Oregano's — Restaurant in Gilbert

Meh. That pretty much describes our experience here. We had never been to an Oregano's...ever...so this was a first for us. We love food, especially good pizza, and definitely Chicago style pizza. We have 3 other local Chicago style pizza places we like, and we figured we'd feel the same about Oregano's. Be aware that you have to get on Yelp if you want to be on the call-ahead list, and trust me, you do want to be on that list! Since this was our first time going, we had no idea, and even though we showed up when there was only 1 other group waiting for a table, we still waited almost 40 minutes for one (even though the host told us 15-25 minutes). We kept watching group after group come in and get seated before us. We obviously missed the boat on that one! The lobby is small, and as more and more people packed in, the heat and humidity became unbearable. After 40 minutes of standing there, we considered leaving but were called up at that same moment so we stayed. During that 40 minutes I had plenty of time to see all the charming things about the restaurant itself! The decor is fantastic, kind of steampunk with an Italian twist, and the colors are vibrant and fun. They also have TVs playing old black & white shows, which is a fun touch. I give the atmosphere more stars than the either the service or the food for sure. The hosts were nice, the waitstaff was nice, when they were around, but we felt very ignored the entire time. My water was never refilled. Our dinner came 40 minutes after we ordered it. The food lacked any real flavor, so it's convenient they have seasonings on the table. We ordered the thin crust chicken pesto and the thin crust numero-uno and a side salad. I liked the presentation of the pesto, with the thin sliced tomatoes and thin sliced chicken, but I wish it had better flavor. The numero-uno looked lopsided with cheese on about 3/4 of it and the rest without any. The croutons on the salad were really good, like mini garlic toasts, but the salad was otherwise unremarkable. Overall it just wasn't a great experience, so we'll stick with the other Chicago style...

Worst dinner experience ever.

We were sat at our table at 5:47pm. After a few minutes of ordering appetizers, we decided on which pizzas we wanted - pepperoni and olives for one, the works for another.

An hour goes by and we become concerned when people who arrived after us are receiving their food before us. So we waive down our waitress and ask what the hold up was. She assures us she will check with the kitchen. Well she never returns and another half hour goes by, 7:10pm now, also without checking on us. My father stands up and eyes her down. We’re starving at this point. She gets the manager to confront us and his excuse is the kitchen ran out of cheese and our pizzas will be out in 5 minutes. Ok, what’s 5 more mins. They bring out the pizzas and as she’s setting it down informs us they ran out of pepperoni. Jaw drops I couldn’t hold back my expression.

Unacceptable. So in that hour and a half we’ve been waiting, we were not told they had to run around to find cheese, they had no pepperoni, and we were not asked if we would like anything else in that time! Who wants a cheese and black olive pizza? Our other pizza was also incorrect with an added topping we did not want. The girl said she would get her manager over right away. But he did not show. I think for good reason. We were not happy.

We waive the waitress down and tell her this was terrible. The manager covered the meal entirely but it didn’t help we were still starving.

We felt bad the waitress was overwhelmed with more than we know but there was a lack of communication and we have now waisted so much time we could not go anywhere else as it is Christmas Eve and everything was closing. I don’t see us ever returning to this Oreganos ever again.

Side note: the waitress accidentally set another tables recipe down when she handed us our food and saw the totals were also $0.00. I don’t think we were the only ones...

Service was great!! This 3 star rating has nothing to do with the service or staff and they all deserve 5 stars!!!!

I'm taking 2 stars off though because i was really underwhelmed after hearing at least 2 RAVE reviews from people in person and the several amazing reviews on here.

Number 1....And this is a BIG one....The food was not anything special. Hardly any flavor or seasonings. We had 2 types of mostaccioli and 2 types of salad. Bland and boring. Typical of most family style restaurants catering to the elderly who take over our cities every winter. " Its too salty"(I can hear them in my head still lol) I was a server for 16 yrs 😉

Number 2....their restrooms. They are SO small for such a big place with big families and elderly always in there! When I was there, 1 of the 3 stalls, was locked from the inside. The 2nd stall was being occupied for like 35 mins with an elderly lady sounding like she was giving birth. And The 3rd stall was so tiny you couldn't get in there comfortably without being a child. I know skimping on bathroom space for more money-making table space is common in these restaurants but this is crazy. If you regularly have a line of customers waiting to use the restroom you need to change this.

I know the bathroom thing seems petty, but if you have IBS or an over active bladder, or small children with small bladders, you would understand.

Overall this is a nice modern place inside with several great servers! I think there is a lot of room for food improvement and they need more restroom space. I won't be returning unless I know the food has changed to being flavorful and something special or different than...