defend the indefensible: SBARRO

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Is Famiglia any good?

― Super Cub (Debito), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 23:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Ummm, full disclosure? I have a soft spot for the Olive Garden, or at least for the seafood alfredo. I just don't mistake it for actual Italian food. There was a funny article online...ah, here it is -- in USA Today -- in which Marcella Hazan and her husband go to OG and report on what they find:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/mds048.htm

― Laurel, Wednesday, 19 October 2005 23:19 (eighteen years ago) link

It's not inedible, like Ray's (the original what?). But I don't know if I'd call it good. (xpost)

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 23:19 (eighteen years ago) link

it's edible, usually.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 20 October 2005 00:08 (eighteen years ago) link

one year passes...

TIME FOR SPADGETTY AT SBARRO. EAT THE GOOD SBARRO SPADGETTY. NAPKIN DISPENDER.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 20 October 2006 02:15 (seventeen years ago) link

excellent timing on the thread revival.

i love this thread.

― sometimes my entire life be like DAMNNN! (tehresa), Friday, 20 October 2006 02:30 (seventeen years ago) link

i love the thread, too! wish i could say the same about sbarro's food, though :-(

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 20 October 2006 02:34 (seventeen years ago) link

As for D-ing the I, it was the source of a good joke in the US version of The Office. Michael goes to a conferance in NY and says to the camera "one great thing about being in New York is the pizza" or words to that affect, then we see him bee-lining to a Sbarro's.

I'm not sure if I've ever eaten there, there was one in our local mall for a while, but it looked like a last resort type of option for eating. But as someone implied upthread, there's almost no such thing as *bad* pizza, just various levels of goodness. I've eaten Little Caesar's, Papa John's, Pizza Hut, Round Table (my fave of the big chains), Mama's and Papa's (free pizza on your birthday = once a year I get one to go) and enjoyed it all, though I would never pick them as exemplary of quality dining.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 20 October 2006 03:49 (seventeen years ago) link

But as someone implied upthread, there's almost no such thing as *bad* pizza, just various levels of goodness.

hmm the pizza/sex simile isn't even on this thread!

― sometimes my entire life be like DAMNNN! (tehresa), Friday, 20 October 2006 03:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Well, I'm not saying Sbarro's is a good as (even "bad") sex. Just that if someone offered me a "slice" and I were hungry I wouldn't turn it down.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 20 October 2006 04:32 (seventeen years ago) link

the point was not that it's as good as sex. it's that like sex, pizza, even when not so great, is still not bad and you'll take it.

― sometimes my entire life be like DAMNNN! (tehresa), Friday, 20 October 2006 04:37 (seventeen years ago) link

if sbarro = sex, then it would be a mercy fuck.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 20 October 2006 04:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes, then, I'll accept not so great sex down to a mercy fuck. But like pizza, it's best while you're experiencing it not to think about all the great pizza you've eaten in your life.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 20 October 2006 04:47 (seventeen years ago) link

The ONLY places in Moscow you can just get a quick slice, so no complaints from me. (And they're surviving, whereas Pizza Hut is going belly up every couple of years.)

― i'll mitya halfway (mitya), Friday, 20 October 2006 06:37 (seventeen years ago) link

jon 100% OTM below:

The worst is when you're really hungry and get a ton of food from a semi crappy place... like Sbarro. After your first slice you make like 3 bites on the second and have no more desire to eat it.

-- Jonothong Williamsmang (SUCCUM...), October 19th, 2005.

and i think that i ate at that sbarro in euston station when i was last in the UK!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 20 October 2006 06:56 (seventeen years ago) link

That sbarro is now gone! (The only place I would eat at euston station)

― g00blar (gooblar), Friday, 20 October 2006 07:10 (seventeen years ago) link

In about 1982 a mall opened downtown and there was a Sbarro. I was just thankful that there was no "American" cheese on their pizza when I discovered it in 8th grade, because otherwise that shit definitely featured on any pizza sold in Minnesota.

― suzy (suzy), Friday, 20 October 2006 09:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh you fucking New Yorkers and your spoiled rotten ways. Here in Ohio, as far as non-hideous pizza goes, Sbarro is pretty much the only game in town. I wish I lived in a city with more restaurants.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:25 (seventeen years ago) link

there is simply no way in hell Sbarro is the best pizza in Ohio.

― a|ex (Pareene), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Indiana maybe.

― a|ex (Pareene), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:47 (seventeen years ago) link

it absolutely is NOT the best pizza in ohio.

i bought a drink from an airport sbarro the other day and the steam table offerings were: weird patties of crap bobbing in red or white liquid (chicken parm or chicken francese), toxic-looking meatballs, and dried-out slices that still managed to shimmer with grease. bleurgh.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 20 October 2006 12:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Whatever. Sbarro mushroom slice is great, 'cause they marinate the mushrooms in garlic and oil. Admittedly, you've got to hit up the right Sbarro at the right time, but there's no knocking it.

(I'm actually of the opinion that pizza purists hate fun. Pizza should be thought of as a plural noun. Pizzas in Italy, New York, Chicago, Sbarro, etc. are so different as to be considered different foods and not judged against each other. Sbarro is fast food, sure, but their 'pizza' is teh good)

― g00blar (gooblar), Friday, 20 October 2006 12:55 (seventeen years ago) link

WHAT? No, it's not. Even Pizza Hut pizza is better, and although I remember the Hut fondly through the kind veil of time and my then-inexperience with the pizzas of the world, I'm aware that it probably sucks.

