Today in Akron, Ohio after the trip to the Akron Zoo, we were going to Pizza Hut but after 3 separate locations in which all the dining rooms were closed....hey this is NOT COVID Anymore guys!! I found Gio's Italian Restaurant w a Pizza Buffet and huge Salad Bar!! We were celebrating my Daddy, who is now in Heaven, 85th Birthday w a fun family outing! The service and food was amazing so Pizza Hut did us a HUGE FAVOR by being closed at 230pm on a Saturday afternoon....not 1 but 3 locations in Akron, Ohio....but again Thanks because we discovered GIO'S!! All 4 Kids including myself and daughter in law loved it! Simple no frills decor but amazing Pizza!! Can't wait to go again! Highly recommend to all in Akron! read more

Gio’s Italian Restaurant - Italian Near Me - Akron, Ohio

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I was excited to hear there was a pizza buffet somewhat in my area that I could go to. This was my first visit to this place. To start out with, the place was clean, and the wait staff was friendly. I was surprised to see such a large salad buffet, but that's where the impressiveness ends. The pizzas on the buffet are personal pizza sized, very limited toppings, and tasted so-so. The soups were very mid western without flavor. If you plan a visit on the day they have the pizza buffet, go expecting to have a good salad with everything else being so/so. I was expecting more for a 14.00 price point for lunch. read more

Gio’s Italian Restaurant - Tiny pieces of pizza - Italian Near Me - Akron, Ohio

Based on prior reviews, I decided to try this place. Unfortunately, it did not meet my expectations. Both cleanliness and food quality were subpar, although the service was good. Too many people handling buffet items and making a mess which was difficult to keep clean. The restroom also was not clean. This is a situation where quality needs to improve and quantity be less of a focus. read more

I've been coming to Gio's since it was Lembos and before that Vaccaros. It has sadly changed so much of the years. The pizza is nothing like it once was, the other entrees are still very similar. I got the pizza & salad buffet this trip. My wife got the 2 piece chicken dinner. Service was ok, nothing out of the ordinary. The restaurant was busy for a Monday evening. Just wish the pizza was fantastic like the Vaccaro's & Lembos days. It's not the same anymore sadly. read more

Gio’s Italian Restaurant - Pizza & Salad Buffet - Italian Near Me - Akron, Ohio

what a robbery. 2 large pizzas $90. 1 large pizza is $16. 4 salad bars. The manager suggested we would save money by getting the family deal by buying it. Wow what a robbery. Salad bar was empty from lunch time. I foresee out of bossiness soon. waitress screwed up a pizza order. lol omg. pizza was good I ll go out for lobster and crab next time for the same price. read more

Ordered lasagna with marinara takeout. Sorely disappointed. Looked old. And there was no ricotta or any cheese between layers. read more

Gio’s Italian Restaurant - Just ground meat in between. - Italian Near Me - Akron, Ohio

My dear-what is this atrocity!?! Watery pasta-mediocre salad bar-and burnt eggplant Parmigiana. Just awful. Very dated decor. Waitress never asked if the food was good-sauce was awful. Never will come here again. read more

Stopped in for lunch today because hot soup sounded great. I think they are understaffed because the hostess was also the lady clearing tables and refilling beverages. Due to this, there were four groups (I ckuding myself) waiting for several minutes to be sat. Now, I know I went at peak lunch time (1225p) but the salad bar was picked over, with many of the toppings being empty. The pizza buffet had two pieces of pizza on it, and about 20 people waiting with empty plates. The wedding soup was tasty, the garlic bread lacked flavor. Once they brought fresh pizzas out, I was able to snag a few slices while they were hot. The pizza was as you'd expect. Above average but nothing fantastic. Their cinnamon bread used to be amazing but today, it was not. At all. In the past, I could eat a few pieces...today I ate one bite. Oh well. I know that restaurants are struggling right now with finding good help and keeping their rising food costs under control. However, this buffet used to be $12 with a beverage. Today's experience was not worth the $17.02 I paid (and that doesn't include a tip). read more

HORRIBLE! The food wa horrible made wrong and the owner is a gigantic prick ! Worst experience ever ! When we asked for the proper food to be prepared he refused and then refused a refund on a meal that was NOT TOUCHED AT ALL. He then made a scene ! This is eggplant parm it's breaded and fried this is not acceptable at all. That stuff you see that's the grease. Disgusting read more

Gio’s Italian Restaurant - Eggplant parm not electrical tape. - Italian Near Me - Akron, Ohio

