Pagliacci Pizza — Restaurant in Bellevue

(Review update at bottom)

Let’s start with the positives: none

From the moment I walked in, I already sensed a weird vibe but maybe I was overthinking it and gave them the benefit of doubt.

First issue: I was the only customer in line. The cashier and his coworker were in the middle of a conversation, and while seeing me standing there and instead of pausing their convo and at the very least acknowledging my existence, they continued talking for another 2-3 minutes. Not professional.

2. the selection was mediocre and that is being generous. Choice between cheese and some specialty pizza. Both appeared to have been sitting there all day, even though this was lunch time.

3. I ordered a slice of cheese and one of the specialties. Here’s were the rating dropped to a 1 from a 2. The pizza was COLD. Not warm or even somewhat heated. Why? Because I watched the cashier plop them on the tray and hand them to me. No oven. I assumed they were under heat lamps like most pizza places and assumed it’d be fine. They were stone cold.

I ate the cheese first grudgingly, and with all the hope and optimism I could muster, I thought the second slice might be at least somewhat heated. COLD.

I go up to the counter, and AGAIN had to wait for these two love birds to finish their blabber, and when I was finally recognized, I simply asked to throw them in the oven for a minute.

The girl goes, “sorry, you already took a bite we can’t do that”. Ok, fair enough. (Health reasons, understandable) I ask, “do you guys not normally heat slices up for your customers?” And the dude who served me had the audacity to say that he did heat them, when he cleared did not.

I like Pagliacci , but the staff at this location literally made me never want go to this establishment again.

Update 10/2/2023 - been here a few more times since that terrible interaction, and have been satisfied each time. Pizza was always hot and tasty. Margherita especially is one of my favorites. Thankfully the incompetent workers either left or were fired, but I haven’t seen them since. Overall...

Ordered a downtown Bellevue delivery at 645p on a Wednesday evening, and gave the mandatory credit card (normally cash is not a problem...), received a call 20 minutes later at 705p that they would not be able to deliver due to Westin Hotel because of the Snowflake Lane Parade, but it was just 4 blocks away and we were welcome to come get it ourselves.

We had ordered pizza for our kids and friend's kids, but my wife and I were dining at a nice restaurant and had just ordered our own sit-down food in this critical period between ordering the pizza and our meal. We had to stop and have our meal boxed, and walk the 12 minutes along the 106th Ave Ne roadway which it turns out was totally un-affected by the parade and was fully drive-able. Why would they have told us they couldn't reach the Westin Hotel?

So it seems this Pagliacchi location is either unfamiliar with how the Snowflake Lane Parade affects their business, or had better things to do than deliver our pizza which of course was cold after it had to be walked a second 12 minutes back to the hotel via the normally operating 106th Ave NE route...

And our nice dinner at the restaurant which was just boxed up and then cold for us as well, minus a short dinner date we had hoped for as well. First major disappointment w/ a Pagliacchi.

UPDATED: SPOKE TO BRIAN THE DAY AFTER, OUR ORDERED WAS ULTIMATELY FULLY REFUNDED...

$4 Pizza slices are made from their large pizzas, so the slices are often quite big - but not always. Their Calzones are excellent but quite expensive as they base unit starts out with mozzarella & ricotta cheese for $10, but they add $1.75 per topping. Typically you will want to add 4 toppings = $7, so $17 for a great Calzone. TIP: ask for extra free marinara sauce.

If the company was more intelligent, they'd modify their Calzone pricing addons to $1.75 for meats, but say $1.00 for veggies. Get real with your pricing and quit ripping off your customers with $1.75 for everything. Like adding garlic or spinach cost $1.75 when the real cost is probably $0.20.

They offer extra free Parmesan and hot crushed red peppers for the taking at the counter.

TIP: order using their app to get your order perfect, and to re-order your favs in the future. FYI ... their app does not offer an option for adding notes IE "add 1 more free marinara" so you have to do that old school. so lame.

This place has no A/C so is quite hot in the summer. They offer no carry bags with handles, so bring your own when picking up.

It is amazing they have been around this long and are so good at delivering great food, yet miss / mess up on the fine details of customer service. Rome fell, this co will too - unless they resolve my...