Pizza Tugos — Restaurant in Ocean City

Last night we met a group of friends here before heading to winterfest of lights. We chose Pizza Tugos because we had a great experience here a couple years ago. Sadly this visit was horrible from the moment we walked in leaving us regretting suggesting this vs the many many other options in OC. Our friends were there first and already finding a seat so my wife followed them in, apparently they had already ordered at the counter which we didnt realize was necessary since the last time we went there was a server. As we walked past the counter the woman working started saying to the other employees that she refused to go take orders from the seating area and we better come up there to order vs. Just politely asking us to order with her. There were menus at the table so I joined my group and started figuring out what everyone wanted so I could go back up and order. Meanwhile I can hear this woman still going off behind the counter so i head back through the door9s so that I can let her know I'm getting the order together-- before I get a word out she yells Welcome to Pizza Tugos as if I was 10ft away and hadn't been in the building for 5 minutes listening to her complain. Apparently they did not have a server. So I place my order as the rest of the group follows suit. The soda machine was out of ice, it was filled when I alerted them to it. Random staff members walked in and out of the room, I feel like they were over compensating for the fact that we were obviously offended by the start of our visit, we honestly would have walked out without ordering had our friends not already ordered. The staff who brought the food were almost turning our opinion of the visit around, then the woman from the front walked through complaining about how hot it was and pointed out that the vents in the ceiling had been removed and not replaced (honestly would not have noticed had it not been pointed out) and said she had been emailing the owner for weeks but it hadn't been fixed. To us the temperature was fine however the forcefulness of the air made holding onto our napkins a bit difficult. Anyway, about halfway through the meal she comes busting out of the kitchen saying she doesn't care who freezes shes turning off the air.... and it did get chilly but that doesn't even matter, she could have handled that situation a bit more pleasantly. Just overall bad customer service from this one person has ruined an otherwise decent experience. I did not catch her name but she seemed to be in charge.

Update: Scott, I upgraded it to 2 stars but did want to elaborate since I am now rating on more than customer service. Not sure if you own the west OC location but per our friends it is a much better experience. The bar here was not manned so I cant speak to the drink selection outside of the aforementioned ice less soda machine that spurted dr. Pepper syrup at my kid. Seemed like a delivery joint. Even when making us pay extra for blue cheese they refused to put it on the wrap as the ranch would have been. Cheese steak subs were decent however both in the group felt like the portion was not worth the price. Kids were happy with pizza however really was too large of a pizza for a kids size, they could have split it and we wouldn't have wasted leftovers... size and subsequently price could stand to be reduced. And the kids were disappointed they didnt get a ball of dough to play with, we did love that the last time we were there. Honestly would have been a 3 or 4 star if customer service had been better, maybe she was having...

TL;DR - Pizza Tugos fosters a culture of aggressive and untrusting employees, and should be avoided.

Unfortunately, had the worst customer service encounter I ever have had this past week and am still shaken up about it. My girlfriend and I vacation twice a year to Ocean City, MD, and it is always a tradition that we get Pizza Tugos to celebrate. This year, we enjoyed a nice night of minigolf and the boardwalk before going back to our hotel room for awhile. At about 3:30AM, we decided to head to Pizza Tugos for some late night grub before they closed.

We ordered a large pepperoni, sausage, and mushroom pizza totaling somewhere near $23.00 and leaving a $5.00 tip. As my girlfriend and I waited outside, there were two very intoxicated men who had just picked up their food. At one point, one of the man mentioned he wished I would have been there with him as he was just getting into a fight with a certain race of people, and I simply responded with "yeah?" and "really?" before mentioning he might want to be careful who he says things like that to.

He then enters the pizza shop when 4 or 5 other people get there and loudly starts proclaiming how he is going to "* him up" and " in his pizza" and "...shove that ing pizza down his * throat" etc etc, proclaiming I am a racist and made derogatory remarks. My girlfriend felt threatened and went into our car and locked the doors. Trying to keep composure and not engage, I chose to wait outside responsibly and not confront this obviously violently drunken man (my girlfriend and I were completely sober, mind you). When I entered to get my pizza, then gentleman (who I presume to be a manager, probably mid 40s-early 50s, Caucasian, white facial hair) said that my food was "made with love by the brown people" and to "get the **" out of his store. I tried to reason with the manager, asking why he would believe an obviously aggressively drunk man vs the word of someone who avoided the altercation, and it was reiterated for me to get out. Complying with the store owner's wishes, we left.

We left scared, intimidated, and absolutely appalled that this would happen and are currently evaluating our options on how to handle this situation. I hope this review serves as a testament for folks to avoid this establishment...

Didn’t even get to taste the food to rate it. We stopped in at 2:30 for food out while waiting for our room to be ready. The guy at the counter told us it was carryout only since dining room service didn’t start until 5:00. We saw someone eating in the dining room so we asked if we could eat in there. He said sure. Placed our order and asked for fountain sodas. He said sorry their machine wasn’t working but we could buy any of the drinks from the case (knowing we were planning to sit at their dining tables to eat). My husband said that’s fine I’ll just walk next door to get a fountain for us to share (5 of us). He instead came back with 2 free cups of ice from the green turtle and figured we just do what the guy suggested and buy a 2 liter from the case to share since it’s way cheaper than 5 fountain sodas at the green turtle. As he was walking back in, the guy who took our order said their machine was now working. Mind you it had been 5 min max. We said that’s ok we’d like to just buy a 2 liter and he the refused to sell it to us because their fountain was now working. After some back and forth we said whatever fine we’ll buy the 2 liter and just sit on the bench out front to eat our food. The printed menu price says $3.50. He rings it up and it was almost $5 for a 2 liter. We question the price difference from what was advertised and he says they’re old menus and he can’t adjust the price. So we exchanged some words of how terrible this was from the jump because of the bait and switch. I asked for a refund as our pizza was exiting the oven out of principle and he agreed. I said it’s crazy you’re willing to void a $60 order instead of just honor the $1.50 price difference on a soda. He told me they make so much money there they don’t care and the owner would say the same. Had it not been for the first argument about him telling us we couldn’t take the 2 liter to the empty dining room with no service we would’ve just paid the 1.50 extra...