The Pizza Palace — Restaurant in Norman

Let me start off by saying that I love to order from The Pizza Shop in Norman. The owner is a great guy, they provide great pizza, and I believe the people who work there genuinely care about what they do.

However, I have had two very unsatisfactory experiences as late.

The first was a week ago. As tornado warnings sounded south of Norman, I placed an approximately $70 order for numerous large pizzas. As an office supervisor, I wanted to get dinner for my night crew so they didn't have to brave storms & floods to eat. At the end of the call, I confirmed with Dakota (the order-taker): "This is for delivery, correct?" - and - "I can tip on the receipt when the driver gets here? He'll be here in about 40-50 minutes?" - both of which were answered with unhesitating affirmatives.

One hour, thirty minutes later I was getting concerned, and called in, to find out they don't deliver. That's fine - but it's a serious case of expectation mismanagement & miscommunication. Worse than that, because the point-of-sale system used by this shop doesn't attach customer phone numbers to orders, they could not call me to let me know about the mistake.

I drove over to the shop to pick up my cold pizzas and, being a former pizza shop worker myself, commented on this potential improvement. I was curtly told "Really, you're lucky I didn't just throw these out, as we're supposed to throw out orders that nobody shows up for" and that I should be grateful to be allowed to walk out of the restaurant with the cold pizzas I paid $70 for.

Let that sink in: I should be GRATEFUL to be picking up my cold pizzas, because THEY told me they delivered, over the phone.

This is BLATANTLY unacceptable behavior. I politely told the staff as much and they agreed to remake the order, and the remakes were fine, but it did mean that I had to make two trips in driving rain due to an initial miscommunication, and fight through rudeness to get there.

Given my past positive experiences, I counted this as a one-off. However, today I went in to pick up a salad - a Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad - and I walked out of the restaurant with a garden salad (no chicken, different salad entirely) despite paying for the grilled chicken caesar.

When I called to inform the restaurant of their mistake, the response was: "Sorry, we gave your salad to someone else." They seemed content to leave it at that!

I had to actually prompt the team member on the other end that perhaps I could be put down on a list to get the salad I ordered at a later date, since my lunch break was over and I couldn't just drive back down to pick up my salad.

In summary: Great food, but I am concerned their popularity means they are losing touch with their customers. Being told that I should be "grateful" that I even get to take $70 worth of cold pizza that I paid for, does not make for a grateful customer. An update to the point-of-sale system or training standards to take down customer phone numbers on orders over $50 might be a worthwhile improvement...

Normally the pizza here is really good, a cut above the rest. I used to love going here.. but recently things have changed. After getting off a busy day of work there wasn’t really anything to eat at home so my pregnant wife and I went to get a pizza.

When I was there the lady at the front (her name is Carey) was being extremely rude to a customer next to me. The customer was upset he didn’t get marinara with his order she replied with “I’m too busy serving other customers” they argued some more and she said “it’s not in the cups and I don’t have time right now” he threatened to return his order and she went to get his sauce in an extremely rude and unprofessional manner

Anyways, after I had gotten pizza the boomer sooner (sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon) I took it home when I opened the box the pizza had practically all the toppings in the middle and only two pieces of Canadian bacon that I counted it was full of grease and looked like a cheese pizza from little Caesars not something I would spend 15 bucks on.

So I call in, and tell her that the pizza is messed up, she tells me that they can make a new one. I say thank you very much at the end of the call just to be respectful because I saw how busy they were earlier and she hung up on me (Carey) abruptly and with no response

When I get to the pizza shop to get my new pizza she rudely interrupts me when I’m saying my name and asks if I have proof they’d mess it up, like I would make it up or something. She tells me I need to bring the pizza so “they can have proof” smugly

I go home to get the pizza, and return it and I have my wife record this time so she can have some professionalism and accountability for once. When I show her the pizza she rudely says “what’s wrong with it looks just fine” I tell her all the toppings are in the middle no Canadian bacon “not hardly” There was two pieces, she mocks me and says “dude there’s some right there, and sticks her finger right in the pizza

burnt pepperoni looks completely different from what they normally have

After this I explain to her how the customer is always right and brought up the other customer from earlier with the marinara sauce she acts rude again and gives me the new pizza. I call later asking for her name, and she says her name (Carey)

I know from this whole thing I sound like a Karen but the pizza shop used to be my favorite pizza place and I don’t want your guys’s reputation and pizza to be ruined by a...

It’s disappointing to write this, as this place has long been one of our go-to spots for pizza. However, our recent experience was incredibly frustrating and left a bad taste—literally and figuratively.

We were hosting a game day gathering with family and planned to place a pickup order for 11 pizzas (mostly small, with a couple of mediums). I called in to place the order, and when I got to the sixth pizza, I was told they had a limit of six pizzas per customer. A bit inconvenient, but we tried to work around it.

My brother-in-law called to order the remaining five pizzas, but was only allowed to order three. Then my sister-in-law called in to place the final two, but was denied service because she was calling from the same number, which she did not call from the same phone number, and shockingly, the staff member accused her of lying because he has called ID. She explained that her husbands number is different than hers. He ended up taking her order. This was hands down the worst customer service we’ve ever encountered.

When we went to pick up the pizzas, we brought up our concerns with the manager, who really had nothing more to say than they have a limit of three pizzas per customer and that larger orders typically require 24 hours’ notice. Nowhere on their website or in the restaurant is this policy stated. I suggested that they clearly communicate this at the start of any order and, more importantly, stay consistent with their own policy.

To top it off, we were given an order of cheese sticks we didn’t request. When we opened them, we found they were moldy on the bottom. After checking reviews, we noticed we weren’t the first to report this issue—which makes it even more unacceptable that it’s still happening almost half a year later.

Side note: We were able to place a large order of 80 wings at nearby spot with just two hours’ notice. It’s baffling that a pizza place would impose strict limits, especially when the pizzas aren’t even large. We won’t...