Pizza Palace

This place SUCKS!!!
ridiculously large menu meaning everything is microwaved
Bad all around and we’ve tried many times over 20 years
Keep menu small and prepare it from scratch
OR focus on pizza
Chicken rollatini was slimey but hard rubbery chicken
Inedible
Don’t bother!!!

Food tasted good but for 2 calzones and a simple burger, the bill came out to almost $ 40. !!
And it was takeout, so I assume I wasnt charged for a tip…
but they might have.
The place was empty during lunchtime. I only went there b/​c my son was hungry and
we are not from the area. otherwise I would have went to a real pizza shop.
This is more of a restaurant, thats why they charged me so much. for what
would have cost at most $ 20 in a pizza shop.

We love this place. Food is always good, I like to try the specials and there are always plenty of them. My kids like the pizza. The staff are always friendly. The beer is cold. I have lived in Fairfield for 15 years and we have relied on this place as a regular when we don’t feel like cooking or spending a ton of cash. We have never had a bad experience.

Hey, every town needs a Pizza Palace. You get what you pay for. Honest food for an honest price. Whenever we are going out and need a trustworthy and reliable dinner delivered to the kids, we call Pizza Palace. On a cold windy night and we want a hot pizza and great rollatini, we go here. Service always fast. Try to sit in «Elvis’s» section. It’s not a fancy place, but reliable and great for a family that won’t break the bank.

Still a waste of space! I can’t understand why if the guy that sits people down is the owner, why doesn’t he stay away and hire very nice people.

Six years ago, when I used to go weekly with my daughter for daddy-​daughter day — and was told by the manager after a bad experience, that he didnt care that his staff was rude and obnoxious, that i would never go back there. Since that time, they have changed their menus, their name, etc. all grasping at straws to why they are losing money.
They will probably eventually close citing economy, location, etc. never realizing that their food is average, and their management is terrible.
I can not even think of a reason to patronize this place. There are simply so many other places to go that are better. Go to tomato basil across street. Or any other place… This place eventually will be another froyo store. Sad, as we grew up on Pizza Palace.

It’s funny bcz it’s always busy in here. Basically its a family friendly place w college student support too. It’s also been here for a long time so it obviously has its followers.
The pizza is ok, thin, cheesy.
The pasta dishes are average at best. The chicken parm is an ample portion but nothing to rave about.
Service is chaotic but friendly.
Clean modern warm interior.

I ordered here once before mozzarella salad and pizza. The pizza was tasteless and bland. I ordered chicken Parmesan hero this time with the same results. It did not taste good, lacking any flavor and the chicken was suspect. The mozzarella salad was overdressed

This was horrendous. I was overcharged by $ 4 on my $ 7 item and the manager refused to lower the charge.
Worst of all, the food was terrible and not worth the trip. The chicken parm was bad, the pizza was inedible, and the food really lacked freshness and flavor.
If you want an overpriced representation of faux Italian food, then this is the perfect place to be. But honestly, literally any other place is better.

Still the same family owned business it was when it was called Pizza Palace. The menu is exactly the same, they just replaced the booths and carpets and changed the name.
As noted by other reviewers, the menu is exhaustive, so I cannot vouch for everything. The soups are always good, the pizza is very good, the pasta dishes have been good when I’ve gotten them (gnocchi, veal, chicken dishes).
However, the diamond in the rough here is the grinders. They are simply fantastic and you will not be disappointed. I have mostly done chicken (w/​pepperoni and cherry peppers) or meat ball (with onions). One would expect to get a better grinder from A&S next door, but Padova’s grinders are to my knowledge the best in Fairfield.

