Flying Pie Pizzeria — Restaurant in Issaquah

Update: Spoke to owner, added at bottom.

Signs up on door requiring masks for all customers to come inside. But, all 5 of the staff I saw had masks on faces but shoved under chin. It is Father's Day, and I just waited an hour to get to pick up pizza for dinner. Trying to keep things nice, so I point out to the cashier that no one is wearing their masks, and ask for her to have the manager give me a call. I grab my pizza and head home. Manager calls me as I am walking into house, says that he is sorry I caught them in a moment of not wearing their masks, but that it is a hot kitchen and they just needed a moment to go cool off. What I saw was 5 people working and making pies without masks on, chatting happily as they did it. Yes, it was warm in there, but I stood there for over 5 min while the cashier was on the phone. I told him what I saw, and said that if it is hot that they should turn up AC. He said AC is broken. So, I asked him if he was one of the people I saw, specifically the taller man with lots of tattoos, and he said yes. As he was wearing his mask under his chin, I asked him to have his supervisor call me. He said OK and we got off phone. Inside home, my wife is afraid of the possible COVID-pizza, so we won't be eating it. Its been like 10 min, so I call back and the cashier answers the phone. I tell her who I am and that I spoke to the manager and had asked him to have supervisor call me. She says that he has called the owner and left her a voicemail. She then puts manager back on phone. He again tries to say that I 'caught' them at a bad moment. He then goes on to say that he is safe, as at some point in the past he got a negative COVID test. I ask how long ago that was, and he won't say. I then say that the test only shows that there is no detectable contagion that day, and can be meaningless now. He gets upset and starts going on about how hot is it there in the kitchen, I say that doesn't matter, that they can either get AC fixed or run down to Costco and pick up portable unit to fix problem. Possibly getting hundreds of people sick for Father's Day is not acceptable. He says that gets it, that he has a kid at home and doesn't want to get him sick either. I ask for the name and contact number for the owner, so I can call myself. He refuses, saying he doesn't want an upset customer blowing up her phone. I say that this is a timely issue, as in my opinion they should be reaching out to those people that they might have infected. He says he will wait for her to call me. I say that I looked up calling the health department, but they aren't open until Monday morning, and that my next step is calling the local police department. He hangs up on me. So, I call the local cops, and tell them the situation. They say that they will send someone over to talk to them, and will keep a record of it in case someone gets sick. The really bad thing about this is that they claim to be being safe, so at-risk people could be ordering their pies and possibly getting sick as they aren't following through. I get that it is hot, but fix that problem rather than possibly killing people. Next day, noon, no call from owner. Restaurant is closed today, so can only wait for them to reach back out to me.

Update (out of space): Owner called me at 4pm. We had a good chat. She said that employees were supposed to wear masks, and that the AC wasn't broken. She seemed hurt by employee behavior, trying to do good in public interest. I suggested employees get COVID tests, and contact customers if positive. Told owner that I had already written this google review, to make record in case someone got sick. I said that I would go back and add an update (this) describing our call. Owner responded before me, note: 1) No record/discussion of a missed call. She apologized for call delay because she was at funeral day of. 2) I said I would leave original post and add update. 3) No escalated tone, written before call.

I appreciate that the owner said masks are required for employees, and Her employees screwed up - training...

We recently watched Randy Santel on his food challenge at the Flying Pie Pizzeria in Portland Oregon. The pizza looked so good that we had considered going to Portland when we found out that there was a Flying Pie Pizzeria in Issaquah.

We live in Auburn near Covington so travel to Issaquah is somewhat of a deal especially on a weekday. We made good time getting to the restaurant. When we arrived we noticed parking on the front side of the restaurant. It wasn't until after we ordered that we noticed parking on the backside of the restaurant. After we ordered our pizzas, we decided to sit outside in front. Our pizzas seemed to be taking a long time so my husband went back inside and found out that the chicken wings weren't taken as part of our order. It was then that we decided to get our order to go and without the chicken wings.

The seating inside was rather tight, so we sat out front. That seating was in desperate need of updating. There was a non customer adolescent sitting at one of the better tables and another non paying patron, seated at the same table, who was waiting for his child to come out of the Taekwondo place next door. The brewery next door had signs up stating for restaurant patrons only.

It took 45 minutes for a 12" and a 16" pizza. We paid $50 for two different kinds of pizza plus two non alcoholic beverages. The pizza was very good. The pineapple cream soda and the orange soda were amazing. Yet the whole experience left something...

No greeting when we walked in the door. No signs saying "order here" - you have to figure it out yourself. Had to grab our own menus. Order at a counter where they use a machine that suggests tips - the lowest amount is 18%. Of course, you can enter your own tip, but you have to hit more buttons. I'd recommend not tipping until afterwards, if you feel so inclined, because it certainly didn't help us get good service.

No fountain drinks available, they have a machine but obviously are too cheap to buy the syrups because the machine was shut off. 12 oz cans of soda are $1.75 each. They bring the pizza out to you, but you have to get your own plates and silverware. The silverware was empty except for one butter knife, so I had to ask at the front counter, where he acted annoyed that I was asking.

The pizza is pretty good, except it's a LOT of dough, as someone said, more bread dough than pizza dough. So much so that the toppings are only on about 2/3 of the slice - the rest is thick dough. We had the Combo 2 minus Italian sausage and onions, and a 16" is $33. So, for a large pizza, 2 (non-alcoholic) drinks, and a tip it was ~$53.

There were at least half a dozen workers, all speaking Spanish, but no one talked to us unless we initiated it (as in ordering or asking for something). No one said goodbye as we left. They were not busy. Way too much money for cafeteria-style and indifferent "service." We will...