Pitfire Pizza — Restaurant in Orange

This highly anticipated experience was a disappointment. We originally found Pitfire Pizza mentioned and highly recommended in a Los Angeles travel book and were happy to see a location in Orange. We visited on a Sunday evening (5 PM) to a mostly empty restaurant. The ordering experience was very confusing. Food is very secondary at a place called “Pitfire Pizza” - the only posted menus on the wall are for alcohol, and there are none (neither printed nor QR code) at the table. No servers guide you to be seated. A female behind the counter simply directed us “I can help you over here when you’re ready to order.” We had a larger order for our hungry party of 5, and all of it was placed at the bar counter. We were given a paper number, and then our food later came out one item at a time. One item was incorrectly made, and the server debated with my dad about it. His correctly ordered item came out much later. No adjustments to our bill were offered, nor did a manager check on us. The most frustrating part of the experience was the false advertising of one of the menu items: I ordered an “Heirloom Tomato Succotash,” and what I received was a sautéed mixture of grape tomatoes with a few other veggies. (Grape tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes are two different things and command wildly different price points.) Even after letting it cool before tasting, one of the grape tomatoes exploded in my mouth, launching hot tomato lava on my palate and altering my taste for the remainder of the meal. The pizza was truly “mid” and sadly neither met nor exceeded expectations. For its avg. $20 price point, you are so much better off going to Blaze Pizza or The Pizza Press for a comparable atmosphere at nearly half the price. To add insult to injury, the restaurant automatically adds a 3% surcharge to your bill before tax and tip. They claim this imposed fee is to offer benefits to their employees; please note these benefits are only offered to full time employees. They claim this fee is optional and can be removed from your bill, but this creates an awkward relationship with the staff before your food is even prepared, and you are guilted into agreeing to it rather than the restaurant building it into their already high product price. Would not return...

I can't say that the food was great or fantastic. There are certainly better places for pizza. The set up of the restaurant is strange. We tried this restaurant with a party of 13, and once we sat down in the empty restaurant, we just waited, thinking it was table service. It was awkward and strange since the bartender was just looking at us. Finally, we get up to ask the bartender, and it turns out it's a counter serve restaurant, and you order at the bar. We should have left at this point because trying to order for 13 people at a counter serve restaurant is a nightmare. Place seems understaffed as there is a lot of waiting around, and when you need something, there's never anyone around. Non-alcoholic drinks are self serve and when I went to get my son a cup of water the water is white and opaque. I dumped out 3 glasses hoping the water would clear up. So finally asked someone. They guy said it was due to "bubbles" in the tap. Later on in a review sent to me by the restaurant I mentioned this and said their excuse for "bubbles" making water white makes me think they lie about other things. Their "clarifying response" is that it's the filtration system. Uh no, IDGAF what you say now, no one wants to drink "filtered" white opaque water. I know your water tap isn't serving Japanese Calpico soda so hard pass on...

I found this after dropping off my kid at the movies. It was really late at night about 10pm. We looked them up through Google and liked what they had to offer for food choices and they were technically the only restaurant opened till 12am! We greeted right away and informed how the ordering works. You grab you menus and sit where ever you like, then go back to the bar and you place your order there. We really loved the pineapple,Canadian bacon pizza. It had small leaves of mint and fresh thinly slices of jalapeño! The crust is a fire oven rustic sourdough crust, which I really loved. Their prices are decent. They start at around $16 for 8slices, big slices! The kids opted for pepperoni. They liked it. We also order the cheesy bread knots. You get 3 good size donuts and a good portion of marinara for $10. They offer a wide variety of beers, wines, mixed drinks, and alcohol slushies! The staff at this restaurant is extremely welcoming and super nice, always willing to answer any questions. Check this place out if your on a date. It was super quiet around the...