Giovanni's Pizza and Pasta — Restaurant in North Carolina

This is some additional feedback regarding some awful conduct by the owner during our most recent visit. There is an account of what happened already in a another review. The owner has responded very defensively, which does not surprise me at all, based on his belligerent attitude last night.

There was an incident in the parking lot where he questioned the presence of a parent of one of the kids in our large party. He seemed to be very offended that the parent did not defer to him. It's not even clear that he identified himself properly as someone associated with the business. If you are waiting in your car at night to pick up your child, and a large stranger walks up to your car, would you roll down your window?

At any rate, it was a clear misunderstanding about the identities of both men involved. That's understandable. However, the owner's subsequent treatment of our instructor and our group was inexcusable. Whether or not the owner knew that the man in the parking lot was associated with us is actually irrelevant. When a customer asks you, "What is going on?", you do not respond with, "None of your business! Sit back down!" In fact, the owner's claim that he did not know about our association with the man in the lot makes his behavior towards us even worse. Why in the world would you point at a customer's table and yell, "Make sure they pay their check!"

As soon as our instructor made it known to you that the man in the lot was with us, there should have been a simple apology for the misunderstanding. Instead, the owner CHOSE to escalate the situation into a bizarre scene involving the Sheriff.

I would never rate a place 1-star just for bad/slow service or a bad meal. I believe in small business and support them whenever I can. Owners (who have the most to lose from a bad review) should not be unfairly punished over the actions of an employee. This is one of the rare cases where the OWNER treated his customers with extreme disdain and disrespect! 1-star is generous here, but sadly, zero stars is not an option on Google.

EDIT (added after the owner's response) - The owner continues to miss the point. What happened in the parking lot is IRRELEVANT. The way he treated his customers INSIDE the restaurant is the issue. There was no way anyone at our table represented any kind of "threat" to anyone's safety - real or imagined. It was basically a bunch of well-behaved kids. The only person who appeared to be a threat to anyone was the owner. We got those kids out of there as quickly as possible to get away from him. He was acting INSANE, and all the families involved are more than happy to never set foot inside...

I am extremely disappointed in the service I received from Giovanni’s today. As a long time customer I would always come here for a quick bite to eat during my lunch breaks. However today I received unacceptable service when the server Lauren deiced to yell across the dining hall when we quietly and respectfully asked to have our orders to go since we had to get back to work and had been waiting there for more than 40 minutes. I find it completely unacceptable to be paying for a service and being yelled at and accused because we had to leave. We at no point raised our voice at Lauren and were respectful the whole time we were there, even though she refused to make eye contact with us when we were trying to ask for information about our food. We even saw our food sit at the window for at least 15 minutes before we decided that it would be best to leave. When we called to talk to the co-owner we were very disappointed. First we were given information that there were at least 5 managers at that restaurant and we could not get a straight answer on who we should file our complaints to. We were then told that Lauren was even the dining room MANAGER. The co-owner Phyllis decided that our explanation of the encounter was not correct and proceeded to explain that her daughter described to her a different situation and that Lauren is always requested by other customers. Phyllis also mentioned that it was fine we were going to be taking our orders somewhere else. When this incident was brought up to other individuals we received information that this was not the first negative encounter with Lauren. It is very sad to see a local restaurant not take pride in their customer service and willing to give their service up to name brand restaurants. We sadly will not be returning to...

Easily the worst pizza I've ever eaten in my entire life bar none, I can only imagine the people who enjoy this place are mindless zombies going through the motions of living, everything I've ever ordered is objectively flavorless, it's like I'm eating pizza shaped grey matter, it's worse than any fast food, gas station, frozen or school cafeteria pizza in taste alone and that's not even concerning the prices, the prices genuinely seem like a one off joke from a post-apocalyptic Orwellian sitcom, they're dystopian. The last time I went I got 1 singular cheese pizza and 2 fountain drinks, my total? Almost $35.

I've tried to give this place the benefit of the doubt 4 times because it's the closest pizza place and one of the only local restaurants, and not once did I not even remotely enjoy it. Just ordering for myself alone in those 4 times I would estimate I spent nearly $150. It's like a New York pizzeria prices for what could only be considered dog food. The first time I went I ordered a personal veggie pizza (8 inches) and a drink, the vegetables were cold, wet, uncooked and splattered on top of the pizza. $16.

I've eaten hundreds of different pizzas in my life and in terms of price to taste ratio this is by far the worse, the flavor and quality is easily below that of little caesars but for 6-7 times the price. I nearly had existential crisis every time I had to watch a third of a hundred dollars get deducted from my bank account for pizza so atrocious I could barely finish half of it, followed by an feeling of absolute despair, agony and wretched despondency that THIS is the nearest pizza place, better food could be found in the Stacy's dumpster.

Edit after response: please note how exactly zero of my complaints were...