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Stopped in for lunch today with a party of five. Server was just ok. My son ordered the Philly cheesesteak sandwich and specified no onions. You guessed it, it came with onions. My daughter-in-law had a small pizza and a side salad. My grandson had a meatball sandwich while my great grandson had chicken tenders. My wife had the eggplant while I chose the anti-pasta salad. The menu stated that garlic bread came with my salad and when I asked the server she told me it did not. After returning home I checked the menu online and indeed it said garlic bread came with my salad. They eventually remade my sons cheesesteak sandwich sans the onions. Who serves an anti-pasta salad w/o garlic bread or just plain bread? All in all the food was good except for the obvious screwups. read more

The cash lady was very very nice! Loved the pizza! Very nice atmosphere! Would come again!

Terrible food, pizza is soaked in grease. Service is terrible and you'll pay an arm and leg for mediocre food. Save your money and go somewhere else. This place should really close their doors. read more

I had a gift card and a hungry family so we wanted to try Gio's out for dinner! Despite our visit being a week day, it was pretty packed! We waited our 25 minutes and then were seated. We called ahead to see if they had gluten free options available and she said yes but based on availability. When we arrived, we asked again and our waitress checked with the kitchen and yes they did! Quick side note, when was the last you saw a salad bar?!? We each got a small helping before our food came out. It felt new because of the pandemic , but we knew this was necessary. The staff was very friendly and was working really hard with being understaffed. Our god come out and it smelled and looked fantastic. The pizza was great, the GF crust was one of the better ones I've had. The sauces were very rich with flavor and complimented the pasta dishes well. The leftover were enjoyed by us in the following days. Everyone in the restaurant seemed to all be enjoying their food and having a good time. A fun and friendly atmosphere with great food will have us coming back for sure!! read more

Gio’s Italian Restaurant - Door from the parking lot. - Italian Near Me - Akron, Ohio

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Didn't have to wait too long for a table but while waiting they posted all the local events they support!! Love when businesses give back. Thank you!! Salad bar was very expansive - they didn't miss a topping. I think the menu boasted 85 items and it's probably true. Was only disappointed that they didn't offer a gluten free pasta option. They do carry gluten free crusted pizza. That was a good crust as my son tried it. I thoroughly enjoyed my sausage and peppers but saved the spaghetti side for a gluten full family member. read more

Gio’s Italian Restaurant - Awesome selections at salad bar - Italian Near Me - Akron, Ohio

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Service was good, pizza bar was good and the salad bar was great! Things have improved at Gio's.

All the staff was absolutely great with the exception of our server Steve he constantly ignored us and it was the worst experience I've ever had and he was very rude and on another occasion I heard him yelling at other servers this guy should not be working in this setting he is an absolute disgrace to this restaurant. read more

Returning to this restaurant disappointed me. I had the lasagna and my rating was below 0. The place was empty. The pizza bar was good and the salad bar was ok. Water was tempered. read more

This was unfortunately not a good experience. We came in an hour and a half before close on a Sunday. The place is very dim outside and hardly looked open. They were out of all pasta except fettuccine as well as out of chicken. They were cleaning the fryer so my husband was unable to order anything fried, including Jojos. The salad bar was not overly well stocked or appetizing and my husband had two hairs in his salad. Ambience was lack luster. Only upside was our friendly server who was speedy. We won't be back unfortunately and I don't recommend it. read more

The dinnerware is dated. The credit card surcharge is ridiculous. The owner stopped us on our way out the door accusing us of stealing bread and never apologized. I don't recommend gios read more

Last time we'll eat from there. I ordered angel hair pasta with extra meat sauce. It was pasta with plain tomato sauce and a few square cubes of I'm not sure what. Definitely not meat sauce. So disappointing but lesson learned. read more

I grew up going to Lembo's/Gio's, love it, and the garlic bread and pizza is always amazing

If I could give a negative star rating, I'd need more than -100. I have lived in Ellet my entire life and grew up on Vacarro's then Lembos. Tonight we were in the area, so we ordered pizza, mozzarella sticks, Jo-Jo's, and cinnamon bread. The pizza was HORRENDOUS. The pizza was undercooked and had doughy crust. The cheese on the pizza was SOUR! Not aged, , SOUR!! The cheese sticks were just breading and so overcooked the cheese was GONE! I didn't even try the cinnamon bread when my hubamd took one bite and spit it right out. The Jo-Jo's were ok, at least edible for the most part. Whoever took over this restaurant will be the ones to close it down, unless they revert to the old. Recipes. read more

