Papa Nick’s Pasta & Pizza

I love this neighborhood joint. I’ve been taking my nieces and nephew here for several years when they visit over the holidays. Great for kids and adults too.

What an awful experience. My waitress was less than friendly… She actually seemed bothered I was there. My lunch was terrible and she never returned to check on me. When she did come back to offer me a box (for the Calzone I didn’t eat) I told her I didn’t really like it and she put down the check. No adjustments or even asked if she could get me something else. Not returning there or recommending this place.

I have been eating at Papa Nicks for 15+ years since I was a kid and have never been more disgusted with how they treat their customers. This super bowl Sunday night we went in for pizza last minute. We ordered at 8:30 pm (they close at 9) a large pizza and a large Greek and while the food is excellent on most nights… their extra rude employees will continue to keep us away. I have NEVER once been greated with a «hello, how can I help you» or anything in between. I constantly want to say something but the food is so good that I don’t want retaliation from them involving my food. But tonight at 8:52 with customers still waiting for their food and two gentleman at the bar they turned the lights off so we were sitting in the dark waiting for our food. They better reconsider who is working in their restaurant before they go belly up do to crappy attitude wait staff!!!

Never again. I have eaten here for years. (not a lot, 2 – 4 times a year). And always something. Today, I go to pay my bill. I did. (new waitress). So I do. and later as I am sitting an chatting, she hands me a bill. «I paid already». Well, the manager comes and investigates, in a rude manner.
Who did you pay, what did she look like. Well, we got THAT squared away… finally.
and my waitress, nice but switched glasses on my refill of water. Gee, why does the water taste like tea?
And PREVIOUSLY, the waitress wrote my bill wrong, (Gee, 25 cents?) and the manager AGAIN corrects it in a rude way.
Maybe next time, politeness would go a LONG way here folks…

You have to go into this place knowing what to expect… it’s an establishment that has neon beer signs in the window — so set your expectations accordingly… their eggplant parm is so good that we actually picked up a container of it for our wedding — the guests raved about it!

In Sarasota from Orlando for the day. Stopped without checking Unilocal first. BIG MISTAKE! This pizza is worse than Chuck e Cheese. Anybody who says otherwise either works there or is a relative of the owner. Nice people but the foods is awful. Oh and the tiny salad consisting of iceberg and 3 cherry tomatoes was $ 4

We had the zuccini fries. They were crisp and delicios with the dip. We then had the spanikopita (spinach pie), which was very tasty and flaky. The sald dressing is homemade and is the only salad dressing that I like alot of it on my salad.

We came here because we had a coupon and we were very happy. Yeah, the restaurant itself could use some updates. However the food was delicious and our server Amber was knowledgeable, helpful, and fast. We ordered chicken Marsala and chicken piccata. All entrees come with bread, a large Greek or house salad, and soup. Great value for the price. I’d recommend this place for sure. Look past the décor and floors ;)

It is hard to know where to start. We went for a Father’s Day dinner as a family. We have eaten here before and it was great, but not this time. The short haired blonde lady told us to sit at a table that wasn’t dirty as she had been busy. There were like two families in this deserted restaurant. We ordered and she came back to say they are out of calamari because what they have is still frozen. Lovely. Then she brought a mysterious brown soup. This was mysterious because she had told each of us we were getting clam chowder. As she was arguing with a female coworker behind the bar, it took a while to get her attention. So when I asked her about the soup she said it was lentil and what we ordered, because clam chowder is over. She really did tell us we were getting clam multiple times and gave us lentil. At that point it was time to go. Longhorn got our business tonight.

Flavors outstanding! Plentiful servings at a very good price. Don’t miss the Specials!

Dirty restaurant with the type of food your mom would make if she really wasn’t that great at cooking. I’d probably suggest a calzone and have the mindset that you are eating off a food truck or something. You’ll feel ok about it after that. Dirt cheap.

Still awesome but no longer do they have the best calamari in town. They changed it and it’s not good.

Food is mediocre at best. This is one dirty restaurant. The place looks like it hasn’t been vacuumed in months. Service is clueless. Not worth getting off I-​75 for. Keep looking, this is not where you want to eat in Sarasota…

Made the mistake of using the men’s room after we ordered. What a filthy disgusting bathroom!!! I asked my wife to check out the ladies room — she came back totally disgusted. Our food arrived and quality was slightly better than the bathrooms…
A V O I D!!!

