Capozzi’s Decatur

I remembered my Bolognese with angel hair was like suuuuuperrrrrrr LOL big and spicy.
–from Jan. 2013 visit in Atlanta

OH MY PIZZA!!! This place has THE BEST PIZZA! LOVE LOVE! Thin crust, awesome sauce. I was so full but yet I got one more slice because it was so good! We went during the buffet that had slices, pasta and salad! Good stuff all around! Can’t wait to come back just for the ZA!

(I just realized that this was sitting in my ‘drafts’ and I’d never posted it. It’s several months old, so the reader should use discernment, as I have not been back since)
This place is mediocre at best. I’ve been before, live around the corner and wanted to give it another chance because of Scoutmob. Their tomato sauce is so very bland it’s almost embarrassing. I like thin crust pizza but theirs barely even has crust. It’s thin crust done wrong (and soggy). Ive tried some pasta dishes too (blaaaahh). Tried the calzone this time. Bland and too cheesy, not enough crust. I had the eggplant napolean appetizer, which was decent last time (the only thing I ever really liked there) this time it was a miss. Service is lacking as well. I also don’t enjoy walking into an empty neighborhood restaurant and being asked if I have a reservation.
The only redeeming thing about the experience is the piano man. He’s an Asian Tony Bennett. He plays standards and sounds a lot like said crooner:)
Otherwise, I’ve been to Capozzi’s a few times now and am always disappointed.

Pleasantly surprised to have found Capozzi’s. If you’re looking for good Italian food, but don’t want to go to an upscale restaurant or a chain, Capozzi’s fits the bill. It’s an authentic yet casual Italian eatery located next to the Nest, Bhojanic, Community Q, Pyng Ho, and Athens Pizza House.
The restaurant has a rustic but elegant look and feel to it. The entrance leads you into the main dining room which is a large open space. Booths run down either side with tables in the middle. One of the walls is brick, which goes along with the exposed ductwork above. Vintage chandeliers, light fixtures, artwork, and early 20^th century music give this place a lovely retro vibe. Aside from the large dining area, there’s also a separate room with bar and TV, outdoor patio in front, and bocce ball court outside in the back.
Capozzi’s menu consists of salads, heros (Italian sub sandwiches), parmigiana, ziti, pastas, and pizzas. Most of the entrees will set you back at least $ 10 – 15 per. Whole specialty pizzas are more expensive, though you can order by the slice in both Neapolitan and Sicilian styles. They’ve also got an all-​you-​can-​eat Italian lunch special weekdays for $ 9.50. Good deal.
I came here for a Monday night dinner (the restaurant was maybe ¹⁄₃ full) and tried the following:
Starter:
Fried Artichokes served with housemade garlic-​lemon-​thyme dressing and marinara
Pastas:
Mushroom Linguini (+ Sausage) — fresh sauteed mushrooms cooked in tomato sauce
Aglio e Olio (Garlic and Oil) Tortellini (+ Grilled Chicken) — fresh slices of garlic sauteed golden brown in olive oil
I’m not sure exactly how fresh the ingredients are, but in general, everything seemed A-​OK.
The Fried Artichokes came with two dipping sauces. The artichokes were lightly battered and fried, almost like Japanese tempura. One of the sauces was a housemade dressing, one of several the restaurant makes. It made this zesty dish even zestier. Not a bad app, but I grew tired of it after a handful of bites. Artichokes weren’t overcooked so the insides were still soft, juicy, and strong in flavor.
Both pastas were cooked al dente and came with slices of bread. I preferred the Tortellini over the Linguini for a couple reasons: (1) I enjoyed the tortellini’s smooth texture better and (2) I liked the garlic, oil, and pesto combo over the tomato sauce. The Mushroom Linguini came with plenty of sliced mushrooms and the Italian sausage was sliced into small pieces.
I thought the Aglio e Olio was pretty good. I love freshly chopped/​sliced garlic. The chicken came with pesto on top, which was a nice addition. Chicken breast was grilled and taste wasn’t all that great, but the tortellini made up for it. The pasta dishes here are quite filling and chances are you’ll have leftovers, especially if you order some starters.
The staff at Capozzi’s are friendly and inviting. The dry-​witted Heather S. was our server and she did an outstanding job.
Busy parking lot, but you shouldn’t have a problem finding a spot.

