Blaze Pizza — Restaurant in Oshtemo Charter Township

Updated Review: I've since come back, my initial review is mostly no longer valid. Things have changed. It seems like they read this page and touched on some of my pain points. Good job Blaze pizza management.

The pizza making process is no longer a hassle, and the pizza coming out smelling burnt or taking longer than a few minutes hasn't happened since my first go.

The place is still really noisy though. Initial review left below.

Initial review: Overall place is okay.

The pizza smelled like death and burnt hair, but tasted good, the service people were very friendly and everyone addressed you by name. When it's all done, it will be about $10 for a pizza and a drink.

Making the pizza was an annoying process. You would go across the selection like at subway and tell them what you wanted on your pizza. I ordered a ham and pepperoni. They put on 3 pieces of ham, and 4 pepperonis. OK, so I ask for more. They put on 3 and 4 more. Okay, I'm annoyed now to keep asking for more and more and more, so I figure I'll just fill it up with other stuff. They do this for every topping. I hear the girl behind me ask for her pizza with 24 pepperoni's (that would be asking for more 5 times), I guess she's been here before.. There's an inherent problem here. Most people don't know what a pizza looks like before it goes in the oven and they feel very inadequate while preparing. Having worked at a pizza place before, I was happier off with a lot less toppings than those surrounding me.

The sign says pizza's in 3 or 5 minutes, I can't remember which, but it took nearly 10 minutes and the place wasn't that busy (6 or so people in front of me).

Receiving the pizza, the metal slab they put the pizza on was impossible to get to the table without getting your hands dirty from red sauce and grease. When receiving the pizza, it smelled like death and burnt hair, but upon inspection was only slightly burnt on the bottom, unnoticeable in taste. The person who cut the pizza did a poor job in both penetration and portions. One slice was 1/4th the pizza, and some were 1/3rds and some were 1/8ths. Speaking of slices, I had to rip every "slice" because it wasn't adequately cut through.

Eating the pizza was very noisy.. Everything is metal and reflects all sounds of everyone talking.

For the value, you're better off going to Pizza Hut Bistro (on Westnedge) "lunch in a crunch" where you can get two 9" pizzas and a drink for $7.50 in about the same 10 minutes.

Good luck trying to sell $7 pizzas with...

I USED to love this place! Great food, good service, and overall great experience. But today I was let down tremendously! While I was waiting in line to order, I noticed a long black curly hair, somewhat resembling a pubic hair, sitting right on top of the white sauce. I then observed the employee adding the sauces to the dough deliberately stir in the hair after she noticed it, hoping the customer did not notice it, which he didn't. After adding that customers sauce and cheeses she then turned to the employee working next to her and told her there was a hair in the sauce and that the customer hadn't noticed and that she stirred it in, they both chuckled and continued serving customers without replacing the sauce. As I stood in sheer amazement at what I just watched, I noticed the hair float back up to the top of the sauce and another customer noticed it and told them and both employees acted disgusted and like they hadn't noticed it before. As I made a B-line for the door I proceeded to tell the customer who had received the contaminated sauce, who I believe made a complaint. Looking back on my many visits, I now realive the sheer lack of food safety that this certain restaurant didplays. Many employees serve multiple customers in a row without changing gloves and touching meats, vegetables, and cheeses multiple times in a row. I have also witnessed employees working the serving line drop the metal order numbers on the floor, reach down, pick it up, and continue serving customers with those same gloves. I was always very impressed with this place but today I was very disappointed and I will most likely not be going back...

We've been visiting the Kalamazoo, MI Blaze location several times a month but based on the general (consistent) poor service received we may very well stop going. We generally order on Friday or Saturday and nearly every time Dough Knots and ground beef are almost always unavailable. The service is also always incredibly slow. Even with no one else in line we have to plan for this trip for take-out to take an hour. Or more. There's no sense of urgency in making orders. On multiple occasions we've had two people in our party and one pizza will get made, then a slew of online orders are made before the second pizza in our order is done. We've had our pizzas which are on the same ticket come out more than 30 minutes apart on multiple occasions. This is completely unacceptable. I suggested that a separate make-line should be installed for online orders to be made. Supposedly you're already supposed to have one, but don't staff it. ON A FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. In general having worked in restaurants before myself, the Blaze concept is incredibly inefficient in how the pizzas are assembled, cooked, and then cut. It's obvious speed of service and team member energy are not important concepts for Blaze and it's a shame as the food is great. There's now a MOD pizza in town that we've yet to try. But you'd better believe we will be. Based on comments we've heard from other customers in line, we're not alone. Please make...