Crushed Red- Kirkwood — Restaurant in Kirkwood

Had an experience with the manager, Rosa, today that reminded me that management is more than scheduling employees and truly a lost art.

I haven't eaten many times at Crushed Red, 3 time total including this experience and haven't in over a year before today. I have dietary restrictions and because of this, have gotten really good at reading menus. So today when I knew I wanted to order a salad and the Kirkwood Crushed Red location was close, I downloaded the to-go menu that was prompted on the site.

I called in and made my salad order. When I got there I was told my order was $25+, which was much higher than stated on the menu, I then saw that I was charged for some of the veggies I ordered. I asked why and was told by Rosa that it was now a charge for more than 6 veggies.

I told her that the gentlemen over the phone did not tell me that and that it was not stated on the menu. I was told it was stated everywhere. I then pulled up the menu on my phone and asked her if she could show me where it said that because I'd looked at the menu pretty thoroughly. She looked and saw that it was not there. She then said it was a policy change that happened around June/July. I then showed her that it said the pdf that dated late August.

I was offered a $5 discount that did not cover what I was charged for "additional" veggies. I ended up having to go through the line and order a new salad.

When I came to the register for the 2nd time, I mentioned to Rosa that in the service industry, if a customer can show that they did their due diligence, and the oversight mistake was fully on the part of the company, the correct thing to do is to make take full responsibility. I was ignored and dismissed with a smirk. I asked if I could speak with a manager and was told "I am the manager."

I paid for my 2nd salad, asked for her name, and left. But let me say, there is truly nothing like the feeling of being held accountable for mistakes that you did not make and then being smugly dismissed when attempting to advocate for yourself. I'm unsure if this is how she shows up every day so I won't imply that but I can say, with certainty, that this experience wasn't Rosa's...

Our visit to Crushed Red was overall a pleasant one: great food, great staff, and great decor.

The location is conveniently beside a parking garage, which was a pleasant surprise as parking in that area usually is unforgiving.

I got a customized pizza, which was super delicious, and left me satisfied. The lady ordered "one of the best salads" she's ever had, and was also very satisfied.

I'd say the only complaint was the process for ordering food-- they have this odd setup that's... a bit like Subway or Chipotle in that you enter a queue and pick what you want-- and depending on the food item, you follow it's creation down said queue until you reach the register where you pay. For pizzas, you order at the start of the queue and wait in queue until you reach the register to pay for the pizza and the staff will deliver it to the table. The frustration is how rushed I felt, as people were waiting in line behind us while I chose the various parts of my pizza.

Overall, pretty awesome experience and we'll certainly be returning.

EDIT: 7 Months Later- We love this place. The custom pizza I repeatedly order has grown to be one of, if not my favorite pizza anywhere!

The issue we felt at the beginning with the ordering process is mostly not a problem, either through the experience we gained through our MANY visits or we've just had better luck.

This place is an absolute treasure; my 4-star rating is definitely a...

I love Crushed Red and will definitely continue to go! I will say that if people have issues with dairy or gluten, at this specific location I might not risk it, or at least carefully double check what you’re given. I ordered a gluten free folded flatbread and a salad that originally is not supposed to come with any dairy products. When the food came out, I double checked with the server whether the flatbread was gluten free, which is just my habit, I found out that gluten free was not on the kitchen’s ticket. No harm no foul, because they remade it with a gluten free flatbread for free. But I got halfway through my salad and realized there was cheese in the bottom half. I realized after leaving and looking back at the menu that they had just made a completely different salad lol! I had asked for the health nut, and they gave me a Cyprus. It was a perfect Cyprus, and it was good, but it definitely was not dairy free, even after taking out the biggest feta chunks, so I will be spending some more quality time with it later lol. I’ll probably still come back to this Crushed Red if I’m in the area, but I’ll be more careful about making sure I got...