Minsky's Pizza — Restaurant in Lawrence

If I could select 0 stars I would. We first entered the restaurant with 3 of our 4 person party and told the waitress our 4th person would be joining us shortly. After the arrival of our 4th person, the waitress did not come to our table for another 20 minutes. During this 20 minute period, we saw our waitress, Lillie, standing by the bar on her phone. When she came back to take our orders, we requested a pizza with no almonds on it (due to an allergy, but this allergy information was not initially disclosed because a customer of a restaurant should not have to speak about their medical information to a restaurant), as well as one other pizza, a salad, and an adult beverage. 20 minutes later we received the first pizza, then followed by the salad a few moments later. It seemed rather odd at the moment that a cold salad came out after a pizza with moments separating. At this point in time, we still had not received the ordered adult beverage and needed to remind the waitress before it was then brought out. About 5 minutes later the supposed to be nutless pizza was brought out with nuts "drizzled on it". When this pizza was brought out they stated a few almonds were on the pizza and if it was still okay that we had the pizza or if the no nut request was due to an allergy. When our party stated it was due to an allergy they stated they would remake the pizza and it would just be a few more minutes. The waitress then followed up on this with our party by stating that "the solution that the manager came up with" was to offer us the incorrect pizza to take home if we wanted and 50% off of our correct pizza on the bill. During this entirely messy visit to Minskys we also did not once hear from a manager, and with a food order being incorrect due to a food allergy, most would anticipate some sort of conversation to happen from the manager apologizing for...

We have eaten here once before years ago and it’s was very average. After eating there today, we will not go back. We went at 2pm and it was pretty slow. At the time, I think they had more help than they needed. Our “party of 2” ordered pasta with meat sauce. Pretty easy. When she brought it out the first time it was just pasta and maranara which looked more like just tomato paste. After apologizing and taking it back, she returned it to us with 2 meatballs. After telling her again she took them back. As expected they just chopped up the meatballs. It was very disappointing. The manager behind the bar just talked to the bartender the while time. We were right next to the bar and he knew what was going on but never addressed it with us or the kitchen. At least while we were there. If they didn’t have the meat sauce, we would have been fine with that if we would have been told. Although we don’t expect anything for free, the gesture would have been helpful. After the plates were brought the final time with the same meatballs, the food was then cold/room temp. We just wanted to leave so we ate what we could. I should add that after she took the meatballs back, she offered to cancel our order if we wanted, which we would have taken her up on if we would have realized our food would be cold. She offered an apology which helps until she added that they just had a “big rush” which there was no evidence of but if there was, it shouldn’t affect us at that time. We didn’t need to know that. The excuse was a real bummer. Needless to say, we will not be back and would not recommend this...

It's easy to understand why Minsky's is a top rated pizza chain in metro KC. Their pastas, addictive breadsticks, and pizzas are fantastic. The BBQ chicken, gourmet Hawaiian and Papa Minsky's are all standouts. The Greek salad, Western Cheeseburger and Minsky's club are also great.

If anything, the experience could be improved by a few things. First, the bathrooms are consistently broken or dirty. With only two available (and only one with a changing station for children), that's never a good sign. The restaurant could stand to use a little more space, but some sprucing up in the back would be welcome.

Secondly, the servers themselves are great. But sometimes they seem hampered by inefficiencies. I had to repeatedly ask for silverware (and only received one set at a time recently). I'm not sure why there wouldn't just be silverware set on the tables in advance along with water and some plates. It just makes the servers have to keep running back and forth for minor requests instead of focusing on the food. I'm sure the servers would prefer not to have to keep hustling and the patrons and kitchen staff would probably welcome that too.

Service is really important and a reason why places like Rusty Taco have closed recently, so hopefully the owners and managers can support the staff by improving the facilities and keeping their staff happy and organized. It's a fun place to visit and Lawrence should be pleased to have a location of a well established...