Puccini's Pizza Pasta-Oaklandon — Restaurant in Lawrence

A Story of Redemption

We ate here nine months ago, and had our worst experience with any Puccini's we've visited. At that time, I gave this Puccini's a one star review.

We ate there this evening, and the difference was 180°. The staff were genuinely pleasant; our order came as we wanted AND the waiter made a suggestion for an additional ingredient (fresh basil) in my calzone which tied everything together. (My calzone was a make-your-own. The basil did indeed tie everything together.)

Note: this was the first solid food I'd eaten since undergoing a major operation the previous week, and that calzone and the salad were absolutely worth it! Happy to award five stars.

 ------======O======------

Generally, we love Puccini's/Buccetto's, and we love their food; but tonight neither our teeth nor our mouth are smiling.

I went to this location to place a to-go order. The attendant told me they were very busy, led me to a seat -- and I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Nobody came. I finally went up to the counter and asked if I could make a to-go order, since nobody had waited on me. The attendant rudely told me they were busy, and they would be happy to serve me at my seat. I told them I had already waited 20 minutes, and it would take absolutely no longer to make an order to take out than it would to serve me at a table -- and either way, I still hadn't been waited on. I finally gave up and left.

C'mon, folks: you're better than this. It takes absolutely no more time to create an order for takeout than it takes to serve one at a seat. Maybe we're in a pandemic, but that doesn't mean your servers need to throw attitude at customers and not wait on them.

I don't like giving one-star reviews, but tonight's service was far below par. Not a...

I've ordered pizzas from Puccini's for years. Today I received what is one of the worst pizzas and worst interactions with restaurant management that I've ever had.

I called and ordered at 2:41pm and was told it would be ready in 20 minutes. I picked up the pizza at 3:05pm and discovered when I got home the pizza tasted burnt due to the crust being burnt.

I called the restaurant at 3:30pm to let them know. The man on the other end of the phone wanted to argue the burnt taste of the crust by saying he was the one who made the pizza and it looked fine. I explained that the bottom of the crust was burnt and made the pizza taste burnt. He immediately asked how much of the pizza was eaten and why didn't I call earlier because it had been an hour since I picked it up, implying that I was somehow trying to scam him. I corrected him that I picked up the pizza less than half an hour prior and it had only been 50 minutes since I called in to order.

I asked to speak to the manager and the man said that he was the manager. It took asking him for his name 3 times before he said "Rico". He said he would void my credit card transaction and it would take a few days.

Is this the new management style of Puccini's Smiling Teeth Pizza & Pasta? To put out an inferior pizza and then argue and belittle the customer who calls you with a well-founded complaint? My experience today was absolutely ridiculous and straight out of the twilight zone.

As for me, I looked up the Regional Manager's phone number and related my dissatisfaction.

There are many choices for pizza and I will never have need or desire to patronize "Rico" or...

I am a huge fan of this place and was excited to have my family join us for dinner. We had a horrible time on Mother’s Day. The place wasn’t very busy like usual but we had awful service. Waitress was a young blonde girl with pig tails nose ring and crop top. - believe another employee called her Kenzie and was absolutely disrespectful, and a terrible waitress. not writing down the order and forgot a drink, didn’t know the beer list, didn’t ring in our pepperoni bread and also didn’t bring the normal bread sticks and left our pizza on the counter to get cold. Then a different server brought our food and we watched everyone but us receive meals. When we reminded her of the pepperoni bread she waited till our meal was finished to bring it. Also the table next to us the woman had to sever her own table also we had to seat ourselves and get our own menus and silverware we waited over an hour. I have no complaints on the food itself or anything but do believe the waitress should be retrained and...