This was a great place back a while when it was Lembos. Over the years we always went for a pasta dinner with of course the great salad bar. Too man times to count Since it has changed to Gio's we have probably went another 15 times and each time it gets markedly worse. The pasta sauce recipe seemed to have changed to more bland and the pasta dinner started to look and taste like just slop on a plate. We kept going and gave up on the pasta, but still wanted the great salad bar by itself. But the service and the condition of the restaurant in general was noticeably dropping fast. The salad bar itself was increasing kept in a very messy state and we often had to walk around food dropped on the floor. Many of the bins would have ingredients from the other bins mixed in not maintained. Many of those bins empty for the entire time we were there. The "all-you- can-eat" bin of garlic bread was empty the past 4 times we went(which really honked off quite a few other customers that where a little loud in their complaints but did not seem to make a difference) One time rather than putting us at open tables away from already crowded area they stuck us back in a cramped corner. About 5 minutes later they seated a huge party of people rearranging the tables to accommodate the group. But they arranged the table in a manner that the small group of table that we were in could not physically get out, let alone the salad bar. Even our waiter could not get to us and had to ask people to stand up and move to get back into us. Same when we had to go to salad bar. Moreover it was now very loud and un-enjoyable in that regard itself. Though bit of karma as one of the servers of the large group decided to come around our side having to hold the platter of drinks over the heads of several customers to get though down to the end were close to where we were. She was serving a couple drinks trying to get them individually to the table but she didn't mind the platter and the remaining drinks came crashing down on the table flooding the customers on either side. When we went to leave my elderly mother manage to knock the items off of a table and knock down a chair while in the process of contorting to the obstacle course created. Several times since changing to Gio's name we had to be seated and wait for 10-15 minutes until they had any plates available. You often had to wait several minutes to get soup bowls that they seem to miser as if they only own eight of them for the entire business. This last time we went 5/13/23. Coming in I needed to wash my hands and went but the single soap dispenser was completely empty and kind of dry like it had now been filled in several days. On the way out it says that "employees must wash hand before returning to work". Didn't say anything about using soap to wash hands though so I guess that makes the minimum standard. But over all seems to be consistent with an overall developing theme that we have noticed. We had to wait 15 minutes after seated to have any silverware(which I might add the the hostess that seated us was wrapping silverware in napkins for use at the time but could not bother to wrap up 3 sets for us....and the restaurant not even busy...we were the only ones waiting to be seated.) Service in general is mediocre at best, sometimes unfriendly, but mostly un-attentive. I told my wife and mother not again, we are done. I am tired of going in happy and leaving angry. Sooner or later it will be just another vacant building for very good reason. read more

I loved Lembo's. Was a customer for over 20 years. But, Gio's quality has gone way, way down (to zero) and their prices are crazy high now. Bad service, too. Last I was there spaghetti was almost $16. Portion was small, too. I'm done with this place. No way am I paying gourmet prices for subpar food. This place is on its way out of business. AVOID!! read more

Update! Went there today at 6-7pm host/server warned us about short staffing service was good..., Sadly the salad bar was pretty much empty and a mess.. No garlic bread, no wedding soup. The wedding soup they ended up bringing out was horrible, the soup pasta in was straight mush zero texture and disintegrated to the touch. Never got the bread...full price but a quarter of the previous quality. Let me know when you all fix the issues until then goodbye. read more

This place is a joke! When you don't have enough staff to serve and cook, STOP TAKING CUSTOMERS! Last night was a clusterfk, the poor server had over 30 people, and the kitchen served me raw pizza dough. The salad bar was not kept full. I was overcharged when they screwed up my pizza. Do not go here unless you want to waste your hard earned money. Extremely disappointing. read more

I had a gift card I received in 2021 for $50. Our bill came to $48.84. They said the card had already been used and that was after they delayed us 20 minutes trying to look it up. What was really bad was the food. My chicken parm was burnt, my dinner partners eggplant tasted bad. The floor was filthy. I will never go back. read more

Great place to eat salad bar very big salad bar nice ambience, fast friendly service. Also have a carry out drive up window. They have great chicken and JoJo's are the best. read more

This place is the worst! since they have changed to Gio's it's horrible! the food, the service, the management! I had to give it one star to leave my review, but it's zero stars for me read more

Monday salad bar and pizza night! Best value in town all your favorite pizzas salad bar just like old times everything on that bar, even several dessert items like puddings and canned fruit. Great place for families everyone can get their favorite . Staff is fast and efficient, drinks are filled always. It's one of our first places to go out to eat, when we get back to our summer home in Mogadore! read more

