Mater's Pizza & Pasta Emporium — Restaurant in Gadsden

I have been waiting for a special occasion to eat here because the prices are a little on the high side. So I finally went for my 60th birthday. I was told they have Chicago style pizza (we'll get back to that). We arrived without reservation (mistake here). We put our name on the list for a table (my anticipation was mounting). We waited 20 minutes, even though there was only one couple and a group of four in front of us. FYI...You have to go to the register and interrupt the cashier to get her attention so you can be put on the list. There is NO room at the entrance (waiting room was an afterthought). When we were finally seated, we gave our drink orders. We got our drinks (sodas) in a timely fashion, but we're already uncomfortable as the bench seat was less than a foot deep we were sitting on. Still we were anticipating a great meal. My friend was wanting chicken wings and I was wanting a small deep dish pizza. The prices were even higher than expected, the wings were $8.99 and came with a small dipping sauce ONLY, no Fry's or chips. My pizza was not deep dish! A personal pizza was $13.99 (cheese only), the next size up was over $16 and two toppings brought it to over $18. I cut it (hard to cut because the crust was so hard) to find that under the considerable amount of motserell cheese was a very thin layer of pizza sauce. So little sauce that I could barely detect the flavor (a real let down since it is called Mater's after all). The ham was diced (not your typical for pizza) and the pineapple (I ordered my favorite, Hawaiian) was barely present. I understand why people think it's deep dish, the dough seemed as if it had skipped the proofing stage and thus hard, while the sides we're almost an inch thick. Someone miss printed the sign that says it is voted the best pizza! There was only 3 choices of flavor for the wings, my dinner companion ordered the teriyaki flavor only to find that it tasted like the flavor seemed thin and as if spices has been added. The wings (which I tasted) seemed as though they had been taken from the fryer and put in a steamer to keep warm until ordered. The were not crisp and tougher parts of the tendons seemed hard. The waitress was rushed and almost overwhelmed as if the restaurant was slammed, though there were a few four top tables empty in my sight range. All in all it was NOT what I was expecting and ABSOLUTELY did not live up to the Hype! Save your money! Do not eat here unless all the other...

So coming to Alabama for my daughter's gymnastics camp and to visit parents in Gadsden, one of the highlights of the trip is going to Maters. Been visiting Maters since I was a child when they first opened in Boaz. This visit 7/15/2023 was the worst experience at any restaurant ever. Believe me, the military took me to many countries and many restaurants and I have never experienced this type of service. To start, the waitress came to the table with an attitude whicn I can usually overlook. She took our order (2 piece childrens chicken fingers and a half betterboy, half cheese) and didnt come back for like 15 min. My daughter's 2 piece chicken fingers sat on the bar for at least. 10 minutes. Finally i asked another waitress if we could get my daughter's food to which she was very helpful. When the new waitress addressed our original waitress, the new waitress gets cussed out by the original waitress saying shes busy or whatever. The place isnt crowded at all. We finally get our half betterboy half cheese only to have maybe 8 or 9 pieces of meat on the betterboy side. Half and half....4 cheese, 4 betterboy not 5 cheese and 3 betterboy. By now the whole experience at maters is gone. We asked the manager to remake the pizza to what it should be. While waiting on the new pizza, i observe the same rude waitress yell and talk down to another member of the wait staff over an ink pen. Still no refill after 35 minutes so i took it upon myself to go behind the bar and get my own tea. Finally we get our pizza and asked for it to go because the night has been totally ruined.. When i go to pay with a one hundred dollar bill the original rude waitress, who should go on ebay and take whatever tip money she received and buy a personality, says in an condescending tone "We dont have change for a $100". Needless to say she went to the front and found change.

I hope that the management of Maters rids the establishment of this toxic no customer service having woman. She brought down the environment for the customers and...

THE WORST PIZZA I’VE EVER HAD!!!!!!!!!!! First of all the place has a weird smell. The decor was all wooden and old fashioned but then for some reason the tables are light blue covered and the walls have paintings that are literally just glops of different colors of paint which really looks awful. The food… I paid $13 for a sampler of mozzarella sticks, jalapeno poppers, and fried mushrooms. I only got 5 fried mushrooms, 3 jalapeno poppers, and 4 mozzarella sticks….for $13 ?!?!? All of course which tasted like they were frozen. I got a better girl pizza and it was literally the worst pizza i’ve ever had in my entire life. The crust was about an inch and a half thick, completely soft, no crunch whatsoever. I waited for the pizza to cool and still whenever I picked up a slice nearly all the toppings slid right off the pizza. I literally had to eat the pizza with my fork because it was so sloppy and it was so bad I didn’t even finish one slice of my large 16 inch pizza. There was also absolutely no flavor to the pizza whatsoever. You would think a pizza with so many different toppings would have some kind of flavour, nope. There was no seasoning in the marinara whatsoever it was basically just ketchup sauce on thick whitebread covered in toppings and cheese and undercooked. I have genuinely had frozen pizzas that tasted better than this and it absolutely blows my mind this place has so many positive reviews. The waitress was nice, but after spending $52 on a couple cheesesticks, an undercooked sloppy pizza, and 2 drinks I just couldn’t find the compassion within me to give her a tip. I have never in my life written a review on a restaurant before but this place was so bad I had to. I literally was thinking about dining and dashing because the thought of having to pay them for their slop hurt my pride so much. PLEASE NEVER GIVE THESE FOLKS...