By Zach Brown, Berks County Eats
You would think that after living in Wyomissing for 15 years, Julie and I would have tried everything our hometown has to offer. But there are a few spots that, for whatever reason, we haven’t visited.
We can now cross Carlo’s Italian Restaurant off that list.
The restaurant opened a decade ago, taking over the space at 1147 Penn Ave. Before that, the location was home to Fausto’s, one of our favorite sandwich shops at the time.
Carlo’s has one of the more awkward storefronts in the region. There is off-street parking in front of the building, but it’s extremely limited — four spaces, at best, on the driveway that goes in front of the restaurant and the adjacent hair salon. And you have to park nose-to-tail so there’s a
chance you’ll have to back out onto Penn Avenue if you’re the tail-end car.
But we were fortunate to pull up to the front when we picked up our takeout order. There was one table where a person sat enjoying their dinner, while the remaining tables were open.
The dining room is small — take-out and delivery obviously being the main business for the small pizza and sub shop.
Everything was ready to go when we got there, so we were in and out in no time, pulling out of the driveway as someone else pulled in to take our space at the front.
For my meal, I ordered a meatball Parmesan sandwich. The meatballs were on the smaller side, so they fit well into the hard roll. The sauce was a little on the sweet side; otherwise, it was good, but nothing remarkable.
I had a handful of fries with mine as we split an order among the four of us. The fries were skin-on, fresh-cut style, when I was expecting more of a fast-food fry. I thought they were very good and with the size of the sandwich, I didn’t need many of them to fill me up.
Julie decided on something simple — a hoagie wrap — which came with a side of chips. (Fries were available for a $1 upcharge). She enjoyed it, getting the essence of the Italian sandwich with the lighter wrap instead of a roll. And she set her chips aside for later so she could enjoy some fries with us.
Originally, I was going to order slices for the boys, but it was more cost-effective to buy a medium pizza and keep the leftovers.
We got it with half cheese (for Lukas) and half pepperoni (for Jakob). The pizza was good, though there wasn’t anything special about it. The crust wasn’t too thick or thin, and neither the sauce nor the cheese really stood out. But the boys were happy, and that was the most important thing.
We spent about $45 for our meal — about $10 each for Julie’s wrap and my sandwich, just under $15 for the pizza, and then $5 for the fries (plus tax). Slices would have been close to $4 each, so a six-slice medium pizza was the right call.
And while Mama’s will probably remain our go-to, I would order from Carlo’s again, whether for pizza or sandwiches. It may not have been fancy, but it was solid and exactly what we were looking for.
BCE Rating
Food: Good
Ambiance: Fair
Service: Very Good
Price: $
Carlo’s Italian Restaurant
1147 Penn Ave.
Wyomissing, PA 19610
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.
