Giuseppe's Steel City Pizza — Restaurant in Port Orange

TLDR - Food is crazy, fun, and good. Ambiance is the same, really cool. Service is lacking.

I work in the area weekly and always drive past the big building with its tatted up Big Boy statue holding a pizza standing outside. I've been wanting to try them out and today I was finally in the area for leisure, went to visit the sugar mill just down the road, so decided today would be the day.

I'll start off by saying that this place is wicked cool visually. From the big boy outside to the antiques covering the walls and dining areas, this place has a lot of visual appeal and whoever was in charge of decorating did an awesome job. It's really cool and will have you looking around for half of your dining experience. Even the bathrooms looked great. Very unique and eclectic.

Next, I'll talk about our food. We got two appetizers, the garlic knots and loaded fries, cant recall the specific name but it was the one with thai chili sauce, pinapple, and fried chicken. The knots couldve been a bit larger and maybe a tad fluffier, but the garlic sauce and parm cheese was applied liberally and the marinara sauce was really tasty. I would definitely order again. The loaded fries were absolutely massive and covered liberally in the toppings and cheese