This is a restaurant review, it is the author’s opinion based on their experience at a given date and time. Readers should know that their experience may vary. I was not compensated by anyone for writing this review. I will be submitting my receipt for partial reimbursement from my employer due to being in the Wisconsin Dells for work.
I’m on the road for my day job, and to be honest, was not really interested in leaving my hotel room to go grab dinner. This is a little odd for me because I enjoy the different dining options that Wisconsin Dells has to offer; however, sometimes I just need to take it easy. With two young kids at home, its rare that I get quiet time to myself.
Looking around my hotel room, I found menus for Pizza Pub and Bobbers Island Grill. I decided to go with Pizza Pub, mainly because I could order online.
Pizza Pub Menu
Pizza Pub’s full menu is listed on PizzaPub.com. They have traditional appetizers that you would expect to see in Wisconsin. Options range from Garlic Bread ($5.99) to Cheese Curds ($9.99). They offer salads, burgers, hot sandwiches, spaghetti, dinners, and pizza.
The online menu has pictures of some of the food items; however, not all items are pictured.
Pizza Pub Ordering
Ordering from Pizza Pub was extremely easy. Users have to create an account and are able to store multiple addresses. I selected the items that I wished to order, and specified any options. I ordered a Meatball Sub ($11.59) and an order of Chicken Wings ($11.99). When selecting the Chicken Wings, I had to specify between traditional or boneless, sauce (Hot, BBQ, Sweet Chili, Teriyaki, or Plain), and Dressing (Ranch, Blue Cheese, BBQ Sauce, Hot Sauce, Honey, Honey Mustard, Garlic Parmesan, Sweet Chili, or No Dressing). If you were curious, I selected Boneless BBQ Wings with a side of ranch.
Delivery from Pizza Pub
I placed my order on a week night, right in the middle of the traditional dinner time (6pm). The system stated my order would take approximately 40 minutes. This estimate was pretty close, as I believe the food showed up around 35 minutes after it was ordered.
The driver came was courteous, and my order was stored in an insulated pizza delivery bag. As the system had previously explained I had to sign the credit card slip, and was able to provide a tip at that time. Pizza Pub offers free deliver, with a minimum $10 order, so outside of taxes, there were no additional fees.
I was disappointed that my order was not accompanied with silverware. It is kind of hard to eat boneless chicken wings without silverware, and only two napkins.
Pizza Pub Food
The meatball sub was served with french fries and a pickle. Unfortunately, the first bite, a handful of french fries, left a lot to be desired. The fries were a little warmer than room temperature, were chewy and were under salted. At first I wasn’t sure if there was any salt on them; however, I did find a couple of granules of salt. I did receive a small bag that had salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and two napkins. While I was able to add salt to my desired taste, most people expect french fries to have a base seasoning of at least a little salt.
Luckily, the meatball sub did not follow down the path of the french fries. On the menu it was described as “Homemade Meatballs Covered with Our Homemade Meat Sauce, Topped with 100% Real Mozzarella Cheese.” It was obvious the meatballs were homemade. They were moist with a nice Italian seasoning, and had a mixture of meats. The four meatballs were served on a bun with marinara sauce and cheese. There was a section of the bottom of the bun that was soggy, and a potion of the cheese had fallen off of one half of the sandwich and melted together, by the time it was delivered.
I originally thought that they forgot the pickle; however, I eventually found it buried under the fries.
The second container was the order of Chicken Wings. According to the menu, the Chicken Wings were desicribed as “10 Traditional or 12 oz. Boneless (Hot, BBQ, Sweet Chili, Teriyaki or Plain) Served with Celery Sticks & Choice of Dressing”. As stated above, I went with Boneless BBQ Wings with a side of ranch.
It was nice to see that the celery was wrapped up in wax paper to keep them from getting covered in the BBQ Sauce. I was concerned that the container was plastic and was not insulated. This concern played out as the chicken wings were warm, but not as hot as I would have hoped or expected. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the chicken and the fact that it wasn’t chewy or dried out (Sorry, I didn’t want to use the word “moist” twice in one post…). The BBQ sauce was a little tangy and had very minimal heat. In case you were curious, the celery was crisp.
Overall Impressions of Pizza Pub Delivery
Overall, I wasn’t too impressed with the quality of the delivery food that I ordered from Pizza Pub. The meatball sub and the chicken wings were good, but really needed to be a little warmer. In addition, the time that it took to deliver the food resulted in part of the bun becoming soggy, and the french fries becoming chewy. However, I do believe that if I had ordered the same food in the restraurant I would be writing a completely positive review. The food had good flavor, and I could tell from the meatballs and chicken wings that quality ingredients were used.
I know some people might be thinking this is slightly harsh, since the issues were related to the delivery process; however, as a restaurant that advertises its delivery service I expect that they have addressed the issues of keeping the food warm through proper storage containers and delivery processes.
With all that said, in the future I’d skip the delivery from Pizza Pub and go to the restaurant instead.
Shipwrecked Brewpub, located in Egg Harbor, was heavily damaged by an electrical fire on August 20th of this year. Fifteen fire departments battled the blaze with support from EMTs and the American Red Cross. The building was later determined to be a total loss.
On Saturday, I attended the Tomah Rotary Beer and Sausage Fest in Tomah, Wisconsin with a group of friends. Leading up to the event we thought it sounded like a good time, but didn’t know what to expect. It turns out, based on conversations that I had with others at the event, that we were not alone in not knowing what exactly to expect.
While the doors opened at 4:00pm, we decided to arrive around 4:15pm, so we didn’t have to stand in line. This did mean that we sacrificed our ability to get a “Klaus Beer Tasting Glass”. These glasses, pictured on the left, were offered to the first 100 people through the door.
Each brewery had a table with their offered brews chilling in a tub. All of the beers were poured from bottles or cans, none were on tap. A sign offered limited information about each beer, mainly the brewery, name of the beer, logo of the beer, and the type of beer it was (IPA, Pilsner, etc.)
They had three styles of sausage at the event. They had Brats, Italian Bombers, and Smoked Polish Sausage, all from Klement’s Sausage Company. While they did have small samples of each available, the main purpose appeared to get you to buy the sausages for $3 each.
Overall I thought the Tomah Rotary Beer and Sausage Fest was a great event worth the $20 entry fee. The parts of the event that I was disappointment in, was based on my expectations, which could have been avoided if the event was marketed differently. Based on what we experienced, it was a beer festival. I think it was a little bit of a stretch to add the “and Sausage” part to the title. As a beer festival, it had a great selection and was well priced. I think this may be how the organizers saw the event as well based on a reply to feedback about the sausage not being included in the entry fee, “and our entry donation was about half of what other beer festivals are getting for entry.”