The Haul — Restaurant in Grants Pass

It's sad and embarrassing to give a once loved, local business a 1 star review, but after this beyond unsatisfactory experience and added poor customer service from John (the owner), it was necessary.

To make a long story short, we were given a credit for a future purchase for our previous order that was wrong. It was a nice gesture and we appreciated the effort to make things right.

Two weeks later, my husband and I decided to order our usual Italian pizza and use our credit to add extras to our pizza...only we were not expecting the "extra" that it came with.

Though our order was still not what we'd asked for and our sausage was rock hard and the pizza was cold, we just chalked it up to them being extra busy and not careful in cooking our pizza...we ate some anyway. On our 2nd slice I felt something on the bottom of my pizza, I figured it was extra dough from another pie.. no biggie...NOPE....it was parts of an old fried egg.

I figured they should at least know about this. So I called The Haul, and was lucky enough (so I thought) to speak with John, the owner. John seemed disinterested in hearing about our experience, but I don't know, maybe he was tired, after all, it was Friday, I get it.

As soon as I mentioned the fried egg on the bottom of our pizza, John perked up, got defensive and began to talk over me, telling me there was NO WAY it came from pizza line (odd, since I never said that). When I had a chance to interject, I asked, "do you serve fried eggs on any sandwiches or burgers or anything else?", perhaps that's where it came from, since there was, in fact an old egg on our pizza?."

I even offered to bring the pizza in to show him. He said "look, I dont want you driving it down here. I'll give you my phone number, you can text me a picture ", then immediately, repeated there was no way the egg mistake happened. Then, why would I send a picture if you've already decreed it didn't happen?

I explained I'm not asking for a refund, since after my exchange with him, we wouldn't be returning. I only wanted him to know, if, in fact you don't have "egg on your pizza line", then you have a way bigger problem than we originally thought. At that point John asked me to lower my voice, though I was only trying to get a word in edgwise.

We're not picky eaters, we just don't want someone else's leftover food on our order. Surely you can understand that John! A simple...hmmm, that's not ok, let me figure out how that happened would have been sufficient.

I've only ever given 2 other 1 stars besides this and they have both gone out of business...

Good Lord, where do I start. The food poisoning...the fact none of our food was hot...the 50 minute wait for our food... anyways. We get there, wait 20 minutes in line, pay for our food (chicken feta pizza, burger, fries and 2 orders of tacos) and get shorted on my change, didn’t worry about it and Sit down, I get my pizza 25 minutes after ordering, I finish it and get a to-go box. 10 minutes LATER everyone else food comes. Literally cold fries, cold dry chicken tacos, and a burger my friend wasn’t impressed with either. My pizza tasted like someone dumped an entire container of salt on it, and the chicken tasted funny...but gave them the benefit of the doubt and finished it. I jokingly said to my friends “here comes the food poisoning!” as they sent ALL their food back to the kitchen, thinking it couldn’t get worse. It could. I’m 99% sure they brought out the SAME exact fries but poured hot grease on them. Because the little hole in the fries where the dip was, was still there. The tacos, were exactly the same temperature as the first time...and after sitting their for almost an hour AFTER I finished my pizza waiting for them to finish, I start to get a light stomach ache. We leave, and within 10 minutes of being home I threw up over 15 times until it was pure water. (Out the other end, too) the guy who ordered the burger had a light stomach ache as well, but not as bad as me.

I told myself the last 2 times I went there, that I’d never go there again. Because the first 2 times were just like this, minus the food poisoning. This tipped it over the top. I can’t believe that place can pass health inspection. I don’t know how this place has stayed in business. Never again, and I hope I saved someone the trouble of almost going to the ER.

UPDATE. Just gave it another shot, figured it might have just been a bad day...literally got food poisoning AGAIN from something totally different. DO NOT EAT HERE, THEY ARE...

Yesterday was a remarkable experience at the Haul. After packing on the holiday pounds, I’m trying to take it easy on the calorie intake. But also, I needed to eat and I looked around and thought maybe the hall would have some soup already made. Lucky for me, I was right! I ordered their tomato rosemary soup. It was ready for me in one minute. And honestly, perhaps it was I need a sort of day, I don’t know. But that soup was like a hug - a food hug. It felt light and healthy to my body, but also just the right amount of hardiness to make me feel well taken care of, good to go for a long time. The unique perfectly seasons flavor combination had me forgo my spoon to drink the last drop from the bowl. It truly was exactly what I needed.

And an honorable mention would go to the taste tester I had while ordering my soup. I sought after the side of the register that they offered homemade Slushy cocktails! They were also ready to go, no wait needed. No Read 40 or HFC in this slushy though. It was the perfect amount of sweets, the perfect amount of booze, and the perfect amount of curious fresh fruit flavor. On a different day, the slushy would’ve been a whole Nother kind of wonderful “food hug”.

So, I apologize if this review seems a little mushy or dramatic. But, I really appreciate the healthfulness, the artistry and the attention to detail of the...