Gino's Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria — Restaurant in Galveston

WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!!! This evening I placed an order for pickup using the menu on the web (see first 2 photos). I was told the total on the phone and the person hung up. I realized that it sounded like more than it should have been, so looked online again and the app was $8 and the pizza was $18 - easy math - $26+$2.14 in tax = $28.14. I took $30 with me to pick up my food. When the very nice young lady at the counter brought my food and told me the total, I told her I had a question about the pricing. Another young girl interrupted and said that the prices had increased, and that the ones on the web were incorrect. I asked for a manager and she told me with a smirk that the manager wouldn't do anything different, but would tell me the same. The very nice young lady who was waiting on me asked if I would like to speak to the manager and I said yes. Then a male waitperson handed me the new paper menu with the new pricing and told me the prices were in there. I asked that they honor the online pricing and the young girl who had interrupted laughed and said "No!" The manager, who also happens to be the owner came to the service window, and would not even step out of the kitchen to address me nor did she even bother to ask me what I needed, but very defensively and in a rude tone began telling me that she was a business owner, why would I even argue over a few cents difference, and that I didn't understand that businesses changed pricing all the time. The girl who kept interrupting was standing beside the owner laughing the entire time. I reiterated to them that I felt the online price should be honored and that while my husband enjoyed eating there, every time I came to pick up an order, there was always an issue. The male waitstaff then turned around and began arguing with me, telling me that they were the cheapest Italian food restaurant in town and that I could go to Mario’s, but would pay more. I actually looked at him and asked “Are you really arguing with me? Please don’t argue with me.” He was visibly angry with me and at that time the owner, the girl that was rude and the male waitstaff were all saying things to me and the poor girl who was nice was not sure what to do. Since I did not have enough cash, I used my credit card and as I was signing I told the young lady who was so nice that I appreciated her actually being the most mature, adult staff member in the entire restaurant. She thanked me for telling her that and I left. I was very angry and I will NOT EVER go there again and will tell every single person I know about the 4 bad experiences I have had there. Yes, for my husband, I go there, but NO MORE. Even he has had enough. When I got home, he called and asked to speak to the manager, and she came to the phone and once he said “my wife was just there” she immediately began arguing with him and telling him that I was the one who was rude and that a few cents should be nothing to argue over and that he didn’t understand business. My husband IS a business owner and knows how to keep clients happy and be honest and fair in his pricing. And to top it all off, it was the WORST food we have ever had from Gino’s – absolutely awful. Our two favorite things and they were just not up to par. I guess the whole place has turned into a low rate pizza shop with folks who don’t care about their customers. Maybe they should invest the additional $5 they charged me and actually get pizza boxes with the restaurant name on them instead of buying generic boxes. Guess it goes to show you how cheap they really are…even Domino’s has their name on their boxes and wait, don’t they...

Called and asked if they delivered To our address in Jamaica beach. The female that answered the phone took the address and assured us they do delivery out here. They said because it was a 25 min drive the pizza would be here in one hour. One hour goes by, someone called us and said, “I’m sorry but we don’t deliver out to you.” My husband then said, wow, ok you are supposed to be here any minute with the order I placed an hour ago. She yeah sorry but we don’t delivery that far unless the order is over 50$. I guess I should have listened to all the reviews and knows better but we are new here.

I actually completely understand having that policy. We were surprised when they said they would deliver a 20$ pizza 16 miles out. Neither of us questioned it because, why would you. They took our order, money, and said see you in an hour. My husband specifically asked do you deliver to this address. The woman that called an hour later said that it was a new girl that told us that wrong info. As if that was some acceptable excuse. And as everyone knows, after a really long sun heat filled day we were tired, and hungry. So after waiting an hour and it now being 8pm, we had to figure out what to get to feed us and our kiddo that is 5 and needed to get to bed. We were willing to wait an hour because the reviews that the pizza was so good looked great.

It would have been proper if them to call us much sooner, or send the delivery out anyway. We would have been happy to tip the driver well for making the trip. I just don’t feel like this was good customer service. Even a free pizza next time we were in town for our wait and trouble would have been the best thing they could have done. We could grab a pie tmrw night in town.

Even if the food is good, it’s too risky to spend your money or even try to at a place that apparently is busy enough and doesn’t value their customers. Now we most likely will never eat there at all and tell all our friends not to also. I feel as though they are missing the point of hospitality. I have managed a restaurant before, and even if you have a small place but it's as busy as Gino’s you can still go out of business real fast when you don’t listen to the customers. I’ve seen it happen to the best little places in small towns like this. Word of mouth keeps you going or not. And within a year you can have to shut your doors if people are not happy. Keep them happy and word of mouth positive or feel the sting down the road. Really unfortunate too when you have good food.

Many owners think that because they have a superior product they don’t need to listen to the complaints. You ALWAYS need to listen to the complaints. Even more so than the positive feedback. Owners unfortunately are not usually people with business degrees and miss this entirely. Then it takes people like me to come in and try to fix it, but sometimes it’s too late. The community dictates your failure or success not your...

Well l order about $70, dollars worth of food and it wasn’t all that good except for the deserts that was exceptional the Italian cream cake and the strawberry cream cheese cake was good, but the rest was not all that great and the main dish I ordered was so bad I was gagging trying to eat it‼️‼️🤮 Thought it was me so I asked other opinion and they said it was too hard to eat, it was like they used smashed garlic to garnish it and it was very over whelming so much that it took away the actual taste of the pasta and shrimp which would have been excellent if it was not soaked in mashed garlic‼️ I should say that I for one love Italian cuisine and know what it should taste like but this dish just had way too much garlic and I love garlic but not this way‼️ Anyway I called about it and from the moment I started to explain what was not right about it I was shut down, the owner claimed she told me it had lemon in it and would tell them to go light, the complaint was not about the lemon but about the too much smashed Garlic all over the top of the dish not to mention it was mixed into It as well. A little goes a long way so this was what messed up this dish. Long story short she would not replace it with another or something else preferred. What a waste of my money‼️ To say the least I was pretty upset‼️ For one when I called it for delivery it was already late so by the time we got it and actually tasted it, the restaurant was closed bc of this I had to wait until next night, (we’re night owls), to call about it so that didn’t help but still I think she should’ve offered something and instead she was argumentative and defensive before I could even tell her what I didn’t like about it and that’s why she thought it was about the lemon and even when I told her it was not about the lemon and it was the over whelming garlic that made it unbearable to eat she was dead set on not making it right by me so I just decided I wouldn’t order from there again but again I did like the desserts. ✨ Desserts were 5 ⭐️’s‼️ I’m sure they have other dishes that MAY be good but idk bc they didn’t even try to redeem themselves to me so I couldn’t really say. So far I’ve gotten one slightly burnt pizza from before now and this time a very bad entree but they say 3 ax’s a charm❗️ Most likely my third time will only be for desserts though. Hey everyone has there own experiences but this was mine, I’m just...