Antonio's Italian Pizza Kitchen (CLOSED)

NOTE: Antonio's closed in 2016.

Located at 4648 West Market Street in Greensboro, Antonio’s Italian Pizza Kitchen offers pizza, subs, pasta and more for lunch and dinner. There are pizza, pasta, and wine deals on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays respectively.

I’ll always have a soft spot for classic red sauce Italian, and Antonio’s certainly fits the bill. Everything from the name to the copious usage of Italian flag colors to the red checkered tablecloths is predictable, but there are actually quite a few surprises here.

To start, the menu is surprisingly varied. You’ll find all the usual suspects (mozzarella sticks, New York-style pizza, spaghetti and meatballs, etc.) here, but Antonio’s also offers everything from salmon and veal dishes to lite and gluten-free fare to sandwiches that will make you look twice. Case-in-point: the Turkey Holiday (roast turkey, turkey bacon, and provolone with cranberry aioli) lets you experience Thanksgiving year-round.

Antonio’s also has two separate entrances. One leads to the dining room, the other to a counter for takeout orders. I opted for the latter for my first visit, which gave me a glance of the kitchen. If nothing else, Antonio’s appears adequately staffed.

The food, however, proved to be uneven. The Boom Boom Porchetta (roasted pork, sautéed spinach, and provolone with pesto mayo) sounded great on paper, and indeed the well-herbed meat delivered on flavor, but the bread was slightly burned and the sandwich was on the greasy side. An order of fried calamari was fair. While they did well to avoid overcooking (rubbery squid is a friend to no one), the breading could have been crispier.

These inconsistencies aside, it is hard to argue with the pricing here. My sandwich was $8 and included a salad, and many lunch-sized pastas run about the same. There are also $7.77 lunch combos that include drinks.

I’ve yet to try the pizza here, and that alone is worth a return visit. So far, however, Antonio’s has all the makings of a once-in-a-while spot: too uneven to rely on regularly but too interesting and affordable to dismiss entirely.

7.5/10