Niki's Pizza — Restaurant in Detroit

UNACCEPTABLE CUSTOMER SERVICE

I’ve been to Niki’s Nightlife on several occasions and have thoroughly enjoyed myself, BUT Friday 1/6/17 was the 1st time that I have reserved a booth and purchased bottle service at this establishment. I wanted to celebrate my birthday and have a great time, but my experience was HORRIBLE. First off I did not receive the area in which I had initially reserved because the area was CLOSED when I arrived. When I reserved the particular area I specifically mentioned that I did not want to be on the side that I ultimately received. I asked a female employee why I hadn’t been notified of the change. She was very adamant that someone had called me. She informed me that they called me earlier in the day. I told her I called them to confirm the dress code, but I had never been informed of the change or received an incoming call. I proceeded to ask her to show me when and where they called. She went to the reservation book and the last 4 of my phone number was CROSSED OUT! I asked her how could they have possibly called me if the phone number is illegible? She responded “I didn’t write it”. At this point the only thing offered to me was a complimentary booth at a future date. PLEASE NOTE that on Fridays the booths are already complimentary on a first come, first serve basis. Therefore this isn’t very accommodating for my inconvenience. The only reason that I reserved on this particular occasion was because it was MY BIRTHDAY and I wanted everything to go as planned. After being denied of a partial refund of the booth or bottle, I REQUESTED some free food and I was given a platter of chicken for me and my guests. At this point I was satisfied, but not for long.

After being seated, I requested for my prepaid $185 bottle of Grey Goose to be delivered to the table. It took FORTY-FIVE minutes before the bottle arrived. After the bottle was delivered, my waitress did NOT revisit the table AT ALL for the entire evening to see if we needed anything else. My guests and I had to go to the bar to purchase additional drinks. PLEASE NOTE that I paid $40 for the booth, $185 for the bottle of Grey Goose, cover charges totaling $90 for all of my guest (I was the only free person allowed even with the purchase of a booth), plus the additional drinks purchased by my party (which easily totaled over $100). I brought over $400 to this establishment on this evening and did not feel like a valued customer! I did not receive any special treatment over customers that did not purchase additional services that night.

I work in customer service and I first hand know how to provide a great experience for my clients and I did not receive a level of service even close to the level that I am expected to and enjoy providing. I would NEVER purchase bottle service or pay to reserve a booth at Niki’s Nightlife! I suggest anyone who has taken the time to read this reconsider before supporting this...

The food was all great, but the service was pretty bad. We went on a Monday night for dinner around 7pm and there was literally no. one. there. except the hostess and one server. The hostess was friendly and welcoming but sat our party of 6 at a long table along the side of the restaurant, just outside the kitchen, rather than at literally any of the open booths or tables in the nicer dining area. Before even ordering drinks, we let our server know we needed separate checks and she told us they don't do that. (Mind you, we were still the ONLY customers in the restaurant at this point.) So we said in that case we'll just go somewhere else, and we all started to get up. She started backpedaling pretty fast at that point and said rather defensively "I mean, they told me not to do that. You want me to ask? I'll ask if you want. I just don't want them thinking I'm doing something I'm not supposed to." Not surprisingly, after "asking" the hostess, it suddenly was "no issue" and so we started our orders. Without going into the details of every instance during our dine-in experience, let me summarize it by saying this young lady seemed like she was either having a bad night or just flat out didn't want to be there. When one in our party asked to verify a particular dish was vegetarian, she told him "it had whatever the menu says is in it. So yeah, if there's no meat listed, it's vegetarian." (Said with all the sarcasm and annoyance that statement holds.) After she dropped off all the food for our table, we had to ask for silverware (which the hostess brought us). And a few minutes later we had to flag our waitress down again (mind you, STILL the only people there at this point) to order a drink and when our friend said "could I get a mule?" she looked at him like he had just asked her a question in another language and said "a what?!" He politely responded he wanted a Moscow mule and pointed to it on the menu. She stared at it for a couple seconds before saying "oh... ok" and walked over to the bar to make it.

It was all very odd and it felt like our presence there was an inconvenience to her personally or something. And only one other person came in to eat during the whole time we were there. So it wasn't like they were slammed.

Not sure if it was just an off night, or if our experience was indicative of the experience of others too, hence the lack of patrons. Again, the food itself was good! So I would guess it has more to do with the service than the food.

Lastly it's worth noting that all the prices have gone up and their online menu prices are no longer accurate.

Hopefully your experience is better...

I recently visited Niki’s Pizza in Detroit and although the pizza itself was really good, I have to give it a two-star review due to several disappointing experiences during my visit.

Firstly, upon arriving at the restaurant, my companions and I waited for a good five minutes in front of the front of house staff before they even acknowledged our presence. It was quite frustrating and made us feel unwelcome from the start. The lack of attention to customers at the entrance left a negative first impression.

Additionally, we were informed that the restaurant had a limited menu that night. However, as we glanced around the dining area, we noticed numerous other tables happily ordering items from the regular menu. This inconsistency left us feeling confused and somewhat misled. It seemed unfair that some customers were able to enjoy the full menu while we were restricted to a limited selection.

Another disappointing aspect of our visit was the payment process. We were asked to settle our bill before the food even arrived, which felt quite unusual. To add to our surprise, when we received our bills, an 18% tip had been automatically added without our consent or knowledge. This practice felt presumptuous and undermined our ability to determine an appropriate tip based on the quality of service we received.

Moreover, the service was quite slow. It took a staggering 30 minutes before we even received our beverages. This lengthy wait time was frustrating, especially considering that the restaurant wasn't particularly busy at the time. Furthermore, while sipping on our drinks, we noticed black specks of something floating in one of the beers. This was extremely off-putting and raised concerns about the overall cleanliness and attention to detail in the establishment.

In conclusion, despite the delicious pizza that we enjoyed, the overall experience at this restaurant left much to be desired. The lack of attention from the staff upon arrival, the inconsistency in menu availability, the peculiar payment process, and the slow service combined with the presence of foreign objects in our drinks diminished our enjoyment of the meal. It is regrettable that such issues overshadowed what could have been a fantastic...