After hearing so much about the place, I had to come check it out!
Granted, I only had the pizza, so perhaps I shouldn't comment on the whole menu, but as a person with over 30 years in the restaurant business, I think I can safely offer a valid opinion.
Appearance wise, I like the quirky, down home raggedy look of the place. Its been there almost 100 years which is like since the dawn of time in the Florida Keys, and it used to be a brothel in the 30's... you can just feel the weirdo history infused throughout. There are 1$ bills on practically every surface, they say there are over 60,000 dollar bills stapled on their walls, which is crazy to think about.
Overall, a very comfortable place.
I ordered the cheese pizza because I am a pizza snob and in my opinion, if you can't do a cheese pizza right then you can't do one with toppings.
It was very small and pricey at $10.50, but I actually think the price is about right due to the large amount of cheese it featured! It must have been almost a pound of delicious, chewy cheese. It was basically a deep dish, non exciting crust. Not bad overall but a little dough-y. Strangely enough it reminded me of a Godfather's pizza, which sounds like an insult due to the inedible nature of Godfather's pizza, but there it is. It was much better than what it reminded me of.
The sauce was heavy on the paste and the oregano, and not really to my liking, too acidic and heavy handed. I would have preferred a few sliced tomatoes with a very thin coating of the weighty sauce.
I would try it again with one of the local shrimp toppings, now that I have properly vetted the quality of the standard cheese pie!
Service was friendly and on top of it. Attractive ladies mostly as far as I could tell, and you know they have ample experience. No nonsense and courteous, thank you very much.
I observed quite a few things being enjoyed by the mostly full lunch crowd, from the smoked fish dip to the chicken wings, everyone seemed to enjoy it. From the appearance of the food, it seemed that they put care into its production and used at least a few things you can't get from Sysco Food Products, which as we all know is mostly over processed soulless crap.
While the menu was typical pub food, I can say with confidence that it appeared to be above average, but not mind blowing or even best of in any category. Except that fish dip looked like it could be a contender for best of... next time I'll try that!
Drinks wise, it's beer and wine only, and while they did not have any Belgians or Germans or anything truly artisan or small batch Microbrew (Sierra Nevada was the only microwbrew, if it can still be considered thus, and I don't care for it anyway), but they did have Guinness and America's new favorite semi-macro brew Yuengling.
But it's mostly a Bud Lite county so you can't blame them for that. The wine list was not so great, but it's a beer and iced tea place mostly so you can't blame them for that either. Still, it would be nice to have a surprise above average wine available.
Overall, a great hard to find, out of the way place, a little pricey but above average quality so I guess it works out! Comfortable and friendly staff, a recipe for success!
To clarify, I only gave it three stars, because it's a very average menu and a very average beverage list, but it got three instead of two because the food was above average pub fare and the staff was perfect for the place. The No Name Pub is a VERY solid three stars. I'll go there again. read more