Blackthorn Pizza & Pub — Restaurant in Joplin

Edited: I want to acknowledge the owner's response. I appreciate good customer service and especially appreciate when time and effort is put into making corrections or giving reasonable explanations. That tells me where priorities are. While the experience that was already had can't be changed, I do value the response given and the polite demeanor to address it. Thank you for taking the time. As a result to the response, I did increase my rating from the original. As I said, I appreciate good customer service!

Original: My teenage children went as part of a large organized group as a party event. Everything seemed good until it came to the customer service which was non-existent. To be clear, every staff interaction was polite, but many staff (or what appeared to be staff... Maybe they weren't?) were just disengaged with several sitting around a good portion of the time. After ordering, many of the group waited for over two hours and still never got their food. As some of the last to leave, one of my children was able to get a refund. This seems extremely out of character for this restaurant per other reviews, so perhaps just a horribly off night for the staff there. Definitely could not recommend for large groups based off of this experience. Food quality was decent. Price is on the high end. Lighting was bad. They did run out of cheese... Not sure how that happens at a pizza place, but they took steps to go get some from a local store, so it was an inconvenience in that regard but something...

It's our family tradition that the birthday girl/boy get to pick a place for lunch or dinner. This year I wanted pizza. Good pizza. Not just Casey's or Domino's (which is what is available in my town). So, I did a google search to find pizza places, and of course, looked at the menu and reviews to make a decision. It was actually quite simple to choice Blackthorn. While they didn't have the highest rating; upon reading the "bad" reviews, it was more of unfortunate circumstances that took place. Circumstances out of the pub's hands and that did not deter me from wanting to make the hour trip for their pizza (yes, my family thought me crazy). I mentioned this to the waitress as I ordered a pizza to go because we devoured the one we had ordered! Thin crispy crust, loaded with toppings! When I opened the box on the to-go pizza I saw they had taken a quick minute to write Happy Birthday on the interior lid of the box! Talk about "it's the little things." We will definitely be back (hopefully before my birthday next year)! I also want to make a quick note that we ordered the pizza that was on special that day, and not on the main menu. This gave me a sense of Bob's Burgers! I love that the cook was creative. The 'Shroom Gobbler (insert giggle) was delicious! Thank you for adding a little extra to...

The drinks and pizza were great! ...when they finally brought it to you that is.

They are severely understaffed, especially for an event weekend. One poor guy worked from 8 am to at least 1 am the next morning and then had to do it again the next day. That's not healthy or good employee care.

We went 2 days and the service was just as horrible for them both. The first day we waited over 30 mins to be waited on, over an hour to get a small pizza and nachos, another 20 mins at the register to pay, and then rushed out if there. The second day we waited 30 mins for drinks and charged $6 for 1 cheap biscuit with a little gravy 😒. I understand it was a fundraising event, but at least make it worthwhile for the donors. I cook for large groups of people all the time so I know how far B&G will go.

Even the people traveling with the entertainers said it was the second worst place they had stopped...