Bullman's Wood Fired Pizza — Restaurant in Billings

Walked into dining area as part of our party had already arrived and had been seated. A dozen steps from the table, a rather large, unkempt man rudely barked at us from behind the counter that masks were required. As it would have taken longer to stop mid-dining room, dig out a mask and put it on than it would just taking the last few steps to the table, we chose the latter. In doing so we are sure that we avoided unnecessarily prolonged exposure to all those maskless diners (who I suppose are scientifically proven to be safe from covid while eating) with our quick thinking. As the waitress approached, she also said masks had to be worn. We told her we had already been verbally chastised over the masks and she snarked that we were not being chastised and they are just "following rules."

So that was the opener. On to the main course: We ordered cheese sticks and two large pizzas, one being Hawaiian with regular bacon and red bell pepper added. The cheese sticks were sub-par, they really have slipped quite a bit over the past months, but the Hawaiian was missing the primary ingredient that makes it Hawaiian... the pineapple. As the waitress realized the mistake she took up the pineapple-free Hawaiian pizza and disappeared with it only to reappear with the SAME pizza, this time with room-temp pineapple bits sprinkled on top. There we sat looking at these bits precariously perched, knowing full well that they would topple back into our plates as we ate them because they were SUPPOSED to be baked into the topping. As we marveled at the sheer idiocy of thinking this was an acceptable solution, we opted to just eat what was by then luke warm pizza and proceeded to wrangle the fallen pieces of pineapple back onto the slices with each bite.

Even without the pointless mask "rule," rudeness, and snark, the food was wanting as it has been the last few times we have been in. This establishment has obviously undergone some changes and both the food and service have suffered for it. We always expect to tip 20%, and did not penalize the waitress for the food but her snideness essentially dropped it to 13%.

Note that people don't like being barked at; mask wearing is not necessarily a problem, but rudeness (and snark) will be met with opposition more...

I am going to start by saying when you get your pizza, you will not be disappointed. They are very flavorful and always made with fresh ingredients. Now, having said that, the trick is getting sat at a table, and then acknowledged by your server. This is the third and last time we are ever going back to try and eat in the dining room.

This evening we walked in to the dining room that had two servers, and maybe 7 tables sat. We waited a few moments at the “Please Wait to be Seated” sign. One of the regular servers saw us come in and stand and wait. She proceeded to walk into the kitchen, do a few things, walk out to the outer part of the kitchen and met up with the other server. She asked if the gal could take another table. She looked a little frazzled, but said “okay.”

The regular server didn’t even come over to get us. She raised her voice and said to us, “Just two? Over here.” She walked over to the booth, dropped the menus and said, “She’ll be over in a few minutes” and walked off.

We waited…and waited…and waited some more. We watched our server go into the back and chat with the other regular server, go over to the table next to us, go over to the booth behind us, and then back to the back room. Out she came a few moments later, over to the booth two in front of ours, back to the booth behind us, and then poof! Gone again.

No “hello”, “I’ll be with you in a moment”, “sorry for the delay, I will be right back”, no eye contact, no nothing. We waited maybe 10 minutes like this and gave up.

The minute we walked out, our server was standing behind the counter and did finally acknowledge us saying “have a great night!”

Oh we did! We took our business elsewhere, and...

Lovely wood fired pizza, one of my favorite pizza spots in Billings!

Ordered a Pepperoni pizza, Buffalo Chicken pizza, and a medium Herb and Cheese Sticks, all were quite tasty! The crust is thin which makes it easier to eat but tends to get weighed down by the ingredients, but the cheese has that satisfying pull that makes it addicting. Like some other reviews mention the crust has some burned/leopard spots but that's just a characteristic of wood fired pizza, however it's nice that the toppings go basically to the edge which minimizes the amount of crust that's "burned". Liked the Herb Cheese Sticks but probably wont get them again since the pizza is quite filling.

Some cons: Despite going in optimistically despite some of the reviews I was disappointed a little bit by the service. I have to give some grace to our lady waitress since it was a fairly quiet evening when we came in (around 7 p.m.). While we waited a while for our pizza to arrive I noticed a few tables that still had yet to be bussed, and when we had finished we had to wait an extra 10 minutes for our waitress (the only one attending tables) to wrap up her conversation with a couple that were already heading out. I don't mind if a worker stops for a minute to say bye to someone they know but when they're the only one working the front of the house and you're trying to get a box and check it's just a little bit annoying. She was kind at least so take that as you will.

Overall good food for a group though the service could always be better (but perhaps they were having an off day/taking a breather in...