This is the inaugural review from one of our new Experts MB
I ate at Gio’s Cafe I in Sanford, FL for dinner after reading a positive review about the restaurant in an Orlando Sentinel review. It was a Greek/Italian restaurant which sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a try.
I was actually expecting more Greek food and less Italian. The Greek food probably took up a quarter of the menu, while Italian took up the remaining three-quarters. The Greek food seemed kind of overpriced for what was being offered, so we ordered garlic knots and pizza. The newspaper had good stuff to say about both items, so I was expecting an okay meal.
The garlic knots came out first and were okay, but they could have definitely used triple the amount of garlic that was given.
The pizza soon followed, and I definitely disagreed with the Orlando Sentinel review. The newspaper called Gio’s pizza impressive. I thought it was one of the worst pizzas I’ve eaten in a while. The crust was a little thick for my liking, but that’s just based on my personal preference. My real issue here was with the cheese on the pizza. While the pizza was hot, all of the molten cheese poured off of the crust onto the plate. As it cooled, the cheese solidified, but it didn’t stick to the rest of the pizza. The entire mass of cheese on each slice would pull off leaving a sheet of hot cheese hanging out of my mouth with every bite. The solidified lump of cheese was strangely chewy and dense, and was still stuck in my throat several hours later. I’m not exactly sure what Gio’s Cafe did (or didn’t do) to make the cheese on their pizza turn out this way, but it was definitely not a good thing.
Another issue that I had wasn’t exactly pizza related, but instead was something the restaurant wouldn’t sell me because I ordered pizza. I wanted a side salad as an appetizer, but according to the waiter, side salads were only available if I was eating an entree. Otherwise, my only option would be to buy a much more expensive meal-sized salad. Perhaps I should have ordered an entree though. I’ve found I’m almost always happy with spanakopita, and I’m sure it would have been better than the pizza…
I give Gio’s Pizza in Sanford, Florida, 1 out of 8 Slices
After all the heated debate about the pizza at Gio’s, I decided I needed to actually try it for myself. I for one think that similar to beauty being in the eye of the beholder, good pizza is in the taste buds of the diner. That being said, I wasn’t too impressed with the pizza at Gio’s. It was definitely under cooked and the cheese was falling off it. Being the neat and proper woman that I am, this is never any good. Those that know me- I can hear you snickering from here 🙂 The crust, had it been cooked enough, had a good taste and was just right- not too thin nor too thick. Overall I wouldn’t say it was a bad pizza, but I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way to go there. We also had a shrimp rockefeller appetizer which was really good…a dish where there can’t be too much cheese, and also a Greek salad which I really enjoyed. An average pizza, I give it 4 out of 8 slices
