The Amazing Pizza Machine — Restaurant in Omaha

I took my 20 month old son here on Father's day. I decided to feed him first so we went to the buffet. Half of the dining areas were closed down. The food's not great, but at about $14 for the buffet it shouldn't be that bad, if Chinese food restaurants can charge the same price and give you better quality food I don't see why they can't. So I get my son some milk and walk to the dining room when I hear some Middle School maybe early High School age boy yelling the n-word at the top of his lungs in the food court to his friend on the other side. One of the employees turns around and says, 'Hey' in a loud stern voice, and the kid just kind of shrugs him off, I happen to be standing right next to this kid while holding my son in one arm and our plate in my other hand, and I tell him, 'Hey you need to watch your language, there are children around here." He looks at me like who am I to be talking to him and then walks off. So me and my son go into the dining room to eat. There were a lot of dishes on tables but I'm assuming that they didn't have more than one person busing both of the dining rooms? But we didn't have any problem finding a table so we ate and then went to go play. So I'm walking my son down these three steps that lead into the second play area and one of the employees just kind of bustles by us while we're going down the steps. Any other decent person would have just waited the one second that it was taking my son to navigate these big steps. I thought it was kind of rude but I blew it off. Oh, and I had to keep my head on a swivel because there were multiple kids just running full speed through the complex, I had to make sure my son didn't get knocked over. I noticed that the bumper car area was closed down and if my memory serves me right I don't even think they have bumper cars in there, but I know for a fact that they weren't running. So we headed over to the kiddy area which is supposed to be 7 and under. We get there and up in the climbing area there's some grown man up in the top area with his shoes on. There's a spinning sort of like teacup ride that's obviously for kids my son's age, and there's two girls riding in these spinning cups that are so big that they have to lift their legs up over the centerpiece just for the cup to keep spinning but they're obviously teenagers who shouldn't be on this ride made for toddlers. So we left that area as it had been overrun by kids who shouldn't have been in there. So I decided I would go and get one more plate of this sub-par food, to at least make it worth my while before we left. I got a couple more slices of pizza and a cookie for my son and we sat back in the dining room. There was PAW Patrol on the big screen and my son was trying to enjoy that but he couldn't because there was a table full of teenagers acting like this was lunch at the local high school talking about inappropriate things loudly. You can tell that the other people eating in the dining room were super uncomfortable but nobody in our society wants to say anything anymore, so they just kind of deal with it. Then that kid I was talking about earlier comes in the dining room yelling the n-word again. So I get up, get my son and go to the front desk to speak to the manager. The manager comes up and I tell her what's going on and I lead her to the dining area to point this kid out and she tells him that he better act right or he'll be put out, and this kid is not even paying attention to this woman at all, he's just fills up his soda and says 'whatever'. So I tell the manager that this is totally unacceptable and that I want a refund. She says that "she understands" and apologizes, and while she's giving me my money back, I say to another employee behind the counter, "This is ridiculous, you guys should have some type of security, or even a police officer on duty here." She says, "I know, we've already broken up 3 fights today!" So I asked the manager for the corporate phone number which she gave me willingly, and I will be calling...

A Discriminatory, Humiliating, and Inconsistent Experience

I’m extremely disappointed by the way my son and I were treated at The Pizza Machine yesterday. What started as a fun and exciting day for us turned into a humiliating and frustrating experience that I’ll never forget.

After paying nearly $100 for the passes, my son was eager to drive the go-karts. This was the one thing he wanted to do most. We first got in line for the single-driver karts, where a white family of about seven was ahead of us. Among them was a little girl who appeared to be the same height as my son. There was a posted height requirement of 54 inches to drive, and while she looked under that height, the ride operator, Casey, did not measure her at all. I clearly saw her ask if she could ride, and he just waved her through casually, telling her he didn’t care and motioning for her to go forward.

