Pizza Inn — Restaurant in New South Wales

I worked at this establishment for about 2–3 years before quitting recently, and I feel it’s important to share my experience. Most of the reviews here are accurate, especially regarding the owner/manager—she’s the woman with tattoos on her arm. Unfortunately, she’s an extremely poor manager, as many have pointed out.

She has no regard for her staff or the restaurant itself. She doesn’t listen to anyone, refuses to admit when she’s wrong, and treats people with a sense of superiority. What stood out to me the most was how she would frequently yell at female staff members, creating a particularly hostile environment. Her mother, who was the second owner and worked in the back, had a similar attitude. On rare occasions, they could both be pleasant, but most shifts were unbearable due to their behavior.

She claims to encourage staff to ask questions if they don’t know how to do something, but in practice, she would get mad at us for asking. I personally tried to explain to her that I don’t learn well when being yelled at, and that I would retain information better if she explained things calmly. Unfortunately, she didn’t listen and continued to yell, which only made it harder for me to remember things due to my ADHD. I’d understand if I kept forgetting after being told gently, but that was never the case. I think I can speak for most of the staff when I say that yelling didn’t help anyone learn—it just created more stress.

The owner also lacked any sense of proper staffing—on busy nights, we were often understaffed, and on quiet nights, she would overstaff. Even when there were too many of us and we were ahead of schedule, she wouldn’t allow anyone to talk. However, she had no problem chatting with whoever she wanted, showing clear double standards.

One of the biggest issues was her complete inability to manage timing. Customers constantly complained that their orders, especially pizzas, took much longer than the expected delivery or pickup times. Rather than address these concerns herself, she would have us tell customers that the “manager is busy.” Since she was often making pizzas due to the poor staffing, she never took calls. This left us to deal with the angry customers, and we were often yelled at when they demanded to speak to her but were told she couldn’t come to the phone. There were nights where I held back tears because of the amount of yelling I had to endure. She often tells reviewers to “call up the restaurant and ask for the owner,” but in reality, she was rarely available to talk on the phone and wouldn’t let us handle the situation ourselves.

Working there took a serious toll on my mental health, especially my anxiety. She constantly made me feel like I was doing everything wrong, and the atmosphere was so tense that it became difficult to even make it through a shift without feeling overwhelmed.

Basic things like bathroom breaks were also a problem. She would get upset if we spent more than three minutes in the bathroom, assuming we were on our phones. I’m not even sure if that’s legal, but it certainly wasn’t appropriate. On top of that, the temperature in the restaurant was unbearable. We were constantly sweating, and even when I asked simple questions because I didn’t know something, she would get mad at me for it.

As for me, I had multiple instances where I didn’t receive my paycheck, despite repeatedly asking her to send it to my email. The stress was overwhelming at times, leaving me wanting to walk out myself. The restaurant’s condition was just as concerning. It wasn’t uncommon to see rats and lizards, and the cleanliness standards were shocking. Rules and procedures constantly changed, and staff were blamed for not being able to keep up. In short, working here was a deeply unpleasant experience. While I could go on, I think it’s important for future employees and customers to be aware of the reality...

Pizza inn pizza is great and that’s about where it ends. The wait times are far too long, customer service is poor and management is unbelievably bad. We ordered for delivery but were told it would take 1.5hr minimum for our delivery to arrive so opted to do pick up. We were told it would take 40 mins at least. Keeping this in mind (and that it was Mariners grand final night in Gosford) we arrived at the restaurant an hour after placing the order. Our order wasn’t even in the oven at this stage. With an 8 month old and a hungry 3 year old in tow we were continually told a few more minutes but still waited 30 more minutes. When asking for an update I was told by someone behind the counter that those were our pizzas in the oven and that they’d only be a few more minutes. While waiting I saw one of our pizzas get taken out of the oven and sent out to the restaurant floor. I mentioned this a staff member behind the counter who said it wasn’t our pizza and we eventually got what we thought were our pizzas. Only to arrive home and the vegetarian pizza was a meat supreme instead and inedible for the vegetarian. We called the restaurant and asked immediately to speak to the manager and were asked what it was concerning. We asked for a refund and were told that the manager was busy. In the staff members defence they did go to the manager to ask for her assistance but were sent back to the phone with the option of giving us a credit only for the incorrect pizza. After our entire experience we would not be ordering pizza from Pizza Inn again and the lack of communication with the manager was infuriating. Having managed and owned businesses for 20 years this is unacceptable in my opinion for a manager not to deal with a complaint from a customer and instead hide behind this poor teenage staff member. We again asked to speak to the manager because we did not want a credit but wanted a refund for the inedible meat pizza. The staff member said the manager was busy cooking pizza and couldn’t come to the phone but again went to her to ask what could be done. The staff member then came back saying the manager would get a new pizza delivered asap and also give us back the cost of the pizza in cash on delivery which was an acceptable outcome. It should not have taken this long to get to this outcome though and an apology and a refund should’ve been offered by the manager herself immediately. I find it hard to believe that a manager would hide behind a teenage staff member and not deal themselves with a customer complaint. While in the store I witnessed multiple customers upset about not getting their food in time and the manager was no where to be seen to deal with this and again allowing her staff to attend to angry customers. I saw a staff member who looked close to tears. Speaking to you, the manager and the owner of a business, you should be front of house dealing with your customers directly and not putting your poor staff through that while hiding in the kitchen. You should be managing the problems in your own restaurant. I feel sorry for the young staff members who work there. Pizza is fantastic and it’s disappointing that bad management is ruining what could be a great...

A large group of us went to the restaurant for dinner for my daughter's birthday. Because of my dietary requirements I am not able to eat the usual pizzas offered on an "all you can eat" night, so I asked if I could order my own pizza. At first was told I would have to sit at the table and wait until the end of the night (when everyone else in the restaurant had eaten) for me to receive my pizza. I questioned this and the owner subsequently agreed to make my pizza. I was charged $10 more than everyone else even though it was not going to be an "all you can eat" deal for me, and also I didn't want any meat toppings but instead requested vegan cheese. But I was OK with that and didn't consider it an issue.

There was no salt and pepper on the table, and as we had had to collect our own plates, cutlery, napkins, water bottles and glasses, I assumed that what looked to be a pepper shaker on the counter was for customers to use too. I picked it up and asked if it was OK if I took it to my table. The owner rudely replied with "Please don't touch my stuff". I explained that it was an honest mistake and that usually salt and pepper is present on the table and that since I needed to collect our other things I assumed it was self-service too. She said that "no one puts salt and pepper on pizza" and if it was for customers to use there would be a sign there stating "For customer use". I replied that I had had to collect our other things and that there was no such sign displayed for those things. She refused to acknowledge that there was any ambiguity and claimed that it was a food safety issue as I had "reached over into her food prep area and touched her stuff". However as the photo shows the shaker is clearly sitting on the very edge of the top counter -  (where items such as napkins, cutlery and drinking straws are very often placed for customer access), so obviously I didnt "reach over" into anything. She wouldn't give the slightest concession or even acknowledge that there was a nicer way of addressing the issue with me, and even blamed me for everyone's pizzas being late because I was taking up her time discussing it with her (the pizzas were painfully slow to come out long before any such conversation occurred).

If the owner had acknowledged even the slightest bit of ambiguity or shown any understanding I would have immediately let it go. However I felt very unwelcome and undervalued because of the way I was treated. Reading her responses to other poor reviews it appears the owner is very defensive and unable to take any criticism. The owner blames many issues on being short-staffed. I only hope she doesn't treat her staff the way she treated me. Unfortunately I won't be returning nor recommending...