Overall a good place.. I think it may have changed owners? Salad bar is great...pizza bar on Mondays,pretty good. Im partial to the eggplant parmesan..Take out quality is not worth wasting your money on..so we now go into restaurant to eat..They have struggled with having enough help to take care of patrons. They Are doing the b est they can...Overall,yes we recommend...and eat in,keep the wait staff employed. read more

We have been customers of this establishment for at least 8-9 years from back when it was Lembos. We have had a few minor mishaps here and there throughout our many visits. Nothing to make a big deal about or make us stop patronizing. This last time we got carryout we had some bigger issues. Food was picked up at time quoted and it was cold. My mother's chicken for her chicken parmesan was overcooked and tough. We requested croutons for our Salads that came with our meals, no croutons. We asked for like 6-8 pieces of extra garlic bread (Fully prepared to pay for them.) They were not present. When I asked my husband if we paid for them, he wasn't sure because we were not provided an itemized receipt. read more

We hadn't heard of Lembo's until our local Eat and Park closed. People were asking on Facebook where another salad bar was and Lembo's was the overwhelming answer. Let me tell you, Lembo's salad bar is 3 times the size of Eat & Park. What a great and fresh selection! They had soup. They had six different puddings including sugar free! SIX. They had hummus that went great with the garlic bread. The regular food was so tasty too but this California girl loves her salads. The staff was so friendly and everything I saw was clean. The couple we took with us had previously been there and were thrilled when we said we were going there. I'm really looking forward to going back! Oh and another plus is that you get to enjoy the salad bar when you order pasta. That's a deal! read more

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my family often frequented Lembo's and loved it. Since it became Gio's, it has gone downhill dramatically! The wait staff is poor, unfriendly, slow and minimal. The food on the salad bar was okay, but dishes to use were scarce. The food from the kitchen was not tasty and came out cold. The Italian wedding soup was old and gummy. We loved Lembo's and tried Gio's 3 times, always with the same outcome. We will not be returning to Gio's. Also, I called 2 weeks earlier to place a reservation for 9. When we arrived, the staff was surprised! We had to wait 15 minutes for setup. read more

Ambiance is typical of Italian cuisine.. service was a little sketchy... but I believe it was because not enough trained servers.. young person was not good at multi tasking.. I was never asked if I needed a refill on my beverage and the salad bar was fresh but very messy.. at most restaurants you see the waiters with a broom and dust pan cleaning up messes.. not here! The food took a little more than average to come out, and it was not very hot.. ( do you think that maybe it sat back in the kitchen? Hmm) the meatballs were not homemade and you would think that an Italian restaurant would have homemade meatballs.. Nope!!! Not impressed with it at all.. read more

Good food service good. Went in the middle of the afternoon so not real busy and the salad bar was stocked well.

We visited on a Sunday. One hour after the restaurant opened. The salad bar left much to be desired. Many of the trays were half empty and food mixed in the trays that they didn't belong in. Most of the meals include the salad bar, but my wife ordered a pizza. They charged her full price for the salad bar which was $10.95. Ridiculous amount to be charged when you are ordering it as a side. And don't forget to look up, because once you see the vents in this place, it will be awhile before you come back. It looks like they haven't been cleaned in years. It will be along while before we return. The taste of the food was OK, and our server was very good. Just an unclean restaurant for having just opened. read more

Family went on a Sunday night, and got the salad buffet. One person got ravioli The buffet is large with a huge assortment of choices My rating is a reflection of cleanliness, wilted or black lettuce is off putting and makes me question the rest of the items on the bar Dirty dishes in the clean dishes on buffet Overall cleanliness of floors, tables etc Service was friendly but slow to bring refills, bill, change etc read more

The salad bar is so good. They also had two different types of soup and also pizza. Went for lunch and got the price for $12.95. A lot of food to choose from. read more

Service was great! Our waitress was formerly with the previous owner and it was good to see her still there. She is very accommodating and took her time with us old ladies who wanted to talk instead of figuring out what we were each going to order. The food is pretty much the same menu as what the previous owners had. The lunch pizza and salad bar buffet is still there with a very big variety of pizza choices to select from. The salad bar is probably the best in the area and still has most of the items on it as before. The thing I missed is the creamy kidney bean salad which I was looking forward to. One of our party had the fried chicken which she enjoyed. Two of us had the Italian sausage sandwich was also stated as good and another had the fish sandwich with jojos which was also reported as good but "too big". It was enough for two meals. All in all, the restaurant is worth checking out. read more