Critic's Review
Sbarro has opened a location in the space previously occupied by Galaxy Pizza. I wondered if this was like the location in the Galleria mall, which has a buffet. It isn't.
They don't have menus online so I had no idea what the restaurant offered.
This first impression of this place is that it's a hole-in-the-wall storefront. Bad furniture and a counter makes this suitable for take out slices and not much else.
I wanted a roman plain slice which is my favorite Sbarro offering, but they only had loaded roman slices. I just ordered a plain cheese slice.
They have a conveyer unit behind the counter that they use to heat slices. The pizza ovens here are clearly not new; I was never inside Galaxy but I assume they purchased the equipment from Galaxy.
I asked the counter guy if this was a franchise and he said no, but I'm pretty sure it is. Sbarro was bought out by a private equity firm and now they're franchising out the locations. The Mall store is no longer company owned and neither is this one.
They have custom takeout boxes; I thought about eating this in the car but the grease stopped me.
The slice is big and looks like a NY slice. The slice is $3.69; $3.91 with tax.
For the price, you should get a real pizza slice, not a bad restaurant slice with not enough sauce or cheese. They're not selling $10 pies here.
The slice was mostly bread; which means that it wasn't good enough. You can't complain that you have to charge $3.69 for a slice if you're going to also cut back on the cheese. The price for a Roman slice here is $4.79; a price that guarantees they'll never see me again. Why is a smaller slice from a rectangular pie worth $1 more again? Get back to me on that one.
Conclusion
While Sbarros' marketing claims claims it's a NYC operation, Sbarro's made their mark as a second rate Long Island operation. Originally from Brooklyn; they became defined as Mall pizza; when I worked at 200 Garden City Plaza I probably ate lunch at Sbarros in Roosevelt Field mall twice a week for a year; a big slice is enough for lunch. They then tried to open pizzerias as Mama Sbarros; but they were never able to duplicate the gold standard Umberto's. Towards the end they partnered with the Scotto family on Boulder Creek (an outback clone), Sagamore and Blackstone steakhouses (All Boulder Locations and Sagamore have closed; Sagamore is now Rare 450 owned by the Scotto's). Multiple bankruptcies have since ensued, and now they seem to be franchising.
A place where the guy at the counter doesn't know who owns the place is troubling. According the state records the place is owned by Francisco Gavilan and Pedro Bitar; who seem to own quite a number of Sbarro franchises in Florida.
No word on if they deliver or if they even sell whole pies. What would they charge, $30?
