Arni's Monticello — Restaurant in Monticello

I have had a series of poor customer service, poor tasting food and slow service due to poorly trained staff. I had a front row seat to the most recent poor service. What I witnessed is the reason why this franchise will never meet the high quality standards that Arni's has in the Lafayette area. I called in a small order at 5:50PM. Two Jr. salads and one small pepperoni pizza for take out. I arrived at the restaurant at 6:00PM. The cashier looked up my ticket and my food wasn't ready yet so, I paid and stood off in the front area in full view of the kitchen area. I watched each work station and mainly the guy in charge of the food once it came out of the oven. I seen several pizza come out of the oven and placed at his work station. At 6:05PM he was given a small pepperoni pizza. He cut it and pushed it aside. I assumed it was a dining room order. While he continued to prepare food to be served, a gentleman walked in the door who got home and realized he had a missing item and ask him about a missing item in his order. The man explained that his child's chicken strips and fries were missing when he got home so, he had to drive back and get them. The employee didn't ask for his receipt, he just said someone forgot to put it on the order and he would prepare another order for him at no charge. The customer tried to explain the item was included on the receipt but, the employee wasn't listening. This was at 6:15PM. I noticed another employee started folding pizza boxes on the left side of the kitchen. He had about three boxes folded. At 6:20PM another employee ask the guy cutting the food about the pepperoni pizza that was still sitting there and he replied, "It's a to-go order, but I don't have a box for it." Then finally the employee who was folding boxes brought about 8-10 boxes to him and I watched him pick up that pepperoni pizza and place it in the box. ( I thought to myself, surely this guy is NOT going to try and give me this cold pizza?) He looked for the ticket and called out my name. I immediately told the guy I didn't want this pizza I wanted him to redo my order and make another one. He had no clue what to do. He picked the pizza out of the box. Walked to the back of the store into another room, I assume he talked to a manager? When he came out, he walked over to the oven and stuck the pizza back in the oven. I was watching to see if someone was going to make another pizza for me. No, they didn't and after a couple minutes he took the pizza back out of the oven and put it in a box and handed it to me. I told him I didn't want this pizza I wanted a full refund. He handed me two "$5.00" coupons and the pizza and all he could say was he was sorry. He didn't offer any other explanation. At this point was I was so furious I wanted to leave and never come back to this restaurant again. I left the restaurant at 6:35PM. I truly hope the NEW owner reads this and gets off their butt and properly trains their employees to work as a team and to learn how to take more responsibility in their job. None of these employees acted like they had a clue how to do their jobs. I mean seriously...how hard would it have been for this employee to give a shout out that he needed ONE box? That would have prevented this from ever happening. Ooh, and when I tried to explain this to the cashier, the box guy yelled out that he was putting the boxes together. As if to say... "What more did you want lady?" "I was doing my job." Well, Good luck with your future success! You're...

So right off the bat, I was second guessing this restaurant because the outside of the building is falling apart. Rotten wood everywhere. The building looks deserted, the parking lot has no lines, we weren't really sure where to park.

Went inside and the layout is very strange. There were laminated signs saying pickup or dine in, otherwise I would have thought it was pickup only because there's no obvious place to sit when you first go in. This isn't a problem in itself, but it became an issue because they make you order before you sit down. I came with a group and we hadn't decided what to eat... and there were no visible menus posted. So we had to awkwardly stand there and guess at things that might be on the menu.

Once we decided, the guy at the register wrote our order down. He was very rude and kept mumbling, we couldn't understand what he was saying when he answered our questions... and the whole time we were ordering there was a woman standing next to him, arms crossed in front of her, glaring at us. Way to make us feel welcome?

We made our way down the hallway to the seating area and 75% of the tables were filthy, even though they were not anywhere close to being busy. You have to carry your own drinks to your table, which is fine. They all tasted like dirty water, no flavor to them.

We did not have to wait long, the pizza was good, and the guy who brought the pizza out was nice. We asked a woman for two boxes and she never came back. So we went up front to ask again and she practically threw a fit about it, then gave one box so we had to ask again.

In summary, the pizza is good but the people are rude and the place is absolutely disgusting. I won't be back, it's...

Reserved a table for 12. When we got there someone was sitting at it who had 11 friends coming. Ok. Honest mistake. No wait staff to take your order. Works like an uppity fast food joint. Order at the counter then they'll bring it to you. Ordered two pitchers of soda. We got warm liters of soda and Styrofoam glasses half full of ice. They brought out appetizers but no table service. After asking for that we got four small paper plates. When the pizza showed up it reminded me of cheap frozen pizza. When we tasted it, WOW, I couldn't have been more right. They advertise"best pizza in town". Apparently Walmart doesn't sell frozen pizzas in Monticello. This was our second attempt at dinner in this town. I am totally convinced Monticello, Indiana is the culinary armpit of America. Good thing we passed a Taco Bell and an Arby's on the way in. Did I mention they don't sell beer or wine? I didn't, did I. That would have made this tolerable. I would give pizza hut 5 stars before I gave this place one. You've...