Pizza My Heart — Restaurant in Monterey

New to the area and ordered takeout for first time the other day. Online order user interface was not horrible but not good either with clicks needed to go back and forth between pages. I liked that they provided promotional coupons but not that simple to use. I got the two fresh salads ($9.50 value) for free with a large mt diablo pizza. Ordered at 5:30pm with scheduled 6:30pm pickup on a Friday. Arrived at the restaurant and there were about two dozen people standing around the takeout counter. It wasn't clear what I should do so I stood at the counter for a few minutes until a young employee came to help. He asked me my name. I gave it and he asked if I had paid already. I said yes and he took down my name and said "let me check". I didn't get any further communication after that as he walked back into the restaurant. I waited for 30 minutes until just after 7pm before he called my name and asked if I got my salads already. I said no. He handed me the food without a word about the delays. During the wait time many people were standing around looking upset and some spoke to each other and complained about the wait. I've worked in high volume customer service and you have let customers know the expected wait especially if they have a scheduled pickup. Setting customer expectations is very important in this kind of business and management is at fault here. The employee was cool headed but maybe too much as he didn't give any indication that he cared about the slow service. I could see inside the restaurant and notice that they had stacks of orders sitting on shelves and the employees seemed constantly confused about which order was which and when it was supposed to go out. Delivery drivers sometimes received their orders right away while others waited longer than I did. When I got home after 15min the pizza was room temp. The salads were fresh but they forgot the salad dressing. The pizza itself was of poor value and I could tell there was going to be a problem as all I smelled was vinegar when it was in the car. The mt diablo pizza is not good at all. It had probably less than 2 tablespoons of vegan sausage in tiny tiny bits spread around. It was covered with pickled banana peppers which was why it smelled so strongly of vinegar. It completely unbalanced the flavor of the pizza and I had to pick most of them off. The other red pepper and mushroom toppings were sparse as well. The mykonis vegan mozza was also heavy in some areas but non existent in most of the pizza area. The sauce was unmemorable. The crust was soggy in the middle and the crust was as flavorful as dry white bread. Management: you have a problem with your business and I'm surprised you have...

3rd time around and still probably the best pizza hands down I have tried in California! The line can get long, BUT it moves quickly. Slices are larger than normal, so come with an appetite. They do have salad options fresh from the surrounding farming, and they're an excellent side choice to any pizza and if you buy a slice with a salad you get a free drink. Thank you, Pizza My Heart, for offering vegan options as well, although it was disappointing to know you had to purchase a whole pizza to get the vegan cheese options. Please consider also selling them by the slice! Many flavor options to peek everyone's taste buds. We recently tried their cinnabomb (I think is what it's called) and it was pretty good. The first time they made it for us, it was nothing but gooey dough! 🤣🤢 We took it back to the front counter, and they remade it without push back, apologized, and refunded us our money as well! So this place continues to prove they are the pizza spot to match and beat! Our girls love this spot as well. One daughter loves the Hawaiian style, the other is straight pepperoni (she said it was a tad oily for her, but that seems standard with pepperoni), I had the veggie (Excellent), hubby had pepperoni as well and he scarfed it down (not too oily for him). Our son did not come with us but we took home some slices for him. Unfortunately, he was really looking forward to trying it this time but was totally let down from our hype. This only means that Pizza My Heart is best fresh out of the oven and not reheated in the microwave. I told him to try the air fryer for a few minutes next time and see if that changes his experience. If you are heading to Santa Cruz or to Monterey Beach areas don't miss out on some good local pizza! It will change your life!!!!😅 Also, their lemonade is fantastic. If you like t-shirts they sell their swag for $8 and comes with a free pizza slice! Score! Pizza My Heart you have...

On June 1st at the del monte center location in monterey i received the worse service to date at any of the pizza my heart locations. the service was absolutely horrible. we placed our order at 8:50 and we didn't receive our pizza until 9:27. The workers were OBVIOUSLY under the influence of god knows what because they were hustling as fast as slugs on a salt coarse. for as long as we waited and the amount of people working the floor (at least 10), you would expect a clean store, behind the line and within customer areas, but no. behind the line was disgusting and we saw multiple employees standing around laughing and joking with one another rather than keeping the restaurant clean. tables were disgusting, full of crumbs and trash. (GRANTED, that is how the tables usually are, i just assumed it was apart of my hometowns pizza shoppes charm.) at one point a hoard of teenagers came in AFTER us and they were given their pizzas first, but no matter, their orders were also vehemently incorrect as well. after spending the day in big sur, i would expect an establishment that i know and adore to be a delightful end of my day but waiting nearly an hour after being told "it will be just 12 minutes" is insanity. the icing on top of this horribly managed, falling apart cake, is that even after waiting, our pizza was still cold. here is my advice: drug tests and raise the age bracket of your employees. or hire high functioning...