Donatos Pizza — Restaurant in Pataskala

Gather round, my good people, and let's learn a lesson! There will be math, a moral, good business acumen, heck maybe even a laugh for the whole family...

Let me begin by admitting that I understand ordering pizza on a Saturday evening is a dicey endeavor. It's busy, we know. However, that's why I placed my online order at 4:25 (thinking ahead). You see, I live on the edge of nowhere and it takes considerable time for me to get to this location. Pickup was slotted for 4:55, and I pulled into the drive thru window at 4:56 behind two other vehicles. After waiting a few short minutes, I was asked by the window attendant for my name. She then walked aimlessly around the back of the store before coming back and asking again for my name. This is the moment I knew they lost the order...

However, she didn't admit that. She came back and explained it wasn't quite done yet. I knew this was a lie, she knew this was a lie. She then asked me if I would mind parking for 5 minutes and she would bring out my pizzas to my car. I obliged, knowing this wasn't going to end well. The time was 5:02.

Ok friends, what 5:02 plus 5 minutes? I can tell you, it's not 5:20. So, at 5:25, I walked into the store, where there were exactly zero customers. There were, however 3 employees leaning against the counters in the back.

The young lady that previously told me she would bring my order out approached me and asked for my name (not good). She then looked around for far too long and found my order, not on the order shelf, but on the counter at the drive thru station right were she was standing (getting worse).

I asked her why she didn't bring it out to me, as promised, and she said she got busy. Unfortunately, I was parked next to the drive thru during my 5, er, 20 minute wait and saw exactly 2 cars pass thru (another lie).

As any seasoned fast food patron would do, I opened the boxes of pizza to check contents, and both looked like they had been dropped. Pizza slices were upside down, toppings shifted to one side, cheese stuck on the lid (this is what they call the last straw). At this point, I asked to speak with the manager.

When the GM, let's call him Ethan, sauntered up and asked what the issue was, I asked what happened with the order - all I wanted was the truth. Everything could have been fixed by admitting he dropped the ball. And I say "he", because as GM, everything that happens there is on him.

Instead, he dropped the "there's only 3 of us and we are busy". That's an excuse and not a good one. It's barely dinner time and certainly not busy. I again asked for an explanation about why I was there for 30 minutes to receive cold, damaged pizza. He had no answers.

He offered to refund the money, which goes without saying and that he would make the order over. I've already wasted 45 minutes of my time and I'm going to wait around for 25 more minutes for sub-par grub? I'll just take the garbage that was given to me and never, ever come back.

If you're skipping to the end (and I wouldn't blame you), here's the moral...

Don't lie to your customers. If you make a mistake, admit it and make it right. Don't give excuses, don't dodge blame. Everyone is busy, that's how business works. If you're not busting your tail, you're not doing it right. Do what you promise, doubling down never works.

The short of it is this, there's a Little Caesars, Masseys, Papa Johns, and a woodfire pizza place all within eye sight of this joint. Give them your money. I can't promise the quality of the product, but maybe they won't lie to your face and...

I used the online app today to have a lg founder's fave delivered to the house while i wss still at work. Dinner arrived in record time but was stark raving cold: crust severely underdone, cheeses not melted, toppings not hot. No problem. Even tho he's not feeling well, tne husband can work a stove. Popped it in, heated it through; all good. The problem that couldn't be fixed at 350° for 10 minutes was the customer service he didn't receive from the shift mgr. May S. The husb and i are retired servers, we've been on the other side of serving tray and know that sometimes it can be difficult to get things right for folk, but we tried our best. The result of his calling and asking to speak with a mgr wasn't really her best. The call was an attempt to give the store a heads up; maybe the ovens were set at the wrong temperature, perhaps the timers were off somehow; but was NOT an attempt to score free food. The response from our girl Ms. May, when told that dinner arrived really fast but was really under done, was "yeh, sorry , we have a lot of trainees working tonight" then hanging up. No no no!!! A mgr NEVER throws her staff under the bus, she accepts responsibility for problems and tries to correct them. Sometimes running a shift on a busy night can be a little like herding cats during a tornado, but if that's her job, then she needs to step up. There should have been more active listening from her, and then a response of: "what can we do to make it right?" Yes, you will have customers wanting to take advantage, but not always. One underdone pizza and apparently unconcerned shift mgr is not going break the company, but if it continues to happen over time; sales will begin to slump. We cant have that. Train her up... and have her treat her...

Disappointed in our most recent visit. The previous trip we carried out and were satisfied with the experience and food. We had some coupons so we decided to go back and eat in on a Wednesday evening. I wish I could speak to the food but I can't because after nearly 30 minutes we still hadn't been able to put in our drink order.

There were maybe four or five other tables but the one girl that was working the dining room couldn't handle the load. The poor girl could only single-task and between all the demands of the other tables that kept calling her over to take care of them, she only stopped at my table twice. Once to say hi and ask if I was dining in and the other to tell me (20 minutes later) that she would be right with me.

10 minutes later we left to go to Hot Heads and I'm pretty sure she may not yet realize it.

I'm not blaming her... I put the blame squarely on management. We had gone to Massey's pizza about 6 months prior and he asked if he had come over from Donatos. Apparently their dining room was closed because they lacked the staff to open it. This is an ongoing problem and there is no evidence that management seems concerned about fixing it.

If you want to be a carry out and drive thru only place, that's cool. But if you want to be a pizza place with a dining room, have at least two servers active when the place is open. Honestly, considering headquarter is only 15 minutes away, I would think they would do better than this. At least they aren't as bad as the location closest to headquarters... (Eastpointe) They can't make a pizza correctly or be polite if their jobs depended on it.

So save the frustration if you are eating in and go to Massey's in the strip...