Antonio's Pizza — Restaurant in Wilkes-Barre

I was born and raised in NEPA and had my fair choice of pizza places when I was young. Over the years, some have gone by the wayside and others persevere. Lucky for me, Antonio's Pizza in Wilkes-Barre is one of the ones that's made it through both good and not-so-good times.

You know how some places specialize in either pizza, stromboli, calzone or subs? Not Antonio's. They excel at all of those. Their pizza, while a bit thicker than some others, is well balanced by the sauce and cheese. To me, the sauce has a unique flavor from other pizza offerings. It's slightly sweeter than normal but not disgustingly so. I find it to be perfect.

Strombolis and calzones are another great choice. I've attached a picture of a large cheese steak stromboli just to give you an idea of its size. The steak they use is well diced up, and there's no gristle in it, which is something I need. The use the same steak in their cheese steak subs.

And that was a good segue into their subs. I've had the cheese steak, chicken cheese steak and tuna subs and every one of them was great. Crisped buns, well apportioned and excellent taste.

They have a small dining area, which could be used fully in different times, but right now they're offering limited seating. They have the usual sodas (tap or canned/bottled) and beer offerings. Everything is available for eat in or take out.

Their restaurant is very easy to find. It's near the intersection of Courtright Ave and close to General (Commonwealth) Hospital. I recommend giving them a try. I can't say that you'll have the same impressions, but I can say very few people I've met disagree with me....

Usually I like the pizza here. But Sunday was a different pizza. Not crisp. Not sauced right, too many toppings forcing it to be over cooked. Burned. Cardboard taste. Uninspired. Just there to take money. Look at the pic, does this look appetizing?

Edit 1/20/25: Two updates, first is the consistency. You can visit here 5 times in a month and get 5 different pizzas. They will be of varying doneness, sauce and cheese amounts, crust thickness, and freshness. It should be close to the same.

Second is freshness. These people will hand you a stale, old and cold pizza and pretend it's right out of the oven. They won't even reheat it for a few moments and pretend. The only way to get a fresh pizza is to walk in and order and watch them make it.

You know what's less appetizing than being served one of their old pizzas as fresh? Watching them clean the top of the hoagie station and then wipe down the prep area and knives with the same cloth with no...

Staff is friendly and courteous. The wait is average, never more than 20 minutes. There's a ramp for handicap access. Plenty of parking. Prices are decent. The dining area and restrooms could be a bit cleaner, but the workspace behind the counter appears clean and that's what most important to me. The food is good and consistent and there's a large selection of alcoholic beverages. The only issue I have is the overwhelming sweetness of their pizza sauce. I recently moved here and discovered that it's common practice for this area so I can't begrudge them for what's in demand, but I wish they had a small batch of unsweetened sauce for the small majority. I've tried the top rated pizza places in this area and couldn't stomach anything that had pizza sauce on it, especially their pizza. However the sauce at Antonio's is not an issue on pizza or strombolli's, but i got their pasta and it just wasn't edible, hence the 4 star rating. Desert...