MacKenzie River Pizza Co. — Restaurant in Billings

The heights location used to be one of our favorite places to frequent. We went in on New Year’s Eve and had such an awful meal, I doubt we’ll be back. Keep in mind it was dead in there, so it’s not like they were slammed. We brought our 4 year old daughter with us. The server never introduced herself and just stood at the end of the table starting at us until we ordered drinks. My husband ordered a cold smoke and I had a pink slip. At the same time, we ordered our daughters meal because she’s little and likes to eat right away. She comes back with my beer and walks away. No drink for our daughter and no beer for my husband. She comes back 10 minutes later and leaves my daughters drink (no straw) and tells us they’re out or cold smoke. He asked if there was anything comparable and she just said “I dunno.” So he ordered what I was having. She asked if we were ready to order and we said we’d start with an appetizer. She came back every 5 minutes to see if we were ready to order. We finally just ordered because obviously she was eager to have us eat. 20-30 minutes went by without seeing her. She came back and said, “I forgot. Did you order something for her?” (Meaning our daughter). I said yeah. We ordered a pizza for her almost an hour ago. She goes, “oh, right.” And walks away. We get our appetizer (jalapeño popper dip). It was half empty and burnt - seriously - with raw jalapeños on top). We had to use a knife to get it out because too couldn’t even get your chip in. My pizza came and it was the most pathetic pizza ever. My husbands salad was good, but his wings were cold. We finally got our little ones pizza and she was able to eat. She never brought us plates, asked if we wanted refills, offered boxes, nothing. We had to grab another server to get help. Yikes. And this was a $100 meal....

I went to MacKenzie River in the heights on my roommate's suggestion. I ordered the Bbq pizza with pulled pork on top. It was meant to have cilantro and had none, which is quite a shame, since it might have added some flavor to an otherwise flavorless pizza. I am really confused how they managed to put so many flavorful ingredients on the pizza, yet still have it turn out so bland. Trying to add some sort of flavor, I ordered some bbq sauce to dip my pizza in. Our waitress was extremely inattentive, so by the time she checked on us, I not only needed the bbq, but our table also needed refills on 6 drinks, since she never once asked. She eventually brought the drinks and then turned around and left before I could remind her about my bbq sauce. After I asked her again, when she finally came back to check on us ten minutes later, what she brought back should not be considered bbq sauce. I seriously tasted like the worst warm vodka you could find. How?! Needless to say, I did not eat more than a tenth of my pizza. Lastly, it took about twenty minutes after we were done eating to get our check, and that was only after we had to ask for it during one of our waitress' infrequent stops by our table.

One of the worst restaurant experiences I've ever had! Save your time and money and go elsewhere. Even Pizza Hut is better...

5 stars for food / 0 stars for take-out ordering First, we've been loving the new summer menu. All of it is VERY good. Especially the Harvest Cherry Pizza. Seriously a great 'Za! Makes us miss the Bistro Pizza that used to be on the menu then disappeared. This location has random dine-in service so ordering take-out is the only way to enjoy these great pizzas. Follow these helpful tips from our experience of ordering take-out from here and no one gets hurt.

TAKE-OUT ORDERING SURVIVAL GUIDE: 1) Avoid the phone app. It’s buggy, not intuitive and very frustrating. 2) Call to place an order for pick-up. Do not request curbside delivery – your order sits on the warming counter until you walk in and ask for it either way. 3) At this location when you walk in to pick up your order expect to find 4 or 5 staff standing right next to the cash register & warming counter chatting. Eventually someone walks over from the bar and asks if you want to be seated. You tell them you are here for the pizza box with your name on it behind the conversation at the counter. The conversation group then scatters and your pizza is retrieved. Success! Now enjoy possibly the best pizza around –...