Woah, what a find! I’m always up for a good culinary experiment and I am totally stoked that my friends suggested we go here. I can see why it’s one of their favorites. I’m not even sure I have the vocabulary to describe why this place is so good. But the food was simply fantastic. And the bar looked like a place a regular might easily call home. Capozzi’s is comfortable. Inclusive. There’s a bocce court in back. I can see it would be easy to have an impromptu gathering here.
But the food! Man! I mean, I don’t even know where to begin.
We were able to do some sampling because of a half price appetizer special that runs before 6:30pm. (I’m not sure if that’s a daily thing or not.) There’s nothing «average or ordinary» about these apps. I mean, one might expect something like Risotto Croquettes to have something special going on, but the Fried Mushrooms and even the Fried Mozarella were several notches above «ordinary.» I don’t know how they did it. Is the secret in the breading? And the Assorted Breads appetizer? Let me tell you, grab the focaccia before it disappears. Holy mackerel, that stuff was good!
For dinner, I had a calzone with spinach & mushrooms. There was nothing run-​of-​the-​mill going on here, either. This thing seemed to have some sort of cheese sprinkled on the crust, and the filling was rich with what seemed to be a seasoned ricotta. And portion size? I am a behemoth and I was not able to finish this thing. Capozzi’s very friendly staff boxed everything up for me, even providing some extra marinara in a to-​go cup. Guess what was for breakfast the next day?
There were some raviolis on the table which looked fantastic (and disappeared rather quickly). In fact, everything on the table looked excellent, and not a negative comment was to be heard. Thanks to my friend, I took home a portion of Picatta. As a leftover, it was really good. I might have to try it as a fresh entrée next time. Holler if you’re coming with.

Menu is pretty big, which is great unless you’re indecisive like me, because if you are you’ll be there all day trying to pick one of the many options.
They have an awkward keyboard player, but hey, he takes requests. Plus side, the servers are very attentive.
The food is very Americanized Italian. Fried Ravioli with pink sauce is the best entrée i’ve had here. Sadly, no free bread: (My favorite thing is the Limoncello Cheesecake, it’s the main reason why i’d ever go back.
TIP: order the half portions. It’s TONS of food. Seriously. And, they’ll cut the entrée price in half + 2 dollars, which is a decent deal.

I ventured over to Capozzi’s for the first time because I had a Scoutmob (yay!). I had really been craving Italian, and I was really looking forward to this lunch. The service was friendly and very attentive. We started with the mozzeralla sticks, which were the perfect amount of crunchy and cheesy :-) For my meal I ordered the eggplant parm sandwich, and sadly I was disappointed. It absolutely lacked texture. It was gooey in a bad way– I think it was overcooked, because it was so soggy that I barely had to chew it. It was a soggy eggplant and cheese mush sandwich.
If Scoutmob revisits Capozzi’s, maybe I’ll give them a second shot and order a pizza instead.

A little more expensive than food quality warrants, in my opinion. On the flip side, the portions were enormous. I literally had leftovers for more than one meal.
The atmosphere was enjoyable though, with a live piano and singing as well.

Immediately after stepping into Capozzi’s for the first time it became readily apparent that the place has established a strong and loyal following of Atlantan suburbanites. Unfortunately, or possibly fortunately, I’m not one of them. In the end, most of the food was reasonable for the price point; however, several aspects of the dining experience were simply bizarre.
Food: The menu at Capozzi’s is comprised of standard Americanized «red sauce» Italian fare. During my visit, my dining partner and I started with the gorgonzola mac n’ cheese and an order of the garlic bread with mozzarella. The mac n’ cheese was exceptional, but the garlic bread was cold and unimpressive. For an entrée, I opted for the chicken parmesan, which I always order during a first time visit to an Italian restaurant so that I have a universal standard with which to compare to competitors. That being said, the dish was edible, but by no means memorable. They also charged an additional $ 3 for substituting butter instead of tomato sauce on the accompanying side of pasta; I’m still perplexed by that one. For dessert, I opted for a mini cannolo and the hazelnut gelato, both of which were flavorful.
Service: Pleasant and attentive. Upon entry, we were promptly greeted and the waiter arrived shortly thereafter. The turnaround time between order and delivery was exceptionally quick; we were ushered through drinks, appetizers, dinner, and dessert in less than an hour.
Atmosphere: I was less than impressed with the ambience of this place. Aside from the fact that there was a random man playing an electronic keyboard in the corner, the unfinished ceiling reeked havoc on the acoustics and made me feel like I was eating on the floor of a factory.
Cost: Reasonably priced, with the exception of the ridiculous up-​charge that I described previously. Appetizers are $ 7-​$ 9, salads are $ 5-​$ 10, heros are $ 9-​$ 10, and entrees are $ 14-​$ 19.
Other: Capozzi’s is the only Italian restaurant I’ve ever dined at, both domestic and abroad, where no complimentary bread was served prior to the meal. There was a small slice served with the entrée, but I would have preferred a bread basket over the random keyboard player.

