Well, I try to abide by the old saying, "If you can't say something good..." I'll stop right there…read more
Dell'Anno's is a local pizza place in Danville. The food here is hit or miss. Today's barbecue chicken pizza was almost a hit, but the service was a huge miss.
First, the pizza. A great barbecue chicken pizza has the right balance of ingredients: a smoky barbecue sauce that isn't too sweet, chunks of chicken, fresh toppings, and a crust that can actually support everything on top of it. This one had a good barbecue sauce, just way, way too much of it. So much sauce that the crust got soggy and I had to eat it with a fork. I also had an unfortunate accident involving my brand-new chartreuse sweater.
The pizza had thinly sliced red onion, which was a good choice, but that was it. No bacon or anything else to add a little texture. The onion, chicken, and barbecue sauce worked well together. The problem was the amount of sauce. It completely overwhelmed the crust. I call it an almost hit because the flavor was good, but no, I would not order it again.
Dellano's Pizza Kitchen is a little hole-in-the-wall pizza place in Danville. It's narrow and a bit dark inside. There are about nine or ten booths and tables along one side, with the bar and cooking area on the other. If you walk straight to the back, there's a small patio that can accommodate small groups.
I've had two meal mishaps since trying this place, and I'm just not going back. One involved a salad that I paid extra to have egg added to. When I got back to my apartment, I discovered the egg was scrambled. Who puts scrambled eggs on a salad?
Now I could forgive the botched salad and the soggy pizza as isolated incidents, but the service was crazy.
Our group was there to celebrate the birthday of one of my colleagues. I had a service person coming to my apartment and needed to leave quickly to make it home on time. I called ahead to order my barbecue pizza. The first person who answered the phone was very willing to take my order, but put me on hold to verify that my group had a reservation at this location. I knew they were, but she wanted to check. She was supposed to come back and take my order, but instead a gentleman picked up the phone and asked if he could help me.
I repeated the story and explained that I wanted to order ahead but eat the pizza there with my group. He informed me that they do not allow call ahead orders for dine in customers.
I paused, thinking he might realize how silly that sounded.
He didn't.
So I simply hung up, called back, and ordered it as takeout.
Then when I arrived I picked up my takeout pizza, joined my group on the patio, and ate it there anyway.
What made this even stranger is that I have ordered ahead and eaten there before. In fact, our group has done exactly that in the past.
Maybe there was a misunderstanding. Maybe there is a policy nobody else knows about. Either way, nobody seemed to know what the actual rule was.
Suggestion: If you decide to try the barbecue chicken pizza, ask for light barbecue sauce or get the sauce on the side.
Tip: Play it safe and order the Philly Cheesesteak sub
