Wally's Pizza Bar — Restaurant in California

Go here at least once a week and have had no issues before. We have been bragging about this place to close friends for years and decided to bring them today around 6:00 pm. Each of us have toddlers so we asked the hosts at the front for seating for six and let them know two would be in high chairs (my 1.5 year old was even in my arms at one point). They asked for my name and handed me a buzzer but didn't say anything after that which was a little awkward so I asked how long the wait was and they let me know 20-25 minutes. Around 30 minutes go by and we see numerous large parties go through without us being seated but we were patient considering it looked like people were coming from a wedding or event. Finally my husband asks what the wait is and they said they would be seating us "like now". Another 5 minutes go by and one of the hostess (blonde one) walks over letting us know they were going to seat us at a high top table. Again, two toddlers. So I let her know that it would not be safe for us to have two young kids seated at a high top table without a proper high chair or seating for them. She makes an excuse that the age wasn't provided (most kids wouldn't be able to sit at a high top table) and I let her know it still wasn't safe. She proceeded to claim "well then you guys can just continue to wait then" in an abrasive and frustrated tone. By that point my husband was upset. We had two young kids who were hungry, obvious they were young and they were getting restless and plus I'm 5 months pregnant and hungry. So he claims "are you serious right now" to me, his wife. The hostess was standing behind him and proceeds to say "you don't need to be rude about it". Mind you, we had remained patient, waited double the time told and it was obvious from the beginning our children are very young. Eventually we get seated at a normal table near the hostess stand. Now I'm a companionate person so I was going to let this go even if the comment was unwarranted and unkind, however, on numerous occasions it was ABSOLUTELY apparent that the two hostesses proceed to discuss the situation with us, at one point one of them making eye contact with my friend, while the other whispered. It was extremely uncomfortable. I would have brought it up to our waitress at the time but, again, could tell they were busier than normal and did not want to make a fuss at the time. Overall the food is never disappointing but the way we were treated was completely...

Started out good, we came in around 9pm. Just got off work so not many places open at that time, and it's usually a hit or miss here. Our server came, took our order and got us our drinks, and basically disappeared. We did ask for ranch with the pizza, when we ordered. When the pizza came, it wasn't our server but likely a food runner, which is fine. She asked if we needed anything and we did want some ranch still, because it hadn't come with 2 like we had asked, so we told her yes, ranch please. She forgot about us, but not her fault as she's not our server, but it could have been communicated to our server to get it for us. Our server had not come once to check on us after our food came, nor to get refills on our drinks. He was chatting with his buddies the whole time, and I'm guessing he forgot he had our table. We had to essentially stare at him and wave for him to come to us, after 10 minutes of waiting for him, at which we just got our check and a box and left.

This kind of service has happened in past experiences here as well and this may have been the last time trying.

Thank you to the co-owner that emailed me, I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to work this out.

Update: Decided to come again with friends to see if the service would be any better.... We hadn't seen them in awhile so we sat out on the patio because it was loud inside from the live band. A busser/food runner let us know that a server would be out with us. 20 minutes go by with no one to check on us or get drinks going. My husband had to go get someone and they were appalled that no one had come to wait on us. So again we waited for someone. Finally someone came and took our drink and food order, we got our food, etc. Again, no one came to check on us during the meal, our drinks were empty, and then we waited another 20-30 minutes to get the check! I appreciate that the server took our drinks off the check because of the wait, but it honestly should not be like this every time I'm in.

I really want to like this place but it's really apparent that either I have bad luck here or this is a common thing to happen, either way it makes me not want to come sit and enjoy dinner out.

It really is a bummer that this is one of the only nice places around that is open past 10 in this town with decent food. We've called and got dinner to-go a couple times with no issues though, so they've got that...

They gave our reserved table away and we had to wait 20 minutes to get seated. Then the pizza was floppy crusted and it got to us way before the drinks and I only. ordered a glass of wine! Please what a joke!

So we went back for lunch recently. (1/2019) Service was so so and every table in the bar area was dirty/unbussed. There were only 4 tables that had people sitting at the so it was not like it was too busy to keep up. It's more like Kids are running the place. They could do much better.

Update: 6/11/2024 My sweetheart and I went in for a pizza and beverages. The pizzas were as expected (good) but I was surprised again by the complete lack of cleanliness and customer service. My sweetheart asked for ranch dressing to dip her pizza in. The server brought it out promptly. However, she noticed there were 2 condiment cups stuck together so she pulled them apart only to find the cup on the bottom had residue of ranch dressing in it sa well. We immediately thought that this must have come from another table and we were very concerned about the possibility of contamination. Not to mention the legality of this possibility. I asked for a manager and a young man came over, listened to our concerns and said. I guarantee that did not come from another table. We thought you cannot guarantee that because you did not follow the process start to stop and I know this because I saw you eating lunch at an adjacent table when our server approached you.

He did not even offer to make things right, give a discount or any kind of offer to draw us back in.

I'm pretty sure at this point I am done giving this establishment opportunity to provide a quality dining experience to me and my guests.

We both worked in the food industry and know what it takes to take care of customers desires.

I was a chef and she a server. I am still ServSafe Certified today because I cook food for many of my friends and family. I strive for excellence in food...