Village Host Pizza & Grill - Belmont — Restaurant in Belmont

We live nearby and finally gave it a try. Service is fine, interior ambience looks really inviting initially. There's a classic 80's table arcade machine (Pac-Man?). But the seat booths have the bouncy vinyl padding missing so it's really painful to sit at for any amount of time.

Ok, fine - we could forgive that if pizza was worth taking home. It's not. We both got the small personal pizzas and I got the combo with everything on it. First, the crust was rock hard for the bottom 10 mm, like a cardboard base, with a slight rise of dough above that. Did someone fail to mix in yeast properly? Were these a frozen batch of bad crusts they pulled out due to some shortage? The place wasn't packed, I don't get it. It was like some sort of sailor hard-tack. Second, the ingredients weren't cooked enough for a combo pizza so it was all watery and loose, and the cheese had cheddar thrown on there. Why? This doesn't match or improve anything. The ingredients themselves were the most basic from-a-can vibe things possible, basic black olives, nothing distinct or of a quality remotely as good as your average Pizza Hut or Domino's. The sauce was so thinly applied that it didn't bring enough flavor to compliment the bland vegetables and the poorly cooked cheese. And the mozzarella? Waaaay too much, it was just a giant 15 mm cheese patty beneath everything, lightly colored by the ghost of a sauce that avoided most bites. California has a bad reputation with pizza, and this is why.

The only reason I'd give it 2 stars is so people go here instead of the alternative that just popped up, which is so good that it's packed nonstop and I honestly have anxiety about it getting any more popular. I refuse to name it. It is the best. That being said - just get the Papa John's from over by the Molly Stone's, it's better than Village Host by miles and won't overcrowd my fav spot. Or just get some frozen pizza, you could do better with some Red Baron's or whatever. Really, there's not a worse place within 5 miles for fresh Pizza. There's a Mod Pizza over in Foster City - again waaaay better, and I don't even like that place.

For the owners and managers - is this normal? When is the last time you compared your pizza to literally ANY alternatives? I know you're sick of pizza at this point, but step outside and at least do better than the frozen stuff at the Lunardi's next...

1 Star because I cant give Zero & they didn't even give me my pizza.

Called to place an order for delivery and they told me it would arrive in about 45 minutes. 40 minutes later (5 minutes before the quoted delivery time) they called me back telling me that turns out that I'm outside their delivery area and that they wont deliver my pizza to me but the pizza is ready now if I want to come pick it up at the price I already paid (including delivery and tip.) I declined.

The 3 issues with this entire interaction are as follows:

1.) Why didnt they let me know I was outside their delivery area when I gave them my address at initial order.

2.) Why did they wait 40 full minutes to call me back and let me know they couldn't deliver my order.

3.) How does it make any sense to offer to your customer to come pick up the order you previously agreed to deliver at the delivery price (delivery fee + tip included). That seems rather tone-deaf.

To top it all off they didn't inspire much confidence when I declined their offer to pick it up myself and requested a refund. They simply said, it'll get refunded without any sort of ETA or confirmation on their part.

I'm disappointed because I was looking forward to trying their pizza but the way they handle customer service has me thinking perhaps I...

At Village Host Pizza, what I encountered was a tragic misstep. The pizza, which should have been a harmonious blend of textures and flavors, arrived bearing the scars of neglect – its crust not just kissed by the flame, but engulfed by it, a blackened remnant of what could have been.This wasn't just a pizza; it was a testament to the razor's edge that cooks walk every night. The line between a perfect char and an irredeemable burn is fine, and on this night, that line was crossed. The toppings, which had promised a symphony of flavors, were lost in the smoky cacophony of the overdone crust, their potential beauty overshadowed by the overwhelming bitterness of char.In the world of cooking, where the flame is both friend and foe, this was a battle lost. Yet, in every mistake, there's a lesson to be learned, a chance to rise from the ashes and come back stronger, with a renewed respect for the fire. To Village Host Pizza, I say this: Let this not be a defeat, but a call to arms. The great meals are still ahead, waiting to be discovered in the heat of your ovens. Let's chalk this up to a bad night, a fluke in the otherwise stellar journey of your voyage. I'll be back, in search of the pizza that I know you're capable of creating, the one that dances on the edge of the flame but never...