The Roman Candle Pizza — Restaurant in Madison

Used to be Great

I've been a customer for over ten years and ordering from two different living locations. For the last five years, I've placed many orders at my current address. Enjoyed the food and appreciated its existence until the service from the employees and quality of the food started to deteriorate over the last few years.

We tried to order wings tonight. The order was taken and paid for over the phone without issue. About a half hour later RC called me back to state they needed to cancel my order because we were "out of their delivery range." I proceeded to explain that we had been delivered to many, many times to the same address and that nothing has changed. I even alerted them to the fact that this wasn't the first time this mixup occurred and that management assured it wouldn't happen again. I then asked if they looked up my account via my phone number. The person on the phone confirmed that they had and then admitted that they found me in the system showing my past orders. Vindication, but no change. The employee on the phone stated they still had to cancel the order and that no manager was in the restaurant to validate my claim because they already left (despite the fact that their computer showed I was delivered to by them direct, no third party delivery), and with only one delivery driver they wouldn't do it. I finally had enough. We had been already waiting over a half hour thinking our food would be on its way. Time wasted. Hunger increasing. How can I order from a place successfully, then not be allowed to order from the same place at a different time and be told I'm suddenly out of delivery range? It's incredibly frustrating to call an establishment wondering if you'll possibly get service or if you'll get turned away because it changes from day to day.

As I told the person on the phone, I'm done and I will not be ordering from Roman Candle again nor eating at the physical location. The food has lessened in quality over time as well. We were hoping to have a better experience, but no dice. Long time patrons...

Really, this restaurant doesn't even deserve the one star I had to give it. As some of the other reviewers have said, the Roman Candle (I visited the one on Willy) has just gone downhill--and badly. I visited with a friend of mine. Two other parties walked in at the same time as us, one before and one after us. Both of these parties were eventually served, but we were never even acknowledged (no water, menus, or even a "we'll be with you shortly"). There were not that many other customers at the restaurant, but the workers apparently couldn't be bothered to even pay attention to who had come in. (One worker was cleaning the ice cream counter, and another was just standing around.) After 5 mins or so of this, my friend and I were fed up and left. We ended up getting pizza from the Glass Nickel, a fantastic pizza company that has yet to disappoint.

To anyone looking for a pizza parlor with good service: I would strongly suggest looking elsewhere. There are many choices in Madison; don't waste your time with this one.

To the Roman Candle: This is the second time this has happened to my friend and me over an extended period. We are through with your restaurant, and it seems like many others are too. Don't be surprised if/when your workers no longer have any customers to ignore...

Used to be one of my favorite spots, but boy howdy, they've gone downhill.

Three of us (all adults) stopped at Roman Candle on Willy Street on a Monday evening to dine in. There were two other tables of patrons when we arrived. We were told to sit anywhere we liked and chose a table. A couple came in several minutes after we did and sat down a couple of tables away.

After about five minutes, the person behind the counter delivered menus to the table that came in after we did, and took their drink orders. Then he walked past our table, tossed a couple of menus down and said "your server will bring you water."

The other table got their drink orders. Five minutes later, someone delivered three glasses of water to our table and immediately took off - no inquiry about drink orders, or about a food order.

Two more tables of dine-in patrons arrived, were seated, given menus and had their drink orders taken. Meanwhile, we sat with our three glasses of water and the menus.

After twenty minutes of this, we concluded that our business clearly was not wanted, so we walked out. We had a very nice meal with excellent service at a competing establishment. We will not be back to...