Brienzo's Pizza + Bar — Restaurant in Peoria Heights

First time attending Good Pizza BUT…

Unprofessional waiter to say the least…

We were attending the Summer Concert Series at Pour Bros. over the weekend and decided to grab 2 pizzas while enjoying the event. The waiter we had was very rude and unprofessional when taking our order. We were going to eat it inside but when we noticed it was 9:30ish we told the waiter we’d just take it to go (trying to be considerate of the staff because they were closing at 10pm.) We asked the waiter can we have 2 min to look over the menu his response was “you’ll need to hurry up because we close at 10pm” we were taken a back but just let it slide to he’s probably tired and anxious to get off. When he comes back we give him our order as he’s entering it my wife asks can she add pepperoni to her Margherita he didn’t respond but clearly appeared to have an attitude, again we let this slide. We proceeded to sit outside at one of the outdoor tables (directly next to the door) for the restaurant while the band was still playing. He walked by us SEVERAL TIMES while attending other tables, I noticed a party of 5-6 that came in few mins after us, they sat inside and was receiving all their food and yet we didn’t have our 2 simple pizzas (sauasage/mushroom & Margherita.) Finally it appeared one of the managers brought us our pizzas probably because they had just been sitting in the window. The manager said he asked the waiter who the to go the pizzas were for and where were we, he said the waiter said I don’t know I just remember a hat. I had unique tie dye Bulls hat but yet after walking by us at the outdoor table many times he couldn’t remember our to go order, really?

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and am very considerate but ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS I just wonder if he rushed the party of 5-6 who sat inside at 9:45ish and was he that unprofessional to them? Lastly, we paid him immediately when we ordered because again trying to be considerate of the time they close and to add insult to injury we still TIPPED him 20%. The total bill was approx 46.00 w/ tip for 2 pizza glass & Chardonnay. I’d just expect better from Brienzos as it didn’t seem aligned with what we thought was this restaurants values, actions...

Let's start this off by saying I work in the service industry and I'm very linient when it comes to service at a restaurant. We went to celebrate a college graduation (which we mentioned and was completely ignored) and from the very start the server had an attitude. Whatever, no biggie, she's probably just busy. We then sat there waiting and waiting for our food but again no biggie we were hanging out. Finally it's been an hour since we ordered and our food isn't out and out server hasn't stopped by the table once since taking the order. Our server finally stops by at about an hour and ten minutes and apologized saying kitchen was having a hard time tonight and that a manager would stop by soon to talk to us. She also said that pizzas were taking about an hour tonight but that ours wouldn't and that the online orders were what was causing it to take so long but when we checked doordash it said it's take 45 minutes to get food for a place the was 10 minutes away so the math wasn't mathing for me. We saw the manager and our server talking about what was going on yet we still didn't get any food or see any manager or server again until an hour and a half after ordering our food (which we ended up having to take 30 minutes home since we had a toddler with us and after having to wait so long it was well past her bedtime). When our food finally came out it wasn't even right. Tables that got their after us got food way before us yet somehow ours was because 'kitchen was having a hard time keeping up'. Brienzos uses toast for taking their orders which means the orders are rang in as you're ordering them but our server didn't use it at our table when we ordered. Our server forgot to ring our food in and then tried playing it off like it was kitchens fault and then both her and the manager avoided us until the food finally came up. I don't plan on ever dining at this place again. I hope this restaurant seriously reconsiders how they handle these types of problems in the future. My sister (who is the one who graduated) was really upset that her celebration was ruined by how they treated us and acted like there...

Tonight my wife and I tried Brienzo's Wood Fired Pizza at Junction City in Peoria,IL. Brienzo's offer 10" pizzas, small or large salads, a dessert pizza, and Wines On Tap and Craft Beers. To order it's kind of like going to Subway you go up to the counter a cook writes your order you can either stand there and watch them prepare your pizza or walk to the end to pay.For beverages you order from the cashier if you get soda you get a paper coke cup to get your own drink or if you get a alcoholic drink that same cashier gets it for you (this leads to jamming up the line with people getting soda refills or to get another glass of wine and people waiting in line just to pay for their pizzas). I ordered Carnivore which is Pepperoni,sausage,bacon, and mozzarella. My wife got the Garlic Cheese pizza which is basically Garlic cheesy pizza crust. Our total with 2 sodas came to $24.03. These are off their Specialty Pie list you can also build your own pizza. They offer inside seating as well as outside seating we opted for inside. From the time we ordered to finding our table we Which was about 5min we had our pizzas. Both pizzas had a good amount of grease on the top, the crust was cook very well (no doughy spots on either pizzas), i had a good amount of toppings on my pizza but not over loaded and not to little. My wife's pizza didn't have sauce (didn't say that on the menu) so she was a little disappointed with her pizza and it was bland some type of dipping sauce would have been a good idea for that pizza. The heavy feel to me that the people running it are at a cross between High class and no restaurant experience hurts the place. They really need a separate area with a bartender for the drinks with a cocktail waitress serving drinks to keep the cash register area traffic free as much as possible. So check them out if you get a chance or if you see their Mobile Oven some where give them a try. Final rating is 3/5 with a lot of potential to be a really great pizza and wine on...