East Coast Pizza — Restaurant in Chesterfield

This place has been my favorite for years. However I drug a co-worker there for lunch one day, his first visit, and had the single worse experience of my life. I don’t typically leave reviews, and it’s usually only to give extra props to someone but I had to speak my mind about this one. In fact, I had to give it some time and cool down from this experience.

I ordered a calzone, then my co-worker ordered one, then two guys behind me ordered them. We grabbed our sodas and waited...and waited patiently at this point. The two guys that ordered after us received their calzones. I waited a bit and asked about ours because NO ONE address it with us. They said they were coming right up. They tried to make excuses about the dough not rising when the weather is a certain temperature. If this is the case, A- I should be told when ordering and B- i should have been approached by a manager or someone to offer something to snack on in the meantime. Or at least mention it to me for blanks sake. We were pretty much the only ones in the restaurant and sat at the tall tables right in front of the pizza ovens so they could have easily mentioned something to us.

My co-workers calzone came out about 10 minutes later. Mine still did not. So I have waited about 30 minutes at this point. I asked to speak to the manager and then this rude person came out with and attitude and asked what the problem was. I mentioned that I have now waited 40 minutes for a calzone and no one has addressed it. She said, so do you want your money back? I answered I want lunch! She ended up crediting the calzone off the bill but charged me for the soda that I drank. This was not handled well by This manager in the least bit. She treated me as if this was my fault. When she credited my calzone she also kept my original receipt and walked away quickly. I had to call her back to find the receipt. Again, she was not friendly or apologetic.

I finally received my food but was out of time on my lunch hour to sit and enjoy it so I ate some to satisfy my hunger and wanted to box up the rest. The tomato sauce that i was given was mostly two big chunks of tomatoes so there was not a lot to enjoy either the calzone. It is a small Plastic ramekin. I asked for a box and a sauce to wrap up my lunch. I was told I had to pay .50 for the sauce. It didn’t matter what I had already been through his manager would be upset is what i was told. Then he walked through the door to the back of house where the manager disappears to. I had to yell and call someone back to help me purchase the sauce that i should have been given with my original purchase. Needless to say I am greatly disappointed by how I was treated and how the manager handled the situation. There were two associates that did apologize at this point and seemed sincere but it was really too late at that point. In the end, I hope they have never treated the MANY people that i have sent there over the years. What a HUGE disappointment and poor excuse for customer service on this...

Today, 9-22-2020, myself and 2 other coworkers visited East Coast Pizza for lunch thinking they may have a variety for all of us to choose from. I was pleasantly surprised when we went in and saw the pizza ovens and the food being prepared. At the counter I ordered a Philly cheesesteak and the attendant asked me if I wanted the chips that came with a meal or I could pay more to have french fries which I did.

We sat outside and another young man brought my co-workers sandwich out and said the fries would be out in just a few minutes. He then returned with a sandwich that I ordered and a bag of chips. I told him that I had ordered the fries. He said no you ordered the chips. I politely said I actually ordered the fries because they were a dollar seventy something more. He said if I wanted french fries I would have to go in and pay for them. I told him this is not right and that me and my friend had ordered the same thing and our bill was the same at $15.55.

At this point this rude waiter said I know for a fact you ordered chips because I saw your ticket. Out of patience I immediately said I'll just take my money back and walked inside with him. As we came in he told what I assumed was the manager that I wanted my money back and said nothing more. I asked if this other gentleman was the owner and he replied he was. I told him about the conversation with his waiter, how he said I didn't pay for the fries and that he told me he knows for a fact because he saw my ticket. I told him it was unacceptable to be treated this way.

After a couple of minutes standing waiting for a refund, the owner told me that the waiter had looked at the wrong ticket. He never apologized. After he told me he credited my card back the owner rudely says to me, 'Well I guess there's a sandwich out there'

I told him I wasn't going to eat something I did not pay for and went out to the table to watch my coworkers eat. Nether of them could believe that the waiter acted how he did. I can excuse him because he is young and being a leader of young men myself I put the incident on the owner and his lack of training. The fact that they were wrong about the whole thing is unfortunate, but mistakes happen. The fact that the owner never apologized and treated me as if I did something wrong is unacceptable.

If you are reading this Sir, know this; I came to your business for the whole reason you get up in the morning, feeding a hungry customer. We are in a pandemic and I think it is important to visit our local eateries as they struggle. You could have handled the situation so much better. It's a real shame because the food looked fantastic. I'd love to hear from you.

Edit. Checked my online statement and so far money has not been credited back yet. Will amend if done. Will call if not.

Update: my card was in fact...

I want to preface this by saying that I've been to East Coast Pizza many times and enjoy almost every visit. The food is fantastic and the prices are very reasonable.

On my last couple visits I've been getting the dinner for two special which is a great deal (14" pizza, house salad, 2 drinks, and 2 scoops of ice cream for about $35-$40 for two people). While the staff are normally very friendly, I think there needs to be a better system of getting your ice cream, as there are no directions or signs for how to get it. We have seen others stand and wait at the freezer and someone comes up to help them, so that is what we have done in the past.

During my most recent visit, my partner and I were finished with our meal and decided to get our ice cream on our way out. We were waiting at the ice cream freezer for about 5-10 mins without anybody acknowledging us. This really did not bother us since the restaurant was busy and all the staff looked occupied. A staff member made her way towards our direction just to stop right in front of us to hug and chat with a friend (literally 1ft away from us). She made a comment about how he smelled like cigarettes (he reeked) and continued to chat for another 5-10 minutes. As we continued to wait, the staff member and her friend BOTH leaned on the glass of the freezer and the staff member constantly wiped her nose with the palm of her hand and touched the barriers of the freezer. I initially gave her the benefit of the doubt thinking she might've been clocked out but still, talking to a friend around the restaurant while customers are clearly waiting doesn't seem like a good look. I'd hoped that she would have asked us if we needed help or flagged someone else down to help us, or acknowledged us in some manner. After waiting what we felt was long enough, we decided to stand in line and ask the cashier to get it for us. As the cashier went to put on gloves to help us, the original staff member went directly back to working on the pizza line. While I don't think the solution was to pull the cashier from his station, it was clear the other staff member talking right in front of us wasn't going to offer help, and I think it was unprofessional. It's disappointing as a customer but I also feel for the employees who had to walk around her to get to and from the kitchen.

Overall, I hope managers could communicate this frustration to their staff and maybe come up with a more streamline way for customers to get...