― Laurel (Laurel), Friday, 20 October 2006 13:00 (seventeen years ago) link

it has nothing to do with purism and everything do with not liking undelicious food.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 20 October 2006 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link

One thing in their defense is that they have spinach in a number of their items. I think that's the only reason I've eaten there.

― You must be JOking! (section241), Friday, 20 October 2006 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Sbarro was the cause of one of the messiest, nastiest public toilet shitting experiences of my whole entire life.

Let me elaborate.

It started out like any Sunday really, sun shining, birds singing, morning newspaper open on the kitchen table. Then I ate at a shopping mall Sbarro. Suddenly I was seized with the urge to explosively blow feces out my anus, covering the inside of some mens room toilet and my ass cheeks with brown, yucky poop. I satisfied the urge by doing just that. Flushing such a work of art seemed a crime, so I moved to the next stall to clean myself up. My (and Sbarro's!) creation may still be seen at the 3rd stall from the left, southwest wing mens room, Twelve Oaks Mall, Novi, MI from 9AM to 9PM S-S.

― Logged Outt (loggedoutt), Friday, 20 October 2006 13:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Sbarro is not the same everywhere people. Places where they make it really thin and oily = CLASSIC; Thick with congealed cheese = DUD

― roc u like a § (ex machina), Friday, 20 October 2006 13:47 (seventeen years ago) link

you can't get diarrhoea from things you just ate so your shit can't be sbarro's fault

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 20 October 2006 15:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Sbarro was the cause of one of the messiest, nastiest public toilet shitting experiences of my whole entire life.

Let me elaborate.

ALWAYS A GOOD START

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 20 October 2006 15:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I really don't think Sbarro pizza is gross or anything. Even in NYC and NJ there are a lot of worse pizza places.

Pizza Hut is genuinely foul and revolting though.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, 20 October 2006 15:35 (seventeen years ago) link

i didn't mind pizza hut back in the day. but i haven't eaten at one in more than a decade, and the ones i've seen in NYC always look nasty beyond belief (they're usually paired with equally-vile looking tad's steaks and dunkin' donuts franchises).

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 20 October 2006 18:20 (seventeen years ago) link

the key to Sbarro, the ginormous cheap garlic knots.

A slice of pizza is as much food as a two garlic knots:

Two garlic knots: $1
One slice of cheeze pizza: $7 (ok ok, $3)

You know about their meh cheese. You do the math. (and you even get the knots wrapped in foil!)

― gwynywdd dwnyt fyrwr byychydd gww (donut), Friday, 20 October 2006 18:49 (seventeen years ago) link

good pizza at affordable prices with more consistent quality control than even the best ny pizza, provided you like sbarro's pizza, which i do

― the Adversary (but, still, a friend of yours) (Uri Frendimein), Friday, 20 October 2006 18:53 (seventeen years ago) link

kicks the shit out of pizza hut in ny, let's put it that way

― the Adversary (but, still, a friend of yours) (Uri Frendimein), Friday, 20 October 2006 18:54 (seventeen years ago) link

beats pizza hut? that's not saying much.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 20 October 2006 18:59 (seventeen years ago) link

you can't get diarrhoea from things you just ate so your shit can't be sbarro's fault

Exactly. This is a classic example of people believing they are correct. It is exactly this sort of arrogant and entitled attitude that has our public restrooms in such foul shape.

― the Adversary (but, still, a friend of yours) (Uri Frendimein), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:01 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost — It is saying no more than it implies! What other big pizza chains are there? Dominos? Little Cesar? Pizza Hut is the king of pizza chains and Sbarro's is better. Sbarro's is better than a lot of ny pizza places, too, whose quality often varies wildly according to time of day.

― the Adversary (but, still, a friend of yours) (Uri Frendimein), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Sbarro's is depressingly one of the only places in the whole of the Western Suburbs of Chicago where you can get an actual slice of pizza, and not some horrible Chicago-style thin crust party cut monstrosity with cardboard crust and crappy cheese.

Like, it's crap, but at least it's crap that vaguely resembles New York pizza. I *hate* Chicago-style thin crust more than anything in the goddamn world.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Seriously, people, CUT INTO SQUARES. SQUARES!

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:21 (seventeen years ago) link

mmm barnaby's

― gear (gear), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:21 (seventeen years ago) link

anyway you should make the drive to giordano's or something! no need to settle on sbarro.

― gear (gear), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Giordano's is always burnt, and is still Chicago-style.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Sounds like you're talking about Rocky Roccocco's to me.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:34 (seventeen years ago) link

(or is that just a midwest joint?)

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:34 (seventeen years ago) link

wtf giordano's is great!

― gear (gear), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:50 (seventeen years ago) link

i hate giordano's.

― otto midnight (otto midnight), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:51 (seventeen years ago) link

I just ate at Bravo! Lord how I wish it was Sbarro.

― the Adversary (but, still, a friend of yours) (Uri Frendimein), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Sbarro is only marginally worse than your typical Ray's/Original Ray's

― a regal trolley (aaron a), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:56 (seventeen years ago) link

actually i have ok memories of sbarro. it reminds me of the early '90s and failed attempts at meeting mallrat girls.

― gear (gear), Friday, 20 October 2006 19:59 (seventeen years ago) link

The Sbarro's in Garden State Plaza (an "upscale" mall) is really funny - they try to match the clientele by having shelves of fancy-looking bottles of mineral water and olive oil (none of which makes it into the food)

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, 20 October 2006 22:06 (seventeen years ago) link

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