Macon restaurant got much better between visits

We visited Stoner’s Pizza Joint six months ago and things have definitely improved. The place seems cleaner, the staff is more cheerful and the pizza was consistently good across several types we tried.

The first time we came, loud head-banging music interfered with our enjoyment of our meal so much that I can’t even remember now what it tasted like. This time, we were able to enjoy the quality of our food as well as each other’s company. The staff helped us place an order that let us try a large number of different items for the best price, so we were able to try four different specialty pizzas, three flavors of wings and dessert.

The thick crust is similar to the chain restaurant Marco’s but Stoner’s sauce is much better, with seasoning more savory than sweet. We ordered two large specialty pizzas, one that was half meat and half deluxe, and one that was half Italian Steak and half White Chicken. The meat pizza comes with pepperoni, seasoned ground beef and crispy bacon, while the deluxe has onions, green peppers, mushrooms, sausage and pepperoni. The Italian Steak is a white pizza — meaning it has white sauce rather than red — with thin slices of grade A steak, peppers, onions and mushrooms. The White Chicken was the first to disappear, so even though I didn’t get to try it, I figure it was fantastic.

The chicken wings were large and saucy but didn’t go over as well as the pizza with our crowd. They have out-of-the-ordinary flavors such as Red Dragon, Ragin’ Cajun and Mango Habanero. So if you’re a wing aficionado and like them hot, this is the place for you. A 10-piece order is $9.89.

We did not like the club-like breadsticks and recommend against them. The taste was fine, but the texture is too chewy and tough to be enjoyable. We do recommend the cheesecake Stromboli, which takes a slice of cheesecake, bakes it in a crust and coats it in melted butter, cinnamon and sugar. It was so delicious that we made ourselves eat it even though we were stuffed by then.

Stoner’s also has salads, lasagna, Stromboli and calzones. If you tried them when they first opened last year, try them again. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

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This story was originally published July 19, 2017 at 1:40 PM with the headline "Macon restaurant got much better between visits."