Certified Pies — Restaurant in Little Rock

My wife and I decided to try this location last nite to mark it off of our list of pizza places to try. The choices last night were Fizolis and Certified Pies, and we made the worst decision ever by going to Certified Pies. Let me get into the service aspect first. Imagine a restaurant that flat out won't answer the phone to take an order. Yep, I said this correctly, I started out calling this restaurant at 5 p.m. to place my order. No one would answer the phone, I reached out to their social media outlets on Fb and IG and I got a response on Instagram that the employees were probably too busy to answer the phone so I needed to place the order online or walk in. Mind you, the wait time for an order was 53 minutes. An establishment that is unwilling to answer the phone, that's unheard of in my view. Now I find that the website on my phone allows me to make the vegetarian mods that I wanted to make, so I put items in my cart. I then try to pay, and I get an error numerous times that their system is unable to process my card. My info is plugged in correctly, but it takes another 10 minutes to get my card to go thru. This whole experience is frustrating. I finally get the order placed and paid for, and I drive to the location and walk in to about 10 people in the lobby, all standing, waiting for food. The smell of the lobby was that of cigarette smoke, and now let's get to the pizza. I ordered a pizza, the swang and bang. This is what is listed that was supposed to be on this pizza.....(Ranch Base, Mozzarella Cheese Blend, Crispy Chicken, Bacon, Ranch Swirl, Truth Swirl.) I had the chicken and bacon removed, I would have liked to have been able to substitute having that removed and replaced with vegan pepperoni, but alas, no one would answer the phone to discuss this. When I opened the pizza box, what I found was a cheese pizza with no swirl of anything, no ranch swirl, and no truth swirl. My wife was frustrated because the swirls were the reason she ordered this pizza, and although I paid $5 extra for the vegan pepperoni, I received two pieces of pepperoni on each slice.

Let me end by saying that when a supposed black owned restaurant fails in all three categories when it comes to food service, they have really pulled off an anomaly. Horrible customer service, or the lack thereof, a dirty, filthy smelling location and then a mediocre product that was more like little Ceasars or papa johns. I take that back. It was more like the food product that you would get at playtime pizza or chucky cheese. I haven't been this disappointed in quite a long time. To have paid almost $50 for a food product that we basically ended up viewing as a waste of Saturday nite calories infuriates me.

I would advise people not to waste their money here at this location. Order dominoes or pizza hut. At least you know what you are getting, and it won't be hard like cardboard triangles. Don't walk, but run away from this location. I will never spend another dollar here if they were the only food option open in Little Rock rock. Just a pathetic...

I feel like I got the good ole bait and switch. I was really excited to try this place. I should have let it go when I called last week and was told they were out of chicken. I ordered the Boss Hogg pizza and from the photos on the website it looked great. There were lots of toppings the crust looked crispy; however, what I got was disappointing, greasy, and sparsely topped. I said it looked like a bad Little Ceasars pizza. My daughter said it looked like a Lunchables pizza; sadly, my coworkers agreed. When I complained about the deceitful pizza, all I got was excuses. First, the lady at counter acted like I was blind and started comparing toppings while encouraging me to try the pizza. Then she said the pizza in the photo was a different size. When I challenged that, she got the manager who repeated what she said. Then added that the pizza in the picture on their site was ordered with extra toppings and extra cheese. If I will not get what's pictured, then don't show it. I took one bite and was disgusted. The pizza was oily, sparsely topped, and it went limp when picked up. I also got some wet lemon pepper wing and they tasted like pre-breaded bagged chicken that were tossed in a sauce. They were gooey and I asked for them to be cooked hard. I ate one wing. I got a peach tea that I enjoyed. I offered to bring all the food back for a refund, but was told no refunds.

I think it is unfortunate that this company doesn't stand behind their product. I definitely will not be returning. While the lady at the counter was encouraging me to try the pizza, she could have told me to try it there, because if I left my monies were no longer refundable. It seemed like she was taught to make excuses and upsale. She was polite and I think she is good front of house person, she definitely tried to sell me everything I asked about. She even offered me a pre‐packaged tea sample. Aside from the food issues, I didn't like all the excuses. Then to be told that I couldn't get a refund for food that I didn't eat is crazy. I was told there are signs posted. I didn't see any and nothing was on my receipt. I also had to prepay when I ordered over the phone and nothing about no refunds was disclosed. I give them props for the text receipts and the text to let you know that your food is ready. But as my friend said while she laughed at my food, that's what I get for...

I’ve been to Certified Pies before and had great experiences, but today was a different story — and honestly, enough to make me walk away without even picking up my food.

I told the woman at the front that I had placed a to-go order and wanted to dine in instead (since I had time for lunch), she immediately gave me a mean look and acted like I was asking for too much as she looked back nastily at the others .I also asked to add a drink to the order — and again, same energy: visible attitude and irritation. I understand me being the first person to walk in but nobody should be met in that manner over that. I still responded nicely as I still wasn’t very offended but confused. I just asked for it to be Togo since I didn’t want to eat in that environment since she had came off a bit smug.

At one point, she told me, “You could’ve just added the drink to your to-go order instead,” like I was bothering her by speaking. It wasn’t to inform me, but hey people change their minds and want to order things we forgot to online, it happens! At that point, I asked them to cancel the entire order. I VERY felt uncomfortable when I was treated like that. I came in ready to see pay for a full meal — but I refuse to spend money in a place where I’m met with hostility or having anyone roll their eyes at me. I even said directly, “I don’t feel comfortable eating here because of the way I was being treated from the moment I walked in” hoping it would reset the tone. But nothing changed — she unjustly defended herself by saying she was looking angry at something else which was a lie since it was about 3-4 times I was given a mug and she rolled her eyes while looking directly at me. This was a huge shift from the positive experiences I’ve had here in the past, so maybe it’s new staff — but whoever it is, that type of energy has no place in customer service. The owners have been VERY kind to each and every customer but just maybe new staffing! I hardly ever give bad reviews or reviews in general but customer service is a huge deal to me as I have made plenty orders and never had this type of experience. Good advice would be to PLEASE train your workers to treat people like people, not...