Square One Pizzeria — Restaurant in Mount Clemens

Well, it looks like my once-favorite pizza joint has lost its luster. Aside from the true-to-Detroit-style pizza, the main reason I started ordering from here on a regular basis was that the food always arrived hot and fresh to my door. Sadly, it appears that the rightful praisee given to Square One over the past year or so has caught up to them. No doubt that because of word-of-mouth praise by those who have been ordering from them from the beginning (including myself), the volume has increased drastically the last couple years. As a result, what I get delivered now is ice cold, old pizza and bread with the cheese completely solidified and the sauce on top as thick as 2-week-old marinara. Perhaps it was my own fault, for ordering food at 5:40pm and asking for it to be delivered at 7pm. Given my years delivering pizza for Jets when I was younger, I know how most drivers operate: they take a few deliveries, and they have a timed one, they will deliver a couple others first and save that one for last. Conversely, I know how the makers of the pizza operate: they make the timed one well (sometimes a couple hours) ahead of the requested delivery time and let it sit in the Alto-Shaam. Very sad because I started ordering from Square One not too long after they opened because I got tired of waiting an hour and a half for a delivery from Jets that would be ice cold when it finally arrived. Ironically, the last few times I've ordered from Jets, it arrived fresh and so hot it would burn my mouth, which is odd given that Square one is 0.7 miles from my house and Jets is 3 miles from my house. What a shame that this place has lost its dedication to delivering hot, fresh product. I paid $56 for a small pizza, large bread and salad. But, as they say, there's a last time for everything.

BTW - had the salad not still been cold, even though it is only 33 degrees outside right now, I would've said this experience deserved 0 stars in the first sentence of this review. Still, throw the hard, yellow chunks of the heads of lettuce away! Don't put that stuff into a salad and give it to a customer! For $12 my wife and I shared a large salad from Eddie V's just 3 days ago with no yellow and all fresh, crisp greens! As it stands, 1 star and probably will not order delivery from here again. What a shame.

Edit: Owner responds to my review by insulting me and accusing me of lying:

Square One Pizzeria (Owner) 8 minutes ago Aww come on Mike you wouldn’t treat your once favorite this way. This smells like total BS but if it’s not and you legit had an issue please call we always make things right.

Guess what - I'm not going to call you. I don't want any free stuff from you. Your patronizing handouts are not welcome here. You don't like my review, then get your stuff together and deliver fresh, hot product! Simple as that! Took you all of 8 minutes to respond to my review, including the time it took to actually type your response, but you can't drive a pizza to a house less than a mile from your pizzeria before it gets cold? Goodbye forever, and I wish...

First ordered OCT 5, 3 years ago. We ordered The Standard and a large bacon bread. Delivery was 8 minutes late, which I mentioned to the driver. He apologized and I told him it was no big deal. While we were eating, I called the joint and asked to talk to the manager. When I told him I just had a delivery to my address, he said, "yes, 8 minutes late. I apologize". Howevere, I wasn't calling about that. I was calling to tell him that the pizza and bread were outstanding. We had a good chat for a few minutes, and he was very appreciative of the fact that I took the time to actually call and compliment.

Well, that was then. We have ordered many times since then. The first time we were displeased with our food, it was because it arrived cold. We let it fly. The second time it arrived cold and squished, with sauce, cheese, and toppings stuck to the top of the box. Called and told them this. Didnt want anything, but they credited me with a replacement pizza, which I used later. Well, that one arrived late and cold as well. So, I wrote a scathing review talking about how the service and quality (freshness) had gone down while the price had gone up by 25%. The owner, whose name I won't mention, replied and basically said I was FOS. Well, hat didn't sit well with me, so I copied his response and added it as an edit to my review, along with my view on his response. The next business day, I noticed a pending refund on my credit card for my bill. No apology for the initial food order, and no apology for his behavior and reaction to my review. So, I left the review up there.

Today, I decided to give them yet another chance. So, I deleted my initial review and placed my usual order - a large square Standard and large bacon bread. Well, it's definitely the last time. Wife and I both very unimpressed. Mediocre, at best. Ordered well done to account for the expected late, cold pizza. Pizza was a little late, of course, and lukewarm, at best. The oil they put in the pan to crisp up the crust had taken on some fake-butter PAM taste that was borderline nasty. Cheese was no longer stretchy and was solidified. The rest of the pie was decent, even with the coagulated sauce on top. The bread was also cold, obviously. I do like they load up the cheese on the bread, unlike most places. But the bread was flat on one end and risen on the other. The cheese and bacon on one end was slid over the side of the bread and onto the box.

As a result, I would say on a scale of 1-5 it gets a 2. However, when I rate food and restaurants, I use a 1-10 scale. Going solely based on pizza, I would give this a 5.4 - definitely not high enough to warrant giving them yet another chance. A shame. They were so good at one time.

I would suggest Cloverleaf in Eastpointe, Green Lantern on 15 Mile rd, Detroit Style Pizza Co in St Clair Shores, and Johnny Z's. If willing to drive further, many other places. Or, pick your food up right when it comes out of the oven at Square One. Do not...

Tried Square One Pizza for the first time a week ago. The pizza was okay tasting, but certainly nothing to rave about and it was quite expensive compared to other pizza places that in my opinion are much better. I think Buddy’s, Cloverleaf, Jet’s, and Green Lantern are much better. This pizza also reheated terribly.

Not only is the pizza not worth it, the gentleman working behind the counter seemed like he would have rather been somewhere else and wasn’t the most engaging person. I told him it was my first time there and that I had high hopes for the pizza and the reviews seemed really good. He just kind of had a grin on his face and didn’t say a word. Made me wonder if he didn’t think their pizza was that great! Square One definitely needs to train their employees better and/or look for better help. The COVID work shortage line doesn’t cut it. Many other pizza places and other fast-food restaurants have great employees that at least know how to communicate.

Could this pizza place be good? Sure, if they revamped their pizza recipe a bit (not so much bread and lack of cheese, better tasting sauce), spent some time hiring the right people and training them properly, and lowered their prices significantly. The cheese bread I got with the pizza was poor (Jet Bread is way better!) and I believe it was $9.00 for a small order. Way over priced!

I’ll give this place one thing: The actual pickup restaurant was really nice looking and appeared very clean. Just work on all the other things before it’s too late and you might actually be able to compete with the Big Boys and stay afloat. Sorry to be such a downer, but better to tell you now while you still have time...