My wife and I were craving Italian and decided to drive up Black Rock Tpke to see if we could find anything new to try and stopped into Padova for lunch.
The menu was quite extensive and the first thing that came to mind was «oh this is more like a diner» except the prices were much higher than they are in diners. We were one of three parties in the place and waited at least 15 minutes to order.
I ordered the Baked Spinach Manicotti, a side of italian sausage and cup of pasta fagioli, and my wife ordered the bacon stuffed gnocchi in vodka sauce with a side salad.
The soup was good, so I hoped the same for my meal. My wife’s salad was very plain but fresh enough — iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, onions, kalamata olives and cucumbers.
The manicotti looked really appetizing with all of the melted mozzarella on top but my first cut was met with resistance. The pasta was severely undercooked and there was hardly any ricotta inside.
I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt, thinking that it may just be the end of the pasta shell that was hard, but the next bite was no better. I am not a picky eater at all and could not eat any more of my meal. Not only was it tough, but it was also overly salty. Just not good. My wife’s meal was okay. We’ve had better vodka sauce.
When the waiter came back to ask how everything was, I told him that I was not happy with my meal because the pasta was undercooked and the filling was too salty. He picked up my fork and started jabbing at my dish and sauce splattered onto my new white shirt. He apologized and brought me a wet rag with seltzer on it so I could wipe it. It didn’t come out.
Then he came back with the bill and said that he had told the chef why I was unhappy with my meal and the chef said that there was nothing wrong with it and that we would still be charged for it, so he went ahead and discounted our bill by $ 5. as a courtesy. My shirt was ruined, I barely ate any of my dish, definitely didn’t want the leftovers to be wrapped, and we got a discount of $ 5!
On our way out to the car we noticed that the sign over the door read «Padova Italian Ristorante and Pizzera». That should have been in indication of the restaurant’s attention to detail. Wish I had noticed it on the way in.
I definitely do not recommend this place.

This is a prime example of one of those restaurants that just has way too large a menu to handle.
I went to Pizza Palace (as this place used to be called before their revamp) a long time ago with family, and I do remember their pizza being delicious. Yesterday, we were invited to try their new place which is being billed as an italian ristorante called «Padova.»
[Note: I originally posted this about a month ago under the old restaurant name which they closed the page for instead of name changing, so make that «about a month ago» instead of «yesterday.”]
You’d expect their menu from a diner — like Penny’s II across the street or Chips down the road. Gyros, Soups, Burgers, Pasta, Pizza, everything and the kitchen sink. I don’t think we got through the entire menu by the time the waiter came back around, and there had to be at least over 100 entrees alone. At that point, especially given the size of the restaurant, you know most of their food has to be coming from a restaurant supplier.
I will say the Chicken Orzo soup seemed freshly made though, and was quite delicious. Enough to satisfy this greek girl before chowing down on her gyro (honestly, that was pretty decent — what you’d expect from a diner though, not from a «ristorante.» Although the coleslaw tasted mighty funny and the tzatziki was watery). I do always have to laugh at restaurants who do have so much greek food on them, and the waiters don’t know how to pronounce it (I asked for a gryo — «year-​o» — and he said «okay, one gyro «jai-​row»»), although at least he knew what I was talking about. But then again you don’t usually see gyros sold at restaurants noting authentic Italian cuisine. The color of my boyfriend’s beef barley soup (should I call it «beef barely»?) was bright red and all you could taste was tomatoes, sad since we had been craving beef barley from Liquid Lunch all day.
I noticed my boyfriend’s grandfather’s burger came out with a half-​burnt bun, and the mustard they gave him was empty. Eventually the waiter saw him flagging him down and he brought him out a cup of mustard. That guy, the only waiter in the place, kept either waiting up front at the window (it was 1pm on a Saturday and we were the only people in the restaurant, while the rest of the shopping center was booming) or in back to talk with the chefs and guys at the take-​out counter. They all seemed like nice people and they wanted to please everyone, but obviously there is something majorly missing here. Part of me kept saying to myself «Gordon Ramsay needs to come here and set them straight.»
I sadly do not think I will be returning, although maybe in a pinch if I’m in the area I’ll give their pizza a shot again. Given the gorgeous redesign of the place, I really hope they consider parring down their menu. Focus on the Italian food, try to keep it all fresh (maybe even local, as is the current trend — which is a great trend to follow!). I think you’d go far because this is a great location and it can be a great restaurant if they just shorten their menu to two or three pages of Italian goodness so they can actually focus on cooking instead of trying to offer everything a diner can.