Caliente Pizza & Drafthouse — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

Failed customer service all around. Do not expect to be treated as a valued customer at the Bloomfield Caliente location. It was easy to see they were severely understaffed with only 2 people working, a manager/cook and an admittedly new server. The server was excellent and couldn’t help that the manager made the wrong pizza. When the incorrect order came and I notified the server that my pizza had the same toppings as my wife’s. The server went back into the kitchen to tell the “manager”, she was told to tell me “we can make a new one”. The first order took more than 20 minutes while dozens of pizza for take out went by. We had a toddler with us and we waited long enough and waiting again while the rest of the party are was far from a proper option. I just said I don’t want to wait so she walked away. I picked items off my pizza and ate a couple of slices. I asked for the bill, the receipt clearly stated what I ordered, so I know I ordered the right thing and the server took down the order right. I paid the bill and gave a reasonable tip and then asked for the manager. My wife, daughter in law and her toddler son left while I waited. I asked again and was told “he’s on the phone. I waited more and finally opened the door to the kitchen and asked the man making pizzas if he was the manager, he came out.

I asked him if he knew he made the wrong order and he said yes. I explained that the response of the server quite insufficient and he said “I said I’d make another pizza”. (See previous comments). I explained that since he screwed up and was the “manager” he had the opportunity to do better than what he did which was nothing. He offered to comp the pizza and I told him it was too late to do the right thing. I paid already and told him he failed at customer service 101 and left.

However I blame the owner(s) of Caliente for putting these two people in this position to fail. Leadership has failed. This is the third time over 3 years I have had poor service while dining in the Bloomfield restaurant and I keep swearing to not come back, but I did. My bad. I was asked to go there by my companions and I hoped for the best . . . I didn’t get it.

Oh yeah, I had to lift the mop bucket piece out of the high chair for my grandson...

Takeout - They advertise prices on their website for takeout and delivery that are actually dine-in only prices. When I asked for the price as advertised, 2 employees argued with me and then the manager also refused to honor the price online. Through the entire conversation, employees were nasty and argumentative. The hipster attitude is strong with this one.

Bar - The downstairs "speakeasy" was advertised as open and the door was open. I went in to order a drink that was listed on the menu as 'only available downstairs'. No bartender ever came down. I went back upstairs to order the drink that I was supposed to be able to order downstairs and the bartender had to go get another bartender who came in and told me that the downstairs was closed, because "we can just close up downstairs whenever we feel like it" and that I could order the drink upstairs. Finally, I had to order the drink downstairs from that bartender before he closed up. He acted obviously inconvenienced, as did the rest of the staff. Also, they were out of Yuengling. Who runs out of Yuengling in Pittsburgh??? I spent the remainder of the night drinking $5 CANS OF BEER until my party was willing to leave.

Food - My veggie sub was embarrassingly low on veggies, as if it were just a turkey sub with the meat removed, which I'm sure it was. My friend's zucchini planks were soggy and cold and the pizza was stiff and dry. For a better dining experience at a pizza restaurant, try Spak Brothers', Angelo's, Fiori's, Mineo's, Pizza Al's, DiCarlo's, Nick's, Pizza Italia, etc. In other words, try anywhere but here.

Overall - Google forced me to give this place 1 star. Not deserved. Caliente provided the worst dining experience I have ever had in Pittsburgh and the second worst experience I've ever had at a bar.

TLDR: Bad food, bad prices, bad beer, and the worst service in the city. Eat...

First thing: Very, very, very tasty pizza. No questions, there. This is the only reason I have given them multiple chances after horrible service every single time I've ordered here. I went in to eat and we ordered the $5 personal pizza special. After a 25-30 minute wait, someone from the kitchen came out holding our order and yelled "who ordered personal pizzas?" a couple who had been there 3 minutes got their attention first, and our order was given to them. When the waitress showed back up 5 minutes later, they complained about "their" order being wrong. The waitress then brought the pizzas that had been sitting in front of them and that they had touched over to us. We did eventually enjoy the food, so we decided to just do delivery. Every delivery order was 2 of the following 3 things: late, wrong, and/or un-cut. We finally stopped ordering for a while. Today we decided to order via Grubhub. Our hour wait time was updated to an hour and a half on the app. A half hour after that (two hours after ordering), we called the restaurant. After the restaurant's ring-back literally yelling at us about how the great the pizza is, an employee answered. He informed us that our order was "probably" already out for delivery, and that, no, we were wrong, it was not late and Grubhub is lying to us. Another hour later (three hours after ordering), having heard nothing from the restaurant, we tried to call back. The yelling promotion cycled twice and then hung up; no one ever answered. Never ordering here again. The only reason they even get two stars is, yes, the pizza really is that tasty. It adds three stars to the negative one I would...