By Zach Brown, Berks County Eats
The local pizza shop is a time-honored tradition. Every town has one. And growing up in Robesonia, our local spot was Tony’s Family Restaurant.
Ironically, we didn’t order much pizza when I was a kid. Instead, Tony’s orders usually consisted of hoagies for mom and dad and chicken fingers and fries for my brother and me.
In December, between family visits, Julie and I took the boys to my childhood stomping grounds for an easy, relaxed meal.
We arrived for an early dinner and had our choice of tables in the dining room. There were about a dozen to choose from, mostly rounds, but there were a couple of high-tops and a few rectangular tables pushed together for larger parties. I don’t remember what the room looked like 30 years ago, but I have to imagine it wasn’t much different, with tile floors and wood paneling on the bottom half of the walls.
I do remember what the outside of the building used to look like – white with a red tile roof and a bright yellow sign. A painting in the dining room perfectly captures what the building looked like before a renovation brought a stone patio and a matching stone facade.
Our server was attentive throughout, even after the dining room filled up. She took our order and had our drinks and a basket of garlic bread on the table quickly.
Next up were salads for Julie and me. They weren’t anything extraordinary, but I appreciated the presentation in the tall-sided bowl as opposed to the simple salad plate.
The meals arrived a short time later, and our server set them on the table behind us so we could prepare Lukas’ meatball for him. The single meatball was huge, so we had to cut it up for our two-year-old before he could dig in. But it was good, as was the sauce it came in.
The kids’ meal came with a side, so we got him some fries to go with it. When I was younger, I ate more fries from Tony’s than I would care to admit, and Lukas seemed to enjoy them as much as I did when I was his age.
For my meal, I ordered chicken Parmesan with spaghetti. It was a huge portion of chicken, much more than I could finish, but it was very good. The sauce is solid, not too sweet, but still with plenty of flavor.
There was also a nice-sized serving of spaghetti on the side. I finished that, and a little less than half the chicken, before taking the rest home to have as a chicken parm sandwich the next day.
My meal was one of the specials for the evening, a regular menu item but with a couple of dollars off, and the same was true for Julie’s lasagna. She got a heaping helping of layered noodles and cheese. The top layers slid off before the photo, but though it didn’t look pristine, it was still really good.
Jakob ordered the kids’ portion of spaghetti with one large meatball on top. His portion would probably have been enough for many adults. He devoured it, as eight-year-olds do, and still managed to sneak a few of his brother’s French fries.
At around $65 for our meals, the price felt reasonable, especially for the portions.
Four solid dinners with quick, friendly service, and a good price: it’s exactly the kind of meal I expect from a place like Tony’s. And I know there are plenty more places like it yet to discover.
BCE Rating
Food: Good
Service: Very Good
Ambiance: Good
Price: $$
Tony’s Family Restaurant
460 W. Penn Ave.
Robesonia, PA 19551
This story was contributed courtesy of Berks County Eats, a local resource for food and dining information. Berks County Eats is dedicated to promoting the dining scene in Reading and Berks County, PA, offering restaurant reviews, news, and events, and a comprehensive Berks County restaurant directory. You can read more at berkscountyeats.com.
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