Giovanna's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Phenix City

I'm so disappointed. We were so excited to finally make it to this place. But I was hesitant almost a soon as we walked in. The place looked dirty and it was empty. Sunday at 1pm are the opening hours and we were the first ones of the day. Tables were dirty, chairs just looked unplaced. It felt like it should have been closed. We just stood there for a few minutes and the owner/waiter/chef comes from the bathroom to greet us. I notice everything and saw he held the bathroom doorknob as he exited. So yuck, right?? Because I know that some people just don't wash their hands. Anyway, stay with me.

He was very friendly and invited us to have a seat. I excused myself and went to wash my hands. There were no paper towels. Just an air blower. So I left the door open since it was just us, washed my hands and exited. The tables had a few paper towel rolls on them. Very unsanitary as you have to grip inside to tear or handle it. I'll continue...

Owner took drink orders and I'm still thinking about, you touched the doorknob. We got beers and I wrapped mine with the paper towels lol! We placed our food orders and I'm concerned again. He's the only one working so he's going to now prepare our food. I chose pizza and a salad, hubby, lamb gyro and fries.

As he's in the back prepping food, phone ring and he comes to the front, hands covered in flour, answers phone and grabs ipad to enter a possible order. What??! A little while later he brings my salad and it already has a fork stuck inside lol!! Sir?! I don't know about y'all, but I like to do a basic wipe on my utensils. To late!! Lol! After about 25/30 minutes he brings my husband's order. He's explaining everything is made to order so it takes longer. My order is brought out about 15 minutes after his. I ordered steak and cheese pizza So he's explaining how he had to saute the steak and veggies then cook the pizza. He carried the pizza out with a knife and fork just floating all in the air. Sir, utensils should be pre-wrapped in a napkin and given out as guests arrive. Cleaner. Better. Typical. So since mine wasn't, I debated if the back of my greasy fork had already touched the pizza and just went with the Lord on it because it made sense... sigh. Now I'm not gonna lie, the pizza looked good. The toppings were tasty, BUT, the crust was soggy, limp, and doughy. I took one bite and that was a wrap. I figured I'll just air fry it later. All in all, I will not be back. Hubby did like his order, but the presentation, long wait for food (about 40 mins total) and cleanliness concerns, are not worth the stop over to Phenix City for my money. All of this can be corrected over time, so I wish...

Disclaimer: I hate to leave this review. I rarely leave reviews and usually I only put the effort into it if someone is stellar and deserves recognition. I don’t think I have ever written a bad review for a place. There’s too much negativity and criticism in the world already. It just seemed like this experience was something the owner should know about.

The food was good, but it wasn’t worth waiting 1 1/2 hours for when there was only one other couple in the restaurant. We only ordered a small pizza and a gyro. The gyro was served by itself and when we asked about the side it comes with (listed as chips in the menu) the server said it didn’t come with anything. The gyro came out alone. I didn’t eat it because I wanted to wait for my fiancé’s food to come out, since they only brought my gyro and not his small pizza. I thought it was going to be out shortly after, since I have never seen a restaurant bring out one person’s meal way before the rest of the meals were done. The waitress said it was being taken out of the oven then. We sat there for an hour after receiving the gyro waiting for the small pizza…a lady, who we think was the manager (she was wearing gym shorts and a Batman T-shirt), came out to say it was being taken out of the oven. After another twenty minutes, she came out to tell us it “will be out in 2 more minutes.” Needless to say, it wasn’t. At that point my partner asked for the box and the check. The manager said they had a problem with how tickets were printing, but it seemed to only be our waitress’ tickets. The other waitress with long braids seemed like a great server and none of the people she served were having problems. The people she served that came in after us got there food before us. She was attentive to them.

It was disappointing that instead of addressing the negative situation with honesty and potential solutions, excuses and empty apologies were received. The customer service was...

Terrible customer service from Ashley in particular. She never greeted my sister and I when we walked in. When we sat at the table , we noticed the leftover crumbs from previous customers, and Ashley had an attitude as we asked her kindly to clean it. She informed us that our drink options were unavailable due to lack of ingredients and did not present a drink menu for other selections . We notice her attitude towards us which was the same as the last visit, short and inattentive as she did not ask if we was interested in water or any other beverage. We notice that her attention is more comfortable and friendly toward customers of Caucasian descent and military service members and rather careless neglectful when it came to our dining needs. My sister and I enjoy this pizza place as we regard it closely to the pizza we eat when we’re in NYC and prefer this place when we’re in town; However todays pizza was extremely soggy and looked like a child had thrown it together. We request that our pizza be cooked further because it didn’t look edible. This is not the service that we experience when being hosted by the owners as they are very attentive and the pizza is always perfect. It seems to us that Ashley prefers to attend to customers of larger groups as well as military service members as oppose to African American groups of two. This would not be the first time that we were treated this way by the waitress and it’s unfortunate that we will no longer recommend this pizza place to friends and family. Along with horrible service Ashley does not represent this business in a professional attire her clothing which was today, sagging pants, which dragged on the floor as she walked on them and a sloppy appearance which matches her attitude and presented itself in the pizza we received today. We would appreciate a business that has professional staff members to all clients of all race as well as a pizza...