Garcia’s Pizza In A Pan

As an Illinois State University student in the 80’s, I ate at the Garcia’s across from Watterson Towers. It was a fun atmosphere and the pizza was tasty. One of the few places where you could buy it by the slice.
I was happy to hear that they were opening up in Bloomington and finally got around to trying it trying with the family tonight. Bottom line — disappointing. The place smelled musty enough to be able to smell it over the pizza. I know it’s an old building, but the interior had the appearance of being open for 15 years without a remodel. The service was just average. The pizza was less than average. There’s nothing that compels me to return.
I had the Gutbuster. The girls had pepperoni.

Not the Garcias of old. Stingy with the cheese and the ingredients. No air conditioning activated. Disappointment is an understatement.

I actually loved Garcias, I look forward to it everytime I’m drunk. But today, I went eagerly to purchase the standard two slices of ‘za. After waiting a considerable amount of time, I received one slice of pizza. I was shocked, «one slice?» I said. The cashier on duty responded that it’s 2 for 4 after 12 only. I took a step back from disbelief. I just can’t fathom spending 4 dollars for one SMALL size of cheese ‘za. Everytime i have gone there i got two of their slices for 4 dollars. Do not go here unless you are considerably inebriated after midnight, because it is not worth 4 dollars for one SMALL slice of ‘za. I will NEVER return here again before midnight because it is a ripoff. I am sitting here tipsy, sad and sadly still hungry.

I have mixed feelings about this place… First. Pizza was really tasty. It’s more of a pizza bread, but very satisfying. Good balance of sauce and cheese with the thicker bread. Different from the norm you get in Bloomington. The management was the negative aspect for me. The last time I was there I experienced the manager on duty talking on the phone cursing at someone, loudly. I thought that was very unprofessional and made me feel uncomfortable. My coworkers were with me and my supervisor asked him if he was okay. He responded by sitting down with us and complaining about his fellow coworkers. Shorty after, it was closing time and he proceeded to yell at the customers trying to get in the building saying only ISU students… Not Wesleyan! He then proceeded to taunt the students by banging on the windows inside and yelling. We left right after that, and I’m afraid to say I might not be back. I assume that they make a lot of their money on the late night crowd, and to yell and turn people away was disgusting to me. Hopefully they make better management choices.

The pizza tasted like high school cafeteria pizza. Basically, it was bread with marinara. If they offered Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, the pizza would have been forgiven. Sadly, they are cookie-​less. #bringbackdags

Delicious pizza really liked the flavor of the sauce and the crust has a subtle flavor that’s really good too I’ll definitely be back in the future

Several co-​workers were talking about how good Garcia’s was in Champaign and in Bloomington back in the day so I decided to give it a try. I was VERY disappointed. This wasn’t even pizza in my opinion. It was pizza bread.
I had a «slice» of sausage and a slice of the gut-​buster to go. The slices were very small and were literally just cheese, sauce and ingredients piled on top of thick, soft bread that didn’t resemble any type of pizza crust I’ve ever seen. I drive by here all the time and never see anyone inside, I guess I know why now. It’s a good location and it looks nice inside for whatever it’s worth.

Having grown up with Garcia’s at the Green St location in Champaign, I was excited to see they would be opening a Bloomington location. I drove past this location everyday for 2 weeks just to see if they were open. Finally, the day came that they were open. Upon arrival, they were quite busy, and wait time was clearly long, but seeing as how it was a soft opening, it’s understandable that the service wouldn’t be super quick.
There were a few people waiting that I wanted to chastise for their rudeness and lack of patience and understanding.
That first night we ordered our food and did end up waiting for about a half hour. Ralph came around to greet guests, and he apologized for the wait time.
The food took me back to Green St. Sure it’s not exactly as I remember, but I enjoyed it all the same.
I just popped in this week to grab a couple slices and breadsticks. The wait was about 2 – 3 minutes, the food came out hot and was delicious.

I ate at Garcia’s (on Dale St) as often as I could as a nearby high school student at NCHS. I later ate at their Wright street location nearly every day as a college student at UIUC. So I admit to being nostaligic at this place. Sadly, Garcia’s didn’t quite live up to those memories. But it was still pretty good. 4 stars is probably overly generous, but I think some of the criticism I see here is a bit harsh.
The good: The sauce is still slightly sweet, they pile up the toppings pretty well, the breadsticks are largely the same. Service was also perfectly fine for a place you order at the counter (so it isn’t a full service restaurant).
The so-​so: There is a pre-​made aspect to the slices. This means they aren’t sitting out in pans under heat lamps, as they were in the past; they have half done slices and then top them and bake again (this is dinner, lunch may be different). This means it isn’t as crusty as the old version as another reviewer noted, but the positive is that you can customize any slice you want and it really doesn’t take any additional time. This is the same way the Mattis street location in Champaign has operated for some time, but it is obviously different than Garcias in the 90s.
The bad: On a cold Friday night in Bloomington, it was downright freezing in the lower floor. I know it is hard to heat these old buildings, but they still need to try better than they are. Also, they didn’t have the baby stuffed for dinner, so I couldn’t try that out. They have never had the baby stuffed other than at lunch, so I wasn’t expecting it anyway.
All in all, I’m glad to see Garcia’s back in town. I’m glad to see a good dine in pizza place in Downtown Bloomington. And I’ll stop by when I can.

The breadsticks tasted okay, but they were store bought. Back in the day the individual pizzas used to come in a small square pan and had the crusty, cheesey goodness on a all sides. Now, as well as I can guess, they bake the crust and slice it, then load it with toppings with each order and bake again.