Old School Pizzeria — Restaurant in Olympia

I've written many reviews for this place before, always giving them at least 4 stars. This has been my wife's and my go-to place for years. When friends and family visit, we would take them here. Lately, it's gone downhill. And this is noticed from more than one experience, but here is the most notable and recent one.

We stopped in the day before Thanksgiving and immediately found disappointment. The table, dirty. My wife had to wipe it down herself. Even with a plain, thin napkin, the table was markedly dirty. As we waited for our name to be called, we noticed a homeless woman enter. She had money and ordered, so no big deal...until she began going table to table, bothering customers. Staff had no control and offered no intervention. Also while we waited, a group of four teenagers dominated the bathroom, taking turns, entering with cups and silverware, laughing and playing. This went on for about 20-30 minutes. Again, no staff intervention, or even, notice. Other than preparing food, what does the staff do? It's sure not cleaning and tending to the customers.

As we waited, the homeless woman was served. We watched in horror as she palmed the lids of the parmesan and pepper shakers, unscrewed them, dumped them into her to-go container, and refastened the lids. Gross.

Still, we ignored it and ate. We assured our guest the food was good, and it was. It was delicious. I had the Old School pizza, our guest had pepperoni and anchovies, and my wife, a salad. My wife and I drank water, our guest, soda.

Unfortunately, the next morning we all awoke with horrible food poisoning. We spent Thanksgiving day unable to eat or drink. One thing we all shared: cheese. We all had cheese. My wife had cheese off my pizza. Otherwise, no food or drink was in common. It was not the norovirus. Norovirus takes longer than a day or two to feel better from. After our horrible Thanksgiving, we felt better the next day, Unfortunately, this whole experience has ruined this place for us. Unclean tables, homeless people approaching customers as they eat, lack of staff intervention or even performing basic duties as wiping down tables, gross communal shakers. No thanks. My money can and will...

Mixed bag on our visit last night. 1. 45 min wait for 1 pizza and 2 slices. We waited. 2. While we waited I had a super yummy gluten free cider on tap and we played video games in the back. 3. Unfortunately a seemingly homeless man came into the small space, plugged his phone into the wall where the pinball machine was plugged into and carried on a swear word filled conversation with himself. My 8 year old was there. Not a fan. No one knew he was there. He asked me to buy him a soda. I said no and went and told the staff. They came and escorted him very nicely out the door. It was uncomfortable and being what the homeless and mentally ill situation is here was a bummer that we couldn't hang without being bothered. 4. Games were okay. Should be free as most of them had some sort of issue. Joystick didn't work, ball shooter took 4-5 times to get ball launched. Definitely a bit janky. Telling a 8 yr old sorry you just lost $25 to a game that didn't worked is lame. Free would make that more palatable. 5. Enter 2nd homeless person who just wandered in and was doing something in the men's bathroom that caused a patron to again have the staff escort this person out. Said person screamed into a family's face (kids were maybe 5 and 7). They were pretty upset. The whole restaurant was sitting there feeling like sitting ducks. 3 people were manning the entire place. Tables weren't able to be cleaned, pizza took too long. Definitely call ahead and don't eat there. Shady. They need to get codes on their restaurant, staff more adequately if possible and secure the premise with employees that stay in lounge cleaning tables and generally being aware of the surroundings. If I were this place I would move out of downtown. Bad for business. Alsopizza was SUPER greasy. Super tasty but took 5 paper towels to degrease it when we got home. Best GF pizza in town though and...

I want to preface this by saying typically I have good experiences, but I went to Old School Pizzeria on 12/5/2022 around 7 PM. I ordered 2 pepperoni slices and a fountain drink. The woman that worked the front counter asked my name, and although I spelled it out, she still put down the incorrect name - Dorman. Although I was slightly annoyed, that was minor. My pizza came out and I went to get it. When I started eating the pizza, I discovered long thin hair in it. It was not my hair (I have short curly hair, as I am Black). So, the hair definitely was not mine. I'll attach a picture. I hate to complain, but I was not eating hair in my pizza. So, I went to the counter and told the woman about the issue and her first response was "Well, what do you want to do?" I said "I want pizza with no hair in it, what do you mean?" She just took the pizza and said "Ok, we'll remake it." I sat down and about a minute later my pizza was "ready." In the meantime before my pizza was ready, I requested it to go because I was starting to not feel good about sitting inside after the conversation. But, when it came out and I went to grab the pizza, I had to request a to-go bag again. No one could hear me apparently, so I grabbed a paper bag from the counter and started putting the pizza inside. It wasn't until then did the woman walk over and say "Oh, I forgot you wanted a bag." Maybe it was just an "off night," but the entire situation just left a bad taste in my mouth. And, I tipped for that service. Didn't even eat the pizza because I didn't trust it, and left the fountain drink because I wanted to get out of there. And, I tipped for...