Pizza Oven

I ordered mac n cheese and cheesebread for carryout. I expected better.
The mac n cheese was «ok.» The cheesebread was average. Fries came with the mac n cheese which I thought was odd. The fries, though too salty, were actually the best of the carryout.
Maybe pizza would’ve been a better choice.

Pizza was good as always, but delivery service is worse than terrible. I ordered a delivery at 7:30 pm, was told it would take «about an hour» which is what I had sort of figured. When it hadn’t arrived after a hour and a half I called and they told me it would be here shortly, finally 15 minutes later it arrived! I asked delivery person if he got lost and he looked at me and said «why» I told him it took 1 ¾ hrs for delivery he shrugged his shoulder. Also pizza was not vey hot, maybe Luke warm! Wonder what they were doing??? Advice is to pick it up if you want to eat At a reasonable time and eat while hot. I rated a two only because the pizza is good.

Pizza was not as good as it used to be it was over cooked and hard like a pretzel. Takes for ever to get your order extremely slow no matter if you are the 3 couple in there or a packed house way over an hour for pizza terrible. Not worth the wait for sure

Good pizza buffet and salad bar. Been coming here for years. Cinnamon breadsticks!

Three stars as the pizza is very good and nostalgic for many of us. The recipe has not changed in forever and that is good thing. Cracker thin pizza with plenty of cheesy greasy wonderful-​ness. It does pain me to say my last delivery took over an hour and half to get delivered. It was pretty hard to defend to a house of hungry people that it was going to be worth it. Next time I guess I will have to come get carry out? But the big of appeal of pizza in so many ways is the delivery factor. Perhaps it was just an off night (it was a Saturday with a Badger game on) but it was delivered a full half hour after the quoted delivery time.

I came here to play vintage arcade games since Aftershock Retrogames moved their games here from Rossi’s Pizza. Their pizza is pretty good but their wings are greasy, flavorless, really fatty and are disgusting! DO NOT order their wings! Also, the menu showed the wings as boneless but they were not.

Been here an hour and still no pizza. $ 4.75 for maybe 15 very small (large pea sized some smaller) cheese curds. Waitress not overly friendly. Finally got our pizza a fourth of it very light on sauce and little cheese to none on some pieces. Such as disappointment. I grew up having their pizza on Friday nights for dinner, brother Delivered for them in the late 70’s :-). Don’t think I’ll make the 30 minute drive again I’m sorry to say.

Since Aftershock Retrogames moved its inventory over to Pizza Oven I’ve been meaning to get over there and give it the ol’ college try and I finally managed to get the time to do so!
Their pizza is on the greasy side, but good. Their crust is crisp but not hard /​overly brittle, nor is it greasy on its own– it’s very good. The grease factor brought on by their pepperoni definitely makes for great «bar pizza» and if that is what you are in the mood for — they hit that mark very well. I’m fine with bar pizza but it doesn’t make me as happy as less greasy versions, so ultimately I’d call it three stars (unless you really have that greasy pizza craving).
They did wow me with their breadsticks, however. They are lightly seasoned, crisp on just the slightest outer layer, and soft and hot on the inside. They embody the breadstickian ideal, 9/​10, would eat again. The marinara was also not just Ragu poured out of a can, it tasted like they actually put some effort into it and I don’t think enough restaurants do that so when I see it – I appreciate it.
Their videogame room is smaller, so we’re talking maybe 20 machines — 4 pinball tables, total… ish (I didn’t count). One was pricier than the others and sort of set apart /​from another company, and they had an inactive one (for a 5^th one) near the exit that I didn’t pay much attention to. Most of the classic arcade favorites were there — Burgertime, Mario Bros, Joust, Donkey Kong, etc… and the pinball tables that were in the room were Tales from the Crypt, Dr. Who, and Black Knight 2000 — the best of the lot from Aftershock, IMO.
The other advantage I noticed is that there weren’t roving gangs of 7 – 12 year old children. It’s in a split bar /​pizzeria setting and the pizza side closes down before the bar side does. That means if you want to have an arcade night out with the guys without it being invaded by the cast of Romper Room — this is the place to do it.
So – the TL;DR, the pizza crust is great, the meats can be a little on the greasy side, the breadsticks are amazing, there is a smallish arcade that packs a good ‘arcade’ punch since it covers the best of the old school lot.
Totally worth the trip to Monona!

I’m all for supporting local businesses, so here’s my advice: step up your vegetable game. At last check, there is not a single leaf of spinach in the entire restaurant. The salad bar is a weak selection of iceberg lettuce and other stuff, and the vegetable pizza topping options are pretty limited. Occasionally people want to balance a pizza meal with fresh vegetables and not just fried crap. Not even an option at the Pizza Oven.

We have been Coming here for years and since they moved to the new location service and quality has decreased and I will not be coming back.

