I was on the North side of town this evening and decided to give Tony’s another try. I’m glad to report that the spaghetti and meatballs combo special I had were very good this time. The sauce was nice and thick, with no watery mess at the bottom of the plate. The sauce also tasted better than I remember from last time and it had lots of meat in it.
The meatballs were good – but still on the dense side. I received 3 with my combo meal which was plenty.
Lastly, they still serve a huge pile of garlic bread with each meal.
I didn’t have a sandwhich so can’t personally vouch for any change on that front.
Eating at Tony’s is a good value and I’m glad to see that the sauce situation has improved a lot since my last visit. I agree with the comment from Kim that is it indeed better than Fazoli’s any day.
I’m certain I’ll be back now when I’m in the mood for some pasta & meatballs.
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Original Review 1/25/2008
Good friend Kelly suggested Tony’s for lunch, so the usual crew (Steve & Danny) plus good friend David headed up North to Tony’s for some spaghetti and meatballs. Tony’s claims to be “Home of the Family Feast” and indeed they have a menu item called – Ozark Family Feast which is 1/2 gallon of spaghetti, a 16″ loaf of garlic bread, a 16″ sub sandwich and curiously only one large beverage. Tony’s just opened this month (Jan 2008) and is located in a spot on Division just West of National which has housed several other eateries over the years.
Steve, David and I ordered the spaghetti special (plate of spaghetti, garlic bread and drink for $4.50) we all added a side of 5 meatballs for an additional $2.29 bringing the lunch total to $7.35. Danny ordered the 16″ Gondola Sub Deluxe ($4.89). Since Danny and I wanted to try both the spaghetti and a sandwich we decided to split our selections. Once nice touch was that they had free cinnamon bread for you to snack on before or after your meal.
First the spaghetti. You receive a good portion of spaghetti cooked correctly on a foam plate with Tony’s red sauce on top. The red sauce was just regular spaghetti sauce, it tasted ok, but nothing really special. The sauce was on the runny side and there was a puddle of liquid on the bottom of the plate. I like my sauce thicker than this. The garlic bread was also ok – we all decided that it should be toastier and have some crunch to it – instead it was warm and soft. You get LOTS of garlic bread with your meal – the menu states that the meal comes with 1/2 loaf of garlic bread and they are not kidding. No one finished all of their bread. The meatballs were good sized and fairly dense and had a pretty good flavor – but not the best I’ve had. One additional comment on the meatballs – they menu indicates that they are ‘spicy’ – we detected no spiciness to them.
After Danny and I finished splitting the spaghetti – we were getting full and were wondering how we were going to eat the 16″ of sub sandwich that was sitting in front of us. David and Steve managed to eat all of their spaghetti and meatballs – only leaving a slice or two of bread (note that they were complaining about eating too much). The amount of food you get for the price is good here at Tony’s.
Danny and I both thought that the Gondola Sub Deluxe was disappointing. My search for a good Italian sandwich in this town continues. It was just ham, salami and cheese and a bit of lettuce on Tony’s bread – it reminded me of what I could make at home – it is a large sandwich however and we each only got through half of our half (I guess that would be ¼ of a whole – right?). Also supplied was mayo and yellow mustard in those little packets that are hard to open. One other curious thing about this sandwich is that they put a nice white cheese (provolone?) on it as well as yellow American cheese. Why the American cheese – I have no idea – it is not something that belongs on this type of sandwich. The Tony’s bread is pretty good – a bit one the sweet side and soft. They indicate that they bake it themselves and you can see the loaves ready for use on a rack.
You order at the counter and they bring you your food quickly. You get your own drinks at Tony’s from the soda fountain.
Tony’s has a pretty large menu of your standard pasta items as well as various hot and cold sandwiches. They seem to specialize in the Family Feast – so you can get a lot of food for a pretty good price. I will not likely be back – it is too far from home and not special enough for me to make the trip.
834 E Division – (417) 864-8669
This place is a pretty good value, I’d say. You WILL be full by the time you have consumed half a loaf of garlic bread. I think I ate all of mine, Bob, by the way.
If this place were closer to where I hang out most of the time, I might go again if I were very hungry. However, it’s pretty far northeast in town for me, so like Bob I may not return in the near future.
There was one particularly “outstanding” feature of this place, though, that I must mention. The combination of the meatballs and the half ton of garlic bread gave me, without question, the most foul-smelling belches I have ever produced. I am not ashamed to admit this, because I consider it something of a public service. If this appeals to you, you should really go try this place out and see if you experience the same thing. If it offends you, well… first of all, you’re a pansy, and second of all . . . you’ve been warned.
Your review is from January. I strongly recommend trying the place out again now. I was there when they first opened and have also been back recently and you are correct in what you say, but that was in January. The sauce is no longer too runny and you must not have tried the right kind of sub. I had a turkey sub with onions and italian dressing and it was really good. You also HAVE to try the homemade lasagna. I have tried most of the things by now and there is a lot of good stuff. Kind of crowded parking lot though. All in all a place i go back to.
Being curious of this place for months now and after reading the other reviews I thought that it was time to give Tony’s a try. For $5.69 tax inc. I ordered the special – spaghetti and 1/3 of and italian beef sub and a drink. My sub was so big and thick full of real meat and tons of melty gooey cheese on yummy bread I didn’t even need my spaghetti of course I ate it as well. For a plain meat sauce the spaghetti wasn’t bad better than Fazolis any day. the sub was awesome though and came with extra sauce for dipping. I will go back and bring others with me. Please forgive the confused employees though. The small space is enough to confuse any busy person so give it a try. they do take Visa and Mastercard which is a plus for us who do not carry cash
Glad you gave it another try. I was just there yesterday and had the Italian Beef. It is not like an Italian Beef you would get in Chicago but still very tasty. I always have to buy a loaf of bread and take it home with me.