When my son decided he wanted to drive a two-seater kart with me instead, we switched lines. From the moment we interacted with Casey, his energy was cold and unfriendly nothing welcoming or professional. As we stood there, I asked if we would be able to go because it looked like the ride was about to begin. His response was rude and dismissive: “You have to wait.”

When it was finally our turn, he stopped us to measure my son, who stood at about 53 ½ inches just under the required 54 inches. While I completely understand and respect rules (I follow them every day), my issue wasn’t with the rule itself. My issue was with the inconsistent enforcement of that rule. The little girl who was the same height as my son was allowed to drive a single kart on her own without being measured, yet my son was denied the chance to even drive with me sitting beside him.

I calmly asked Casey why she was allowed through without being measured, and instead of answering, he got defensive and hostile, then called for a manager. The manager, Jason, arrived and didn’t even greet us or ask what was going on. He immediately took the employee’s side and told me flat out that my son had to get out of the driver’s seat and I had to drive. I tried explaining that the little girl was the same height and had been allowed to drive, but he cut me off repeatedly, said the employee “probably” measured her, and refused to listen. I told him I saw it with my own eyes she was waved through without being measured and still, he dismissed me.

When I asked for a proper explanation, I was told, “You can just get a refund,” with a dismissive tone and zero empathy. I felt completely singled out, disrespected, and humiliated. This all happened in front of a crowd, and everyone was watching as we were denied, questioned, and treated as if we were doing something wrong. I felt like I was on display, being embarrassed in front of everyone. My son was excited and happy when we arrived and now he felt confused and let down.

I can’t help but feel like our race played a role in how we were treated. We are Black, and the girl who was allowed to bypass the rule was white. The lack of fairness and compassion shown to us made me feel like we didn’t matter. I was calm, respectful, and only asked for clarity but instead, I was met with rudeness, dismissal, and arrogance from both Casey and Jason.

I would not recommend The Amazing Pizza Machine to anyone who values fairness, respect, or decency. We came for joy and left feeling humiliated and unwelcome. Do better for the sake of all families who walk...

I would go again, but spend considerably less than we did. However, that depends on the time of day you go.

We purchased one of the best packages, and additional credits, totalling over 270.00 for a family of four.

For our packages we received the buffet, unlimited arcade games, gocart rides, and one game each of laser tag and VR.

The good:

Dinner buffet: Great food for the price. Some may find the required new glass per trip weird, but I assure you it keeps those areas cleaner.

Ticket Game Variety: A decent selection of games with recent titles as well as ones made popular from online arcade influencers.

The bad:

Games: The included arcade games were obviously less kept than other games. In more than one situation it ate our son's credits and when we brought it up at the nearby redemption center we were told to go to the other end of the building for help. However, in one situation there was a nearby staff member who gladly helped us before we even knew there was a real problem.

There's no issue from being turned away from the redemption area, Lord have mercy on those folks for how busy that is. However, it would be beneficial for them to have a service button or communication system to notify someone of a problem instead of asking guests who are on time limits to travel back and forth within a large building for help each time. Perhaps this was a thing prior to the pandemic and staffing has created challenges, but I believe there is a way to better serve customers beyond this current system. I'm not smart enough to know how, I can only leave it in their professional hands.

Redemption plush games: I played through 200 credits, mostly on these games. Through observation it seemed like the claws would pay out 1 in 10-13 times. For reference on average that would be the price of three Go Cart rides. That seems predatory given the cost of these plush. This excludes the giant machine, that cost and payout was reasonable.

I suggest adding more of these machines and making their payouts more frequent. Look up The Crane Couple on YouTube and the arcades they frequent that feature mini claw machines. You could easily fill these with 40 cent prizes and children will spend around 2.00-2.50 per acquisition of these items. Currently the closest thing you have are your two branded machines with your own merchandise and a slightly improved odds of winning.

Overall if we came here again we'd get a different package and avoid the games that cost money besides a few. However if we came earlier in the day we'd stick with our more expensive package because the time allotted significantly...