After a long day at clinical, I had a mad craving for something creamy and heavy…
ENTER Capozzi’s linguini carbonara!
This hit the spot perfectly. Just to note, it wasn’t your classic carbonara, more like an alfredo with diced cubes of pancetta and peas but it was so fatty and delicious. A sprinkle of black pepper and parmesan and I was in heaven.
Pasta was cooked perfectly and I got the half portion which was more than enough for me and $ 8.
My friend got the ribeye special which was not good, meat was chewy and tough, and flavor was mild.
Also, got a slice of the neapolitan pizza which was tasty, greasy and thin. There was a family with a bunch of kids next to us who ordered two whole pizzas with toppings and they looked delicious. I was tempted to steal a piece as they were boxing them up but I already yelled at a girl at bruster’s last Friday so my scare-​one-​kid-​per-​week quota was already filled.
This place gets packed on weekend nights so make reservations. Service is friendly and attentive.

I came here for lunch one day. They had a buffet for like 6 bucks or something. They had a choice of two or three different pizzas, baked ziti, spaghetti with meat sauce, and salad with two different dressings to choose from. Overall, everything was good. I just wasn’t very impressed with the baked ziti. The cheese was a little on the rubbery size maybe. But the meat sauce was really good, and I really like the salad in particular. The cheese pizza was decent, but the meat kind they had was very good. I’d like to go back sometime and try more things.
The staff was really nice and attentive, but I’m curious how they are when it’s busy in there. The space turned out to be bigger than I thought it would be. Still rather cozy though.

Wheelchair accessible? Barely, and certainly not through the front entrance. The trick is to make several left turns until you end up in a rather poorly lit employee parking lot and park in the handicap space painted in faded paint. Go up to the back door (it’s the one at the end of the leftmost walkway) and wheel up from the back of the restaurant.
And I rated this place four stars? You must be wondering if I’ve taken leave of my senses. The people who run Capozzi’s are genuinely awesome, thoughtful, and accommodating, and I suspect if we’d asked them to literally bend over backwards they’d be pinching their Achilles heels in a matter of seconds. And their food is fairly priced and tastes wonderful — I thought I’d mention that since food is the most important part of a restaurant for some people.

Well lets start with the things I really liked:
the ambiance, the décor, the very friendly staff.
The pizza is ok, the pasta was not. We went twice, the first time hubby got a pizza and I had pasta with an pesto and pine nut ‘sauce’, the pizza was good but my pasta was soaked in the sauce so much that I drained more than half of the sauce off my plate and it was still too much! WTH?
The second time we just got pizza, and it was just ok. Being from NY I know good pizza and there are better places, ever OTP that serve it up. When I want good pasta, I’m going back to Mirko where they make it fresh!

Went here on a Scoutmob and the place was packed. Luckily the wait was only about 10 minutes before we were seated. Our server was a little flustered as he was running around taking orders. When our waiter arrived, he told us that he really liked this place, which is always nice to hear from your server, but then he went on to tell us that he was only going to be there for a few more months… A little awkward as he did not expound upon that comment.
I ordered the caprese salad and the eggplant napolean, both appetizers, as I was not too terribly hungry. Both were excellent. It turned out to be the right amount of food although I could have probably downed a roll… or two. They have bread service here, so you have to pay if you want any. My bf ordered a pasta dish, which was a hefty portion. I took a taste and found it a little bland. Overall experience was good but not great. We spent the night trying to flag our waiter down for drink refills.

I feel like a Soprano… the food portions are quite large, the wait staff is attentive (like a hovering Italian mama), and the prices are reasonable. I tried the fried artichokes with lemon mayonnaise (mmmm), a caprese salad — the mozzarella was perfect and the tomatoes were in season. I should not have ordered the pasta, because I never touched it — but I’ll eat it for lunch this week.

Good, not great. The menu offered a 6-​hour simmered tomato sauce, and when I ordered the chicken parm, I thought that would be the sauce on the pasta… instead I got a bland sauce that tasted like it was maybe cooked like 30 minutes. I asked, and apparently that was the same sauce they use on everything???
Other than that, my chicken was good, my friend loved her tortellini in vodka sauce. We got the focaccia because no complementary bread was offered, and it was more like pizza than focaccia… cheese, tomatoes and garlic.
Décor was REALLY cute.
Service was OK. Our waiter seemed really busy, but they were training a new girl, so maybe that problem will be fixed soon.
Probably won’t be back. There are too many great restaurants in Atlanta to go to this one, even if it is walking distance from my house.

