating them entirely in any form. This includes stuff like potato starch. I asked one day if they make their own alfredo, and if there might be any potato starch in them due to shredded cheese in grocery stores often having potato starch. I could hear from the kitchen some comment about "no potatoes in the restaurant." And to me that was a warning sign he doesn't understand potato starch can be added by manufactures as an anti-caking agent to products like pre-shredded cheese. I figured out this past weekend I could go on Sysco site, a common restaurant supply retailer, and look at products myself. I looked at about 8 shredded cheese options, finding potato starch in two of them (most notably one being parmesan). While this is more speculative a statement, I doubt they're shredding all their own cheese from blocks that typically never have potato starch, since nothing is of concern to be sticking together. Odds are they are likely buying pre-shredded cheese, especially something like parmesan. And I imagine if one specific item they normally buy isn't available, they'd buy a slightly different one to ensure they have a product to sell, just like the french fries. If they can't be trusted day to day what french fries they have, I can't trust day to day what exact brand of parmesan or mozzarella they have. And even if they were to show me a package of cheese without potato starch, that doesn't mean the current batch of alfredo sauce doesn't have the final bag of some other brand that does.

I already know the old LaTrattoria owner in Martinsburg admitted to buying stuff from Aldi's. I understand that for a small business. But at least be honest about it like that guy who ran LaTrattoria.

Also some final comments, I used Doordash about 13 times with this place during the height of a severe back pain problem. 6 of 12 orders I got were messed up to some degree, and 1 never got picked up before closing time. This place decided to go with external delivery services only at some point, and I ended up telling them off one day after the last order was missing my sandwich when I was trying to order something that can also be eaten easily while on a work meeting at lunch time.

And the final comment, something very unacceptable from a restaurant, there was one weekend that the restroom was out of toilet paper and...

I've been coming here for 9 years now. My mother and I decided to ordered take-out for Our mother's day meals since we are both now disabled and just can't cook nice meals anymore. She got the Eggplant Manacotti and said it was pretty good. It came with a side of "salad" and a salty, white-ish dressing that we couldn't figure out (what it was supposed to be) And also nice garlic bread. MY MEAL, 😬🙄🤦 on the other hand was a sad state of affairs. I ordered the SMALL Philly cheesesteak pizza for TWENTY ONE DOLLARS. Since is Mama's day, my "broke hiney" was justified in treating myself, dang it! 😁 Got home and noticed that the entire pie was MAYBE half in thick with the ABSOLUTE MINIMAL toppings. Luckily, i had mozzarella and onion at home to spruce it up. I figured, if the meat was flavorful it would make up for the lack of everyone else. But NOOOO, It was steak-um-like meat, just thicker...no flavor. The whole pie was bland. I was in the business several years and would never sell that pizza for $21! Maybe $10. Minimal toppings/flavor. Any Little ceasars pizza for $7 knocks that one out the park. Inflation is zero excuse, period. This pic was taken...

This place is not that delicious. First of all, we ordered two calzones. They were both almost $10 a piece. He got the chicken spinach Alfredo. I got the pesto chicken tomato. My husband stated that he did not want any vegetables besides the spinach. So I clearly stated on the phone that in the Alfredo one, we only wanted the chicken, spinach, and Alfredo. In mine I didn't want the tomato's. Our car is down, so we walked to get the food which only is a 5 minute walk. We got home to open the box, and find two very small calzones then when we bit into them, mine had tomato's and my husband only had chicken and cheese, but no spinach. Also before I was done talking to the cashier he completely walked away. I was trying to ask for cheese packets and crushed pepper. I don't think we will come back. Anthony's across the street in the food lion center is way better quality for a way better price. I can pay $7 for a huge delicious calzone. And the people are very...