Pizza Village — Restaurant in Mount Olive

We usually enjoy coming here but tonight was a rather disappointing experience. We got buffet. It was slow and I realize that a lot of food wouldn’t be coming out, but absolutely nothing fresh was brought to the bar the entire time we were there. We each ate one plate of Luke warm pizza each. I did get a salad but had to scrape the last of the lettuce out of the bowl.

Our “server” took our drink order promptly and brought the drinks and that was the last we saw of him until we went to the front to pay (without a ticket) and he was also the cashier. No refill on drinks, no asking if meal was ok… GHOST!! The next booth over had to ask for forks as there was none on the buffet.

I expressed my total disappointment with the meal to him and the lady server. She seemed to be concerned about it, barely, but concerned none the less. He was too busy trying to get his swipe card to work to actually ring up my ticket to be concerned.

For the record, I supervise 3 Pizza Restaurants… I totally understand slow business, I understand understaffing, I understand irate customers, and I understand guest relations. I was extremely polite to the Lady and Gentleman at the counter. I paid for my meal in full and even tipped 15%. All I wanted in return was for assurance that this was a one off experience. We got… No apology, and no concern from our “server”. All I got after he tapped my card to pay was a very sarcastic “have a nice night” and he turned his back on us and walked away as I wrote in the tip and signed.

I make these comments so that maybe, just maybe improvements can be made to make the dining experience better even when the restaurant is slow. I don’t want any sort of refund… I ate, I left full (but disappointed) and I paid like any...

[Update: First Paragraph Added] Interior has new floors! This enhances the feel of the place enormously. Walls were repainted too! Has a very nice feel to it! Thank you owners! I want to add that one of the prehious servers is back! She is an great personality and is very energetic. Her service is flawless and attentive! Its great to see these changes at the restuarant as society continues to rebound from Covid. The resuatant also looks so fresh, neat, clean & has been lovingly painted. [end of revision/addition]

I love the hand-tossed pizza there and I believe it is the best in town. My favorite is the thin crust. And if you get there on one of their Buffet nights you get a great selection of pizza, spaghetti, and salad bar for an incredible price. And Sherry is simply an incredibly awesome waitress. She's always friendly and fast as blazes. The others are good too! I've eaten here many times over my 20 years in the area and think their salad bar is as fresh as it gets. Another favorite of mine is the hamburger. It's got a homemade taste that is not replicated anywhere I know of in Mount Olive. Beats the fast food chain restaurants hands down. This is a family style restaurant, is unpretentious, and is run with lots of personal attention and concern to make the customer a priority. They appear to do a consistently busy takeout and drive-through as well....which tells you how much the locals like it. Prices are very reasonable as well!...

The people were extremely friendly and pleasant and I didn't hesitate to tip. When I opened my boxes to start eating was another matter entirely. Extremely basic/average/meh sub sandwich with soggy average fries. Fries would be okay if they were fresh and crisper, not in the same box as the sandwich. And my 25 dollar pizza....little in the way of flavor and very low quality. I've enjoyed frozen Wal-Mart pizzas and gas station pizzas more than this pie. I like the vibe this place gives but they need to heavily revamp their pizza recipe, unless I just got unlucky with a brand new untrained chef that day. (Sprinkle a little cheese on top of the ingredients on the pizza instead of just having a bunch of ingredients on top of the cheese, so that those ingredients aren't just falling off the pizza slice as I try to hold it. And definitely use more butter and some form of seasoning for the dough, sauce, and cheese so there's actual flavor...