Alicia's Micro Bakehouse — Restaurant in Birmingham

I really hate to write this negative review. When you first opened for business, our lives were instantly so much better. Finally, we thought, a decent authentic delicious pizza at a reasonable price, clearly made with a passion for ingredients by people who really care. It was great and we were regular customers.

Then you announced that you were opening a restaurant just down the road from us. Great news!

Well, maybe not.....

Last night I made our usual order and was told that you were very busy. This has never bothered us. We always expected that with a small and growing business, things take a little longer than your average pizza chain. Besides the resulting pizzas were always absolutely amazing and definitely worth the wait. I called at just before 7.30pm and was told I would have to wait until 9. 'No problem!' I said. 'They're worth the wait.'

At 9.45 my patience was wearing a little thin so I phoned to see if a mistake had been made or something. 'No mistake', I was told, 'just very busy.'. My pizza was still going to be another half an hour. Being told that, I made a complaint over the phone. Nearly 3 hours for 2 pizzas is ridiculous really. The person on the other end of the phone was apologetic, but said something like 'What do you want me to do about it?' Which is quite unprofessional. It's not my place to tell you what to do with your business. I don't know. I'm not running a pizza restaurant, you are. If you need to ask customers for advice on what to do in such situations then you are already in trouble. Maybe offer a discount?

So I got an apology and the person on the phone wasn't rude or anything just clearly busy and flustered. I may have been a little rude in making my complaint, but I apologised and accepted that my pizza was on it's way. As I have said we love these pizzas and even at nearly 3 hours they should be worth it.

At something like 10.10pm the doorbell rang and I jumped up to collect my lovely pizza. And here's the final insult: the pizzas are about 30% smaller than before, AND when the delivery guy told me the price they are now more expensive! £20 for two pizzas. I have been ordering the same two pizzas (more or less) since we started using Alicia's, and the price has been increasing steadily from about £15 up to £18-something the last time I ordered. The last time I ordered was just before the restaurant opened, so in that time (a few weeks) the pizzas have gotten smaller and more expensive still.

I understand that premium pizza with authentic ingredients comes at a cost and the price wouldn't be an issue if the pizzas weren't smaller and taking nearly 3 hours to arrive. The pizzas were delicious, as always, but that just makes the whole thing more disappointing.

So here's the conclusion to all this waffle: you have lost a customer. Is is so disappointing I can't tell you. We were your most enthusiastic fans, telling everyone we knew and recommending you as the best pizza in Birmingham. I hope that this is just a blip. Maybe you ordered the wrong size delivery boxes. Maybe its all just teething issues. I hope so. But I don't know how I'll ever find out. I can't justify a 3-hour wait for smaller, more expensive pizzas, no matter how delicious they are.

Italian food is characterised by simplicity and generosity. This is what made Alicia's so authentic. Something has gone wrong and now, for us at least, they have lost this authentic spirit. Taking nearly 3-hours is chaos not simplicity. Making them smaller and more expensive is miserly not generous. A...

We wanted to love it because friends of ours said it was really good. The pizza was decent, not the best I’ve had, but certainly still decent.

But the environment and rushed service is why I gave it a low rating. The first waitress asked 2 minutes after we sat down what we wanted to drink and eat. We had hardly looked at the menu so we asked to give us a few minutes and then she came back just a few minutes later to ask what we wanted. We felt very rushed. We also overheard her telling the next table their reservation would be up soon and other people would be arriving (the other people never came).

We were seated in a temporary corner staring at a concrete wall with a red canopy above our heads. It was a very intimate and quiet corner. I appreciate they’ve had to create temporary outdoor spaces to allow additional seating but it wasn’t ideal.

We had a super drunk couple seated very close to us watching a football match on their phone on very loud. We know they were drunk because they kept talking about how drunk they were! They commented/shouted throughout the match. It led to a bit of an argument when we asked if they could be a bit quieter because we couldn’t hear each other talk. The argument shouldn’t have happened because the staff should have intervened prior. We were celebrating a special occasion and it ruined our night. Outdoor background music would have helped to drown them out.

A different waitress approached our table because she overheard the argument. She was very friendly and apologised on behalf of them once they left. She brought us a dessert which was a nice gesture.

We appreciated the dessert, but based on our experience, we...

Yet another disappointing evening at Alicia's! Despite making my reservation 2 weeks ago we were greeted with no table available for us. Fortunately we didn't have to wait too long before being seated. We ordered our drinks that were brought to us after much insistence by us, by a very ' run off her feet' waitress who was doing her best. We had lots to talk about with each other and then realised after 30 mins we had no menus. We eventually got some and one hour after our arrival our orders had not been taken. A couple of us went to order and saw the long list of pizzas still to be made and sent out. We asked how long we would be waiting for our pizzas if ordered now? The chefs were highly defensive, not at all apologetic in their response and thought we might be better eating somewhere else. We went back to our party to share this info and so left to go for a curry. The young waiter was extremely apologetic and was clearly embarrassed at the situation he found himself in. After leaving, the waitress followed us up the road, calling out to us to wait and said as a result of our actions she was going to get the sack. Poor show Alicia's. Your waiting staff are the best thing you've got! Once again two of our party went back to share our concerns and total disappointment. They were assured that the waitress would not be sacked but were unable to do anymore about it at her insistence! WE WILL NOT BE RETURNING! I suspect an early evening booking might be preferable. Not...