We ordered from the Pizza Oven the other night to celebrate my wife’s birthday. We called in and ordered carry-​out, since we were spending the night at home. The Pizza Oven is a little pricier than other pizza places in the neighborhood, but this is a special occasion and we have been meaning to try it for a while. We ordered the Pyramid specialty pizza and deep-​fried mushrooms, and the total was more than we had expected. This already set the place at a disadvantage; the pizza could be the best we would ever taste, but the price would be something not easily overlooked.
Anyways, I arrived at the location to pick up our order. I stood at the hostess station for what had to be 5 minutes without being noticed. Then, I went to the bar to tell the bartender I was there to pick up a carry-​out order. She was very kind and helpful when I was able to get her attention. When I got home, the food was decent. The deep-​friend mushrooms were flavorful and delicious. Not watery at all, which is probably the first time I have ever been able to make that statement. The pizza was a good thin crust and not slimy, from what I have come to expect at other establishments.
If you want to try something different and are not concerned about price, I recommend the Pizza Oven. Otherwise, stick to a national or local chain where you can be confident in what you are paying for.

Dear Pizza Oven,
A little over a year ago we discovered your restaurant at it’s old location. The first couple of times we came to you we liked the pizza, and regarded it highly. The cheese/​crust/​toppings ratio was perfect and I believe at that time there was only one kind of crust to choose from. That could be incorrect, but we were never asked to specify at that time when ordering. It was REAL (not some pre made garbage) and it was thin-​ish, and it was very good.
Now a couple months ago, we ordered a pizza at your new location. This time we got a thin crust because the «hand tossed» was a dollar more. This experience was disappointing because the crust was TOO thin — dare I say, pre-​made– and the overall pizza was light, weight-​wise; We got a large for 2 people and we were still hungry after we had finished it. Not a pleasant feeling after having forked out 18 dollars.
So this time around we figured, OK, the Pizza Oven pizza we liked a year ago MUST have been their «hand-​tossed» option, which now costs a dollar more, but hey, let’s give it another try. So we ordered a 16 inch gryo with a side of breadsticks. Big mistake.
The pizza was a disaster. While the toppings were generous, the CHEESE was overabundant. I know from my teenage days as a pizza maker that too much cheese can be a bad thing, which may seem counter intuitive, but it’s so true.
Here’s the thing though: The crust of the pizza, the dollar-​more-​hand-​tossed crust, was SOO DENSE and doughy. Not in a deep dish, fluffy and bready kind of way, either. It was exceedingly low in taste and texture. Dense layers of wet cardboard with too much cheese on top. OOF.
I was surprised, because it seems this place has been in business for a while now and had a good recipe going for a good pizza. But this was a failed attempt, to say the least.
Also disconcerting: the breadsticks were DEEP FRIED pieces of bread slathered with butter. OY. Yes they were tasty, deep fried anything is tasty! Oh my Lord the GREASE!!! What about my waistline! What about my foodie sensibilities! Gimme something to love here, Pizza Oven!
We walked out of the restaurant regretting our decisions, and vowing to never return.
I would have said something to the waitress (who was very good, I’ll add), but I’ve gathered that she is the owner’s daughter, so need I say more?

My wife and I tried the newly relocated Pizza Oven because we wanted a salad bar, and Copps is the only other place we could think of in Monona (sooo sad). The salad bar at Pizza Oven is part of the pizza buffet (well, next to it, but you know the drill: it’s a pizza buffet with a salad bar). The mixed greens lettuce was very fresh. There are a dozen or so toppings and maybe 5 dressings. The veggies were all good. (We’re vegetarians, and so cannot speak for the meat toppings, of which there were several.)
My wife loved the breadsticks. I thought the mac & cheese (large elbow macaroni style) was very good. Almost all of the pizza had meat toppings, which is ubiquitous in Wisconsin (and elsewhere). We met the owner, and he was very nice. I didn’t think the cheese-​only pizza was great, but that wasn’t why I went.
I liked it enough that I tried it again today, 3 days later. There was a plain cheese pizza out, and the waiter offered to make another veggie pizza if I wanted. I said that was OK – I would just try the cheese pizza. It was good – much better than the other day. I’m not a fan of cutting a pizza in squares (in squares?), but there you have it. The pizza in the middle is the best (which you can’t eat without squishing your fingers in the cheese, as it’s inexplicably cut into squares), but there you go. (Rossi’s also cuts their pizza in squares. Is this some sort of twisted, Monona joke? Is this how Germans make pizza?)
If you like pizza + salad bar, and you’re in Monona, this is your only choice. But it’s a good choice. If you want something special, ask. They seem friendly and accommodating, and the next time I want salad bar, I’m going. And I may take them up on making a veggie pizza to put out. (Copps actually has the best salad bar in the area, but it’s a grocery store, not a restaurant.) Anyway, Pizza Oven. Recommended.