Panino's Pizzeria - Evanston — Restaurant in Evanston Township

This is a very different tale I tell than ever I would have imagined! Panino's in Evanston has long been one of our favorite places, and during our "sheltering at home" has been one of the businesses we have tried to support as far as we are able. Therefore, last Friday night (12/4/20) my hubby and I decided to make a dual stop at a strip mall: make a grocery run at one end and get carry out from Panino's at the other. This is how that worked out. When we arrived at the location, we went online and entered our order for appetizers, salad, and a.large pizza - deliberately over-ordering so that we we would have more than one meal. The on-line app indicated that our order would be ready in 45 minutes, which was fine for our shopping plan, and so we put in our credit card info (required for online ordering--this is important later in the story) and went off to grocery shop. We were actually running a little bit late (4 minutes) when we drove to the other end of the lot and my husband went in to retrieve our order from Panino's. There was a rather big group standing around inside when he went in, but he figured that they hadn't ordered ahead. Ha! The person who was taking names for pickup and answering phones took his name and checked it off a list. He stood around inside for about 5-7 minutes, but began getting antsy about the lack of capacity for social distancing, so told the person he would be available outside with a group of people he had failed to pay attention to when he went in. Cutting to the chase, he waited ALMOST AN HOUR for our order, not counting the 49 minutes from the time he entered it online and when we showed up to pick it up. The dinner, when we finally got it home and put the refrigerated and semi-frozen (by then) groceries away and finally ate it, was delicious, and it stayed delicious for when we finished it a couple of days later. What was not ok was the service. We would have understood if something had happened in the kitchen, like the power going out or being way short staffed or whatever. But no information was offered, and the staff avoided speaking with customers as much as possible. At the end, the person who handed him the order said a breezy "Sorry for the wait", and I think that we were lucky to get that. The worst of it was that when my husband was leaving with our order, he realized that there were still people there from when he arrived. Truthfully, we would have left long before we got that order and gone home to grilled cheese or whatever, except for that little problem of having to have given our credit card information at the time of the order. Therefore, we felt compelled to stay. This whole thing is really disappointing because we have been fond of this restaurant, and because it has been on our short list of places we have done our best to support during the pandemic, hoping that will help keep them around until after the pandemic is over. However, Panino's is a bit more pricy than some of the other places on our list, so we can't afford to go there as often as we might like. What that means is that our choice to go there last Friday was a DECISION, about money, about who were we supporting that night, and so I guess that it felt like a bigger deal to us. So was this just a bad day for Panino's? Will they go back to being the place we have known and loved? I guess I am not too anxious to find out, and...

This is the most terrible restaurant in customer service ever. They wouldn't even deliver to my house because they said it was an issue last time when I oreded from them. Which to my knowledge there was no issue last time. The last time I only made an order for delivery but when I found out my husband was not going to be home until later I cancelled it. I called the store to let them know but the manager told me that it was going to be a problem. Because the food was almost out of the oven. I stated that I still did not want the order and tried to explain the situation about my husband working later than usual. Some hours went by and the manager sent the delivery driving anyway. Which, I had already called to cancel. When the delivery driver come he was already irritated and confused. I told him that I called the store to cancel it. But he was still hostile/ confused when he walked away. And even though I didn't take the food I called the store to pay a $5 fee for the confusion on my behalf. So when I called today to place an order for delivery one of their employees said that it was a problem and that they could not deliver to my address. And this is where I have an issue. I did not commit a crime. I did not cause any confrontational dispute and no one would tell me what the real issue was. Is it because I'm black and I canceled it. Is it because the manager just wanted to do whatever he wanted to do and sent the order. I don't know what the issue was but I will never order from this...

Honestly I used to love this place my family and I ate pizza and gelato every Friday. Until one day I called and ask to place a phone order and pay by phone because my husband was paying and couldn’t be there to pick it up! I explained that I could show my Identification and that the last names on the card would match. They told me that they don’t do that and I couldn’t place the order. So against my better judgment and because I loved the pizza I decided to give it another try. I went again on a Friday evening. I ordered a pizza and hot wings, by phone. After waiting for more than an hour. As I stand by the counter waiting for my order, a woman (white woman) walks up and says “um I left my card and wallet but I have a picture of my credit card in my phone.”( I’m thinking who comes to a restaurant or drives without any ID or credit card, but has a picture of it in their phone?) Without hesitation the cashier goes sure no problem we can do that. She never even asked to see the credit card, any proof of name or anything she did it with no problem. I even interrupted and told the cashier that I felt it was wrong. The lady whom was paying even agreed that it was because I was African American and that her husband and children were African American, so she understands how the experiences vary. So very safe to say I will never shop with them again and I encourage all of my family, friends and coworkers to...