Squares Pizza Pub — Restaurant in Bartlett

I do not like being taken advantage of, do you? I was at Square’s Pizza on the soft opening night of August 21. When I walked in, I was asked if I had a reservation, I did not. I was told that this night was by reservation only. I said that’s OK, I’ll just leave. The hostess said “There are seats at the bar, you can sit there”. There were 6 to 8 open seats at the bar. It took more than 10 minutes before anybody came to ask me what I would like to have. I ordered a small pepperoni pizza. I waited over 1-1/2 hours for my pizza. I ate half of it, good but nothing to write home about, and asked for a box to go. They put it in an Atlas Chicken sandwich box, no big deal. The bill was $16 with 50% off making it $8 which, in my opinion, it was an $8 pizza. When I got to thinking about it, I said gee, allegedly, these other people paid a $10 reservation fee to get, as an example, a $16 pizza half off which made it $8 plus the $10 reservation making it an $18 pizza which is two dollars more than what you would spend normally. Seems like a little bit like taking advantage of your customers. This was also stated to be friends and family night in their advertising. I’ve never known anybody charge their friends or family a $10 reservation fee to test their product and services, just really doesn’t make sense to me but it’s not my business. Why would you charge your friends and family to test your restaurant and give you feedback. In any case, I wrote it off to start up pains and assumed it would get better. I would give it another chance down the road. On October 11, I saw on the Internet where they were offering to go service, so I thought it was time to give them a second try. I called and ordered a small pepperoni pizza, 8” x 10” according to their advertising, at 4:30 and I got there at about 4:50 and it was sitting on the shelf ready to go. I would’ve preferred to have ordered it online instead of calling, but apparently, they don’t offer that yet. When I got home, I opened the box and was immediately disappointed. 1) The pizza was severely overcooked with several of the pepperoni slices, having burned edges and the sides of the pizza along with the bottom being burnt. This was not cooked to the point that the cheese was caramelized, it was cooked to the point that the cheese was burnt to a crisp on the sides. We cut a little bit out of the middle and threw the rest away. 2) It was immediately obvious that this was not an 8” x 10” pizza. I measured it, it was actually 7” x 9”, see the pictures below, 21% smaller than what is advertised. I do not know what the size of the pizza was I got at the soft opening, but I know for certain that it was larger than this one. On Tuesday, October 14, I went back and asked to speak to the owner who was not there, I spoke with A.A. instead. I requested a full refund based on the condition and size of the pizza I received. There was no comment from him regarding the fact that it was burnt in several areas, and he said that the size was due to shrinking. I have to disagree with the shrinkage statement because all four sides of the pizza were burnt just like they would be when they were up against the side of a 7 x 9 pan. When I showed him the pictures there was no question and he issued a refund while requesting that I send the pictures to him. I sent a pictures immediately and he confirmed that he had them. He said he would talk to the owner on Wednesday, but I never heard back from anybody. You be the judge if you’re getting what you’re paying for. Their new ad says they will be having half-price pizza on Mondays. That makes the price reasonable. I may go back occasionally but only on Monday when it’s half price and then I would expect to get an 8 x 10 if that’s what’s advertised. I’m not asking for anything special, I just expect to receive what is being advertised. Regarding the number of 5 star reviews, I would like to know if these are real customers or “friends and family” writing...

This place is literally attached to Atlas chicken next door. There are maybe four booths, several tables that laid down the hallway up into the back door where I guess you go out into an alleyway and then bar seating. It is not very big.

I paid $10 for a reservation for the friends and family and basically didn’t get any service.

Menu is

Finally got our drinks. We ordered a slushy, soda, salad and pizza they were out of stuff (breadsticks)

we got the salad. All of us agreed it didn’t taste good.

Luckily, everything was half off that night because that salad was in no way worth the full price actually I don’t even think it was worth half price!

Food is served on some kind of what looks like a sushi board which is really weird. The salad had no serving tongs.

We never even got our pizza after being there almost an hour and then they were due to close at 9 o’clock, so we just said forget it

Also, if you’re wondering about the prices of the pizza being $34 for a large, the large is six slices the size below that is four slices which is $18 so for almost double the price you get an extra two slices it’s completely insane. The prices are out of line I think.

Clincher was we saw the cook in the kitchen, scratching his head over the food, and it looked like he hadn’t washed his hair since 1990 no hair net or gloves. See photo.

we also saw The same plates that we are being served on (those sushi boards), not washed, but wiped down with a rag and then reused and then they’re wiping the counters with it as well so they don’t wash the dishes that you’re eating off of (see photo)

seeing both of that and then no service we decided to say forget it and we wanted to leave

at which point yes I did say something.

I understand they weren’t fully open which clearly they were not ready to be, and they comped the salad and the two sodas and the slushy which tasted like NyQuil and we left and I would never go back.

As you can see the table behind us also had no drinks and they were there way before us and I don’t even know if they got any food

by the time we left...

So, the family decided to give Squares a try tonight to see what all the hype was about. Located inside Atlas Chicken, the place has a nice vibe, definitely a good spot for a casual date night.

We ordered two large (10x14) pizzas for takeout, one cheese and one of their specials, the pepperoni with hot honey. I’ve had my fair share of Detroit style pizzas, and I’ll say both were pretty good. The crust had that classic crunchy exterior with a chewy interior, the sauce was tangy, and the cheese was generous. The pepperoni and hot honey combo had a nice balance of sweet and spicy. Overall, not bad.

That said, I wouldn’t pay over $60 for those two pizzas again. The quality just doesn’t quite match the price point. Until the prices come down, which I don’t expect will happen, I’ll be sticking with my go to spot, 601 in Addison, for my Detroit style fix.

Thanks, Squares, for...