This is a neighborhood restaurant. It is not upscale, fine dining. You get good food at a good price. The place is cozy, and there were a lot of people there when we went. The entres are priced resaonably — the items we got were both $ 12.99. With that you get a soup and a salad.
The soup was clam chowder. It was good, but not sure why a Greek/​Italian restaurant would have that. The salad was very simple, but fine. The entres came out hot, and provided plenty to eat.
One more thing, they have several beers on tap and they are good beers. The prices are $ 3.00 for domestic and $ 4.00 for import. And you get a 16oz glass.

Meh… average food for an average price. Their «Greek» salad was no different than their tossed salad. Oh. I take that back. It has a peppericini and a single kalamata olive. Same dressing. Same boring iceberg lettuce.
Their bread was pretty good but the watery margarine was kind of gross.
For the entrée I ordered the baked ziti. You really can’t mess up baked ziti. The portion was huge and the taste was fine. Ryanne ordered fettucini Alfredo. I tasted hers and it was good, but a full portion would be way too much and way to rich.
Would I return? Sure but it wouldn’t be my first choice.

This place hit the spot. If you like Boston style Greek pizza then you will like Papa Nicks. There calzone was good. They use ricotta & mozzarella. Different from what I am used to in Boston, but it was great. No skimping on the cheese.
I was only going to give 3 stars as our waitress was terrible. She did not know the menu very well & took our order down incorrectly. The reason I gave it 4 stars was because the busboy there named Roberto.
This guy was on it! Never stopped moving. What a hard worker! Papa Nick should be very pleased with him.

For 3 months, Gabriel and I lived practically across the street from Papa Nick’s. It wasn’t until the night before we moved to another town that we finally got around to trying it. It was fairly late for dinner (by Florida standards) and there was just one other group there when we arrived. We sat in the main dining room but quickly asked to be moved because it was freezing in there. The waitress was happy to find us a table in a warmer section and we sat down to look at the menus.
The prices are very reasonable, with most entrees around $ 13 and including soup, salad, bread and pasta. The menu, however, is nothing special. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect of a strip mall Italian restaurant. We ordered a glass of Chianti to share– but found it to be extremely watery. I guess for a $ 5 glass, we shouldn’t have expected anything great. The bread was at least a day old already and had a stale crust. The clam chowder was watery and sort of gummy with no real clam pieces and only an occasional bite of potato. It was also sort of luke warm. The salads were mostly iceberg lettuce with a couple of ripe grape tomatoes and a slice of cucumber, and were served with plastic squeeze bottels of dressing. Classy.
Our main dishes were actually quite good– but pretty much everything is quite good when it’s smothered in loads of mozzarella cheese. I should definitely give credit where it’s due however, and the truth is that the tomato sauce is fantastic. It’s exactly how I like it with a slight sweetness to it and a smooth, thick, consistency. The spinach/​ricotta stuffed shells were the favorite over the eggplant parmesan, but really both were enjoyable. The pasta was typical boxed penne– and at that point I was too full to want more carbs.
Overall, for about $ 15 per person including tip, I guess I would recommend it in certain situations… For instance, if you are starving from packing all day, close by, and with less than $ 20 per person to spend, give it a shot!

While out UnilocalING we found Papa Nick’s in Sarasota Florida. We enjoyed the restaurant so much we have now visited a total of 3 times. My spouse had the Pizza and I the Papa Nick’s Stromboli which was loaded with all the fixins. The bread and salad is also outstanding especially when you add Papp’s homemade Ranch Dressing. Some friends had the meat ball sandwich and fries and overall Papa’s is a real gem. Hard to get a five star from me but this restaurant rises to the level. Just off of I-​75 and Fruitville Road.

We haven’t been here in months and was hoping for a reasonable Italian meal. Nope. Same tired menu. Probably ought to have tried a special that could have some PASTA in it. Soup was barely warm and flavorless. Same bread. The house dressing was the reason for 2 stars and not one.
Had a really awful plate of spinach lasagna this evening. ONE layer of lasagna noodles! The noodles were chewy. The sauce tasted a if it were reheated too many times.
Someone let me know when their standards return.