I’ve seen this place a few times when I’ve gone to Athens Pizza to meet a friend who works in the area. Their banner says pizza buffet for $ 7.99 so that got my attention. Well, it was a bit misleading…
We walked in to an empty dining room, although there appeared to be some guys laughing in the bar. The host came out of the bar and asked if we wanted to order from the menu or go «on market» (which I guess is an upscale attempt at code for «buffet»). We did look the menu over but the best deal seemed to be the «market» since it included a drink (the $ 7.99 deal).
The «market» is a strange set up. There were two pastas (that day it was ziti in a bolognese sauce and angel hair with roasted garlic, oil you had to add yourself), a vegetable soup, and salad. The salad was finely shredded lettuce and three dressing to choose from. That was it. Weird.
Here comes the truly weird part. The sign is not really true. No pizza on the buffet. They tell you what three pizzas they have that day (on our day it was meatball, mushroom or cheese) and your server gets it for you in the kitchen. And the slices are TINY. When our server said the slices were small, she wasn’t kidding. They must slice a normal-​size slice into three slivers. To me, this comes off as an attempt to discourage true «all you can eat» pizza. They also bring it out on thin, single paper plates in contrast to the heavy dinnerware they use otherwise. What’s with that?
The food itself was okay, nothing exciting. The sausage in the bolognese sauce had a nice kick I was not expecting. The angel hair pasta with roasted garlic required oil and you had to add that yourself. It was quite bland. The pizza was decent, from what I could tell from the slivers of cheese I had. But nothing outstanding.
The actual restaurant is nicely decorated and our waitress was attentive enough. I did notice that the prices for entrees were a on the high side for lunch. Having tried the two pastas, if they are any indication, the prices don’t seem to match the quality of the food. And I am quite willing to pay for good pasta.
While Capozzi’s was okay, I think I’ll return to Athens Pizza, where I know I can actually get an entire slice of pizza on a real plate.

The last time I was at this location, it was a Mexican restaurant, which tells you how long it’s been. I had seen this place a few times, usually whenever I went to Bhojanic, and finally decided to give their lunch buffet a try. It was pretty good — not excellent, but inexpensive and satisfying.
When you see a sign that advertises all you can eat pizza, pasta, soup and salad, you might envision a long table covered with bubbling pies and food, but the reality was much different. The pastas are arranged in the back and consist of two vegetarian and one meat option. There was hot soup available and also a very limited salad option. Pizza was made fresh in the kitchen and they brought slices to your table at your request — pepperoni, onion or cheese. But, for $ 7.50 including a drink, you really can’t go wrong. The pizza was long and droopy, kind of New York style, and was pretty good.
Looking at everyone’s comments, I am anxious to try their a la carte menu the next time I come through.

Looks like someone might have read my last review. They painted the doors, and the pizza was light on oil and oregano this time. It’s good pizza, but it’s not $ 20 pizza.
I really enjoyed the eggplant parm, but found the mozz topping a bit thick and undermelted, and I prefer it slightly bubbly/​browned.
Mr. H got a big ol sausage hero, which was delicious, but I don’t like the upsell with the «I like mine with cheese, do you want some?» and $ 2 tacked on later.
Previous reviewers complained about the fries, but give me crisp and lots of skin, and I have no probs-​they were good.
Stellar mini canolis. Mmm. The tiramisu was fine, but I like mine soaked with espresso/​liquor (most places don’t serve it that way, but I favor it).
Still think that bread service is annoying. I’m all for not wasting food that people won’t eat, but calling it «bread service» is silly.
Cheers~

Ok. Being from Philly an knowing what true Italian food is like, this ain’t a bad knock off. Not great, but the 3 dishes I tasted, pasta, pizza & meatball sandwich weren’t too bad. The prices weren’t a killer for a sit down, and if you go early, you can bring out your rug rat. No kids menu, yet they will do half portions for the kiddy.
For a first time I didn’t hate it… The servers need to brush up on there «kid friendly»… Do Not put 3degree burning hot pizza in front of a 2 year old… An please clear the table of knives an forks first… Oh and please ask if I’d like a refill on the tea. That would be very cool…
*big smile*