The Pizza Oven, Madison, Wisconsin Restaurant Details

Food:

Good pizza and salad. I'm not a fan of Coke products ao a star gets lost for that, and the bar was missing my top choices for drinks as well. Overall a great place for a family and they have video games!!

Food:

Fantastic pizza. I have been going here since 1972. Best Pizza around. Never disappoints

Food:

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 5th 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!

Food:

I'm new to Monona. I wanted to test out their pizza. I was on hold for 7 minutes and then got hung up on. Tried calling again and was on hold for another 6 minutes. Sadly I didn't even get to try their pizza because their customer service was so bad.

Food:

Pizza was actually really good. Ordered on a Monday night for pickup, was told it would be ready in 15 minutes. Ended up being 50 minutes with no other customers in front of me. Will try them again because the food was good, but not impressed with the service