Donatos Pizza — Restaurant in Erlanger

EDIT: Have recently ordered from there and both times, the orders have been correct and the staff, very professional and courteous since posting.

It does appear that the original person that caused me to have to write this review is no longer there and have since been served by very kind and courteous employees.

ORIGINAL POST: This site isn’t just short staffed, this site is staffed incorrectly.

Just ordered two pizzas: one cheese, one extra pepperoni. Simple enough. Ordered it to be delivered. Since it as sent doordash, the driver didn’t know what she was delivering. When it arrived to my house, the cheese was correct, but I was sent a hot honey pepperoni. Needless to say, we aren’t a spicy family.

I called and explained it, they made me a new pizza, I brought the incorrect one back to show them what it was. They said it was a Hot Honey Pepperoni, which I wanted to know why it was done incorrectly. Instead, the lady who swapped the pizza out for me snatched it out of my hand, turned away from me, yelling, “We’re short staffed”, then chucked the old pizza on top of the oven.

It’s not the mess up that bugged me so much as the attitude when I asked about it. I get being short staffed, but simple professionalism to someone who was just slighted and put out to have to come back to a store after spending money on a delivery order shouldn’t be too much to ask for.

In that case, yes, I will take the order screw up to task because how can someone screw up something as simple as one cheese one double pepperoni.

If their excuse is “we’re short staffed”, something the phone recording was so kind to remind me of, then Donatos better spend the extra money to hire at least another person, or screen the staff that can read an order properly and handle...

I worked for this store for over 5 years and can without a doubt say it has gone severely down hill. I've worked under the previous District Supervisor, Dawn. And several GMs (Mike Walter, Mike Phillips, Kayla Hurtt).

I did work under the current District Supervisor (Roger). So I guess it's not hard to see why they've gone so downhill. Roger is incompetent and very shady. I watched some of the best GMs leave this Donatos Location under his watch.

I don't believe they even have an acting GM at this point. They've got 2x teenage girls (Bridgette and Grace) managing the store because Roger is unable to even staff the location properly.

I've seen delivery times at 2 hours on several occasions like its a normal occurrence there, and that's not because of their sales, as I've seen their weekly sales and its abysmal, but lack of proper staff. And management is the cause for lack of staff.

Honestly can't believe Donatos Corporate has allowed the Erlanger branch to be run so poorly for so long. But at the same time I should have expected it. I left the company for a reason years ago under The current District supervisors supervision because of the incompetence and it doesn't seemed to have changed for the better...

I went there specifically to see if they have vegan or vegetarian pizza, and to try it. Oddly, although they have vegan sausage, they don't have vegan cheese. I got their personal (7") Very Veg pizza with "thick" crust. I really enjoyed the crust for its texture. It was perfectly cooked with a firm but not difficult to bite bottom and a light upper. It wasn't floppy and didn't get overwhelmed with moisture by the sauce, which was thick. I had addled for extra sauce because I wasn't sure if it would be occluded by the crust, but I needn't have worried; their sauce is different from many other brands, with a bold, slightly spicy flavor, but a bit too much salt. I think I would've appreciated it more if there had been fake cheese to temper the flavor. There were more veggies on it than I usually see on pizzas, which was a happy surprise. Ultimately, though, the lack of cheese reduced the enjoyment, which is why I gave 3 stars for it. The lady who took my order was very nice and did a great job, but it was easy since I was there when it was empty.

I hope they'll get a fake mozzarella that isn't coconut/ palm-based because of the excessive saturated fat. I would probably try again...