Crust & Crumble Pizzeria — Restaurant in Asbury Park

I truly hate to be critical of this restaurant. My wife and I are both vegan, and any restaurant that has an entire vegan menu automatically gets a big nod from us, considering that most places don't even offer a single vegan option. On top of that, the two servers that helped us were exceedingly friendly and accommodating. And, the portions are generous.

We are not the kind of fussy restaurant eaters who complain about every little thing that might not be perfectly to our liking. However, contrary to the many positive reviews we read, the food here was not only extremely disappointing, but also didn't match the descriptions on the menu. Our disappointment was compounded by the fact that we drove 90 miles round trip from Princeton. The details......

My wife ordered the pasta carbonara. She took one bite of it, looked up at me, and said - This is awful, I can't eat it. It was heavily seasoned with turmeric and seemed more Indian flavored than Italian. It was supposed to have peas and butternut squash. There might have been some pureed squash in the sauce, but there were definitely no peas. We called the waitress over, and she took it back with no issue, offering a replacement. My wife then ordered spaghetti with vegan meatballs and marinara. When it finally arrived, after I was already half-finished, it was basically a bowl of dry spaghetti with meatballs on top and a couple of spoonfuls of sauce around the meatballs. The meatballs were tasty and very beef-like, but that was about the extent of it. She asked for some extra sauce, and they brought a small bowlful. It seemed like it was from a jar. At that point, she had lost her appetite, so she nibbled a little, and that was it for her,

I had ordered the pasta primavera, which is typically served as a pasta with oil or butter and a mix of tomatoes, other vegetables, and perhaps some pieces of chicken or seafood tossed in. According to the menu, it was supposed to have vegan chicken, tomatoes, pesto, mushrooms, artichoke hearts and broccoli. It came out basically looking like pasta in red sauce, with a bunch of stuff mixed into it. I didn't say anything, but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting. The best I can say about the red sauce is that it was palatable. The vegan chicken was pretty good, and there was a nice amount of mushrooms and artichokes, but as I was eating, it occurred to me that there was no broccoli. I called this to the waitress's attention, and she apologized and said she would bring me some. I took a bite of it when it arrived and it had a strange chemical taste and was also very undercooked. I forced myself to eat a few pieces, but it was pretty revolting. At this point, so much had gone wrong that i chose not to say anything, although I did also realize that the pesto was nowhere to be found either. I was hungry, I was paying for it, so I ate.

Did we just have bad luck, come on a bad night, order the wrong dishes? Or was this the norm? Unfortunately, we will not try our luck here again, and based on our experience, we would advise any prospective patrons not to have high expectations. But thanks to the establishment for making an effort with the vegan options, and to the gracious servers who made the best of a bad situation. If not for the service, I would have...

I was incredibly disappointed with our experience. I called ahead to place our order, letting the staff know we planned to dine in, as we were short on time. We arrived 15 minutes later, but our pizzas hadn’t gone into the oven yet. Ok, no problem.

While we waited at one of their completely empty outdoor tables, we were eventually handed the pizzas—only to be told we weren’t allowed to sit and eat there. I explained, as I had on the phone, that we were dining in and just trying to save time by ordering ahead. Despite this, we were still not allowed to stay, even though there were plenty of empty tables both inside and out.

In the end, we had to sit on the curb next door to eat. My kids were stunned, and so was I. It felt like extremely poor management and terrible customer service. Truly a disappointing experience.

Follow up to your response: While I appreciate you turning it into the fact that I spoke about my timing, this is entirely a Customer Service issue. Your process is your process and I respect that. However - I had mentioned I was dining in over the phone, you claim you did not hear me say that and would’ve told me otherwise. Ok, miscommunication- no big deal. It is not listed/ or as a customer I did not see it anywhere that you are not allowed to pre-order and dine in - either on your website or in your store. The right thing to do from a Customer Service perspective, as someone who is in fact in Customer Service, would chalk it up to a misunderstanding and apologize and inform me that going forward, that’s not how you operate. No harm done and everyone would go on their way. Happy. Especially because all of your tables were empty. Instead, I had to inform my kids that even though we ordered from your restaurant, we were not allowed to sit and eat there. It’s absurd. Like I said, inappropriate...

Crust & Crumble was full when the three of us arrived a bit before 8pm on Saturday. It's a small place, during a summer Saturday, so I understood we'd have to wait. But, luckily, after ten minutes, one big group left, leaving two tables free. Unluckily, it took them another twenty minutes to clean those tables. Well, they cleaned one table, because apparently it's too difficult to spray disinfectant on tables adjacent to each other. They sat one small family at one of those tables, and we were left waiting. We don't mind waiting - we can wait with the best of them - but when other people who arrived after us are sat first with space available, we get a bit peeved, especially when another large group arrives and sits at a table that was cleaned in a couple of minutes.

The waitress simply ignored us as we continued to sit on the bench. If the waitress had said something, anything, to let us know that it'd be a moment, we would've been satisfied. But to be ignored, considering I'm in a wheelchair, is not the service we expect in Asbury Park, where everybody is so cordial and tries to make you happy, with a smile. When we finally got the waitress's attention and asked why it was taking so long, her reply was she was bringing the cutlery. Seriously? The disinfectant bottle and rag was still on the table intended for us. You don't move that first? When we asked her why other people were served before us, the waitress just said we can leave, the same response we received from the manager when we complained. If this is the way they treat their customers, there are other nice pizza restaurants in and around Asbury Park, where the staff is pleasant, you don't get hairs in your pizza as I've read in other reviews, and they actually accommodate their customers, with a smile. It's always nice to smile, especially on...