Pau Pizza — Restaurant in Hawaii

Placed an order for a pepperoni pizza and two salads over the phone. Was told 20 minute estimated time for order to be ready. Showed up 30 min later and paid for the order. Cashier takes the receipt with a 20 percent tip and doesn't say anything. I join the other 3 parties waiting in the dining room. 25 minutes pass as orders continue to go out and the cashier continues to ignore me. Finally I ask him what is up with our order, to which he responds "what was the name again" while walking off like I'm inconveniencing him. Informs me over his shoulder that my order will take another 5 minutes. I tell him that it is completely unacceptable to make someone wait this long without giving them a heads up on what is going on. He seems disinterested in my critique of his terrible customer service. Eventually someone from the back comes out and in order to augment the terrible service from the 12 year old they have running the counter. 20 minutes later - an hour after the order- my pizza comes out. Obvious the pizza wasn't put into the oven until after my arrival. Pizza mediocre at best in any other town, AVOID unless you have an hour or two to kill waiting around while a pretentious teenager...

Terrible experience! The staff was very rude. I went to Pau Pizza with a group of seven people (including my 80 y.o. mother) around 1.5 hours before closing. The restaurant was kind of busy, but had several 2-person tables open. The hostess/waitress (rudely) asked us "are you going to eat here?". We said that we would like to and she scowled at us and said it would be 20-30 min. before we could be seated. We responded that we would be happy to wait. The employee then stammered around a bit while my mother, wife, and myself dispersed to the edge of the dining room out of the way near the door. The four children with us went outside in a small covered area (since it was raining fairly hard). The employee then told us that we would "have to wait outside or order take out". She is a terrible employee for that company. We left, but would NEVER consider eating there again. Instead we went to the Paniolo inn down the road and had EXCELLENT service (and the pizza was not...

I did this review originally in Jan 2024, update at the bottom - We were recommended this spot by a few friends who live in Waimea. One of those friends has lived in a few spots on the mainland and both have travelled extensively and eaten great food. We are living between here and Europe and have had some of the best pizza in the world. I really like this place and the team seem great. The ingredients for the pizzas are extensive and interesting. I’m a serious crust snob and didn’t love the crust of this pizza, but the sauce and ingredients are really good and - for Hawaii - amazing. If you’re having a craving for good pizza and live within 30 mins, I’d make the trek for sure. Update: We ordered a whole pizza to take away for the first time and it was the same pizza crust/sauce as by-the-slice, but there were almost NO toppings. This wasn't a super-expensive pizza for Waimea (Large - $30), but it was really dissapointing. Suggest stick with by the slice which has...