I had the opportunity to eat at Casa Pizza, located at 1311 Magruder St. The restaurant offers a quirky mash-up of Greek and Italian cuisine. My feelings toward the experience are just as mixed as the options on their menu.

The restaurant rests in a quaint duplex building with the Timberwolf Apartments leasing office as their neighbor. On the outside, it seemed to blend in with the surrounding architecture, but the inside was full of character.

At first I thought the restaurant would be fancier, but the atmosphere was a bit more relaxed. Everything is painted blue, but not in a hospital room sort of way.

It was a nice twist eating Italian food while being surrounded by Greek décor. The walls had a wide strip of wallpaper featuring Greek houses in between sheets of blue. The radio chirped quietly in the background, playing what can be considered today’s hits, giving the restaurant a little bit of an Americanized feel.

My friend and I were helped right away by a waiter who was more awkward than friendly. Our drinks came out pretty quickly too, but when my second friend arrived, it was about 30 minutes before she was helped.

The restaurant wasn’t too busy. There were a few other people there and the number of empty tables outnumbered the amount of seats taken. No one came to take her food or drink order for a long time. While she was waiting, she made eye contact with our waiter, but he never assisted her.

Eventually, she was helped by a different waitress, and our waiter went on to help other patrons instead of us. The service improved a bit and our food came out shortly after.

My friends and I all ordered different variations of their spaghetti. I ordered it with  sausage one of my friends got it with shrimp, and the other ordered it with meat sauce.

The food I ordered tasted just as delicious as it looked in the picture on the menu. The pile of spaghetti on my plate was large enough to feed a few people, and I am pretty sure I ate enough for two people. The Italian sausage I ordered with my spaghetti was pleasantly spicy, but not in a way that my mouth was burning for an hour.

The waitress also provided us with a seemingly unlimited supply of garlic bread, which seemed toasted to perfection.

We stayed at the restaurant for a few hours, even when we had already finished and boxed our food.

It was a nice environment to talk and catch up with one another.

When it came time to pay, we walked up to the counter and the man who helped us was nice, exuding the mom-and-pop friendliness you’d expect at family-owned establishments.

Although my experience was mixed at best, I would still suggest this restaurant to anyone who is a fan of Italian or Greek cuisine.

The food was tremendous, the prices were not too high—and with the portion sizes as large as they are, you truly get what you pay for—and the restaurant rests on the fine line dividing fancy and overdressed from fast-food casual.

The restaurant is a different experience compared to some of the other mainstream restaurants and eateries, and it presents a nice change to the humdrum of eating the “same old, same old.”

While the service may have been lacking, it makes up for it in affordable, appetizing and unique food.

Julia Hettiger  may be reached at [email protected].