Flying Pie Pizzaria-Meridian — Restaurant in Meridian

From January 19, 2024; 6pm - 7pm:

There is a story and then a TLDR; at the end.

I have been to Flying Pie hundreds of times, but this location only three times. The first two times were great, tonight, not so much. The most disappointing experience I have had here or anywhere around really.

I used to go to these all the time in Portland Oregon, and I moved here and was excited to take my girlfriend because its always the best pizza and coolest environment. Now I wish I had chosen a a different night to do so.

We came in around 6pm, ordered a 10-inch Fromage a Trois, Cheesysticks, and a 10-inch Vegetarian. About 20 minutes later, the cheesy sticks come, which were great. About 20 minutes later, my Fromage comes out, which is also amazing. Another 20 minutes go by and the Vegetarian has not come out yet. I had nibbled at my pizza a little but was waiting because I did not want to eat before my girlfriends pizza came out. A few minutes later I got up and went to the counter to ask if something was up. I noticed that 10 or so people had piled up at the pickup-to-go counter. They continued to pile in up to when I finally got service at the counter after about 10 minutes of standing there. At first it was the young man who took our order, he was nice and went to look into what was going on. He looked frustrated as he pointed to the computer while talking to his fellow employee and then shaking his head. He never got back to me because he ended up being overwhelmed with outgoing orders, I understood and was fine. I asked the young lady (her name was Julia, she handled the situation with great tact and professionalism, and did not seem for a moment bothered or impatient) who was going back and forth explaining to people that their pizza would just be "a few more minutes" over and over, and she said she would look into it too. Another 10 minutes went by, when she said "Im sorry Im trying to figure out whats happening, I need to speak to my manager." The manager looked very perplexed at the moment, which I also understood because it was getting very busy. The to go line was huge at this point, there were at least 20 people standing on that side of the counter, all huddled into the one side of the restaurant. Finally an answer came back - someone who is not normally on the line came out and put my girlfriends pizza in a to go box and had sent it out. So it was never coming, and if I had not asked about it, it would have never been brought up. The young lady (Julia) came back and explained that I could get a refund for my entire meal (this was their idea, and I am happy with it) but not until later, as the manager was too busy. I had her write me a note to ensure this happened and have posted it here. Ill be looking for the refund to come through, at which point I will update this review.

TLDR; 3 star for food because it was good, but did not really have a chance to enjoy it. 2 star for service because Julia handled a bad situation well. 1 star for atmosphere because it was stressful and way too packed in there because of the back up of orders.

I understand busy nights, this situation was a little different because it was hectic and un fun and neither of us got to eat.

I will update this review and leave another review another time if I have a better experience.

-Josh

UPDATE - January 20th, 10am I did get my refund for my meal which I appreciate greatly after the experience I and my girlfriend had there. I added a star to service for 3 stsrs because they honored this. I will try the place again and leave another review as well as an update on this one based on how that visit...

We really like Flying Pizza but we just keep having really bad service experiences. This last experience was awful:

We ordered a pizza online for delivery after a long weekend. We were tired, hangry, and thought we'd splurge on some comfort food. My wife called and ordered the pizza and we paid for it along with the delivery charge and a tip. It was a bit pricey but at least we could just chill and wait for pizza goodness.

While we waited, my wife looked at the confirmation and noticed that the the delivery address was incorrect. So, just to make sure the pizza didn't get delivered to the wrong place, we called back and the employee made some changes and wrote down the correct address to give to the delivery driver.

After waiting an hour without a delivery (they told us 30 minutes) or any notifications, we called again and was told that the Uber Eats driver (we didn't know they used Uber Eats for deliveries) never showed up and that the pizza had been sitting in the warmer for that last 30 minutes and that they were going to have to get another delivery driver to deliver the order.

To save some time, I volunteered to come get it but told them that I didn't really want a pizza that had been sitting in a warmer for almost an hour. They said they would make us a fresh one and I drove over to the Meridian store to pick it up. When I got there the pizza was still in the oven (which I was OK with since it would be fresh). Since we had already paid I asked if they would refund the delivery charge. They said they would review the receipt that night and at least refund the delivery fee. Not ideal but okay.

Almost 3 hours after our initial order we finally sat down and enjoyed a really good pizza. The process was exhausting but we were hopeful that Flying Pie would do right and refund the delivery fee (at least). They didn't. It's been 2 weeks. No call back, no refund, crickets. Just bad customer service.

This (and an equal experience at the restaurant) pretty much put a nail in the Flying Pie Coffin. They have good pizza but it's pricey comes with really poor customer service....

I've been ordering takeout pizzas from this location 4-5 separate times now. Even though this place has good reviews and praise, I still don't think it's really a 5 star place. The main issue (for me) is the price (bang for buck). The pizzas here are very pricey. Yes, I know this place isn't on the same level as Papa John's or Dominos, but it's almost twice the price of those kinds of places, and the pizzas here really aren't 2x better. Yes the toppings are fresh and abundant, but man it's still pricey.

Even though they have the buy 1 get 1 half price deal for medium or large pizzas, your total will be around $40 for 2 larges, while I can get 2 larges from other places for right around $20 (when those other places have 50% off coupon codes, etc).

The pizzas are tasty, ingredients taste fresh for the most part. Lots of variety available. My personal favorites are Garlic Chicken Pizza & Contest Combo Pizza.

Someone in a previous review mentioned that they never answer the phone when you try and call to place an order. I found that to be accurate, since 1 time I actually tried calling 3 times to order (each time 5 minutes apart) and no one answered. They have been better at that recently though, and I only had 1 time this happened within the last month or so.

Overall, they have tasty pizzas, but if the pricing was re-evaluated and dropped slightly, this place would be 4-5 stars easy. I really enjoy the pizzas when I order here, but the pricing is just a little off IMO.

As a side note, their Habanero pizza they have in the summer is HOT AF. I got the "weakest" version, and I was sweating and dying after my first slice. If you LIKE hot foods, level 1 is for you. If you're a savage that likes torture, get level 2. If your previous life was you living your life as a BBQ charcoal briquette getting roasted in jet fuel in the middle of the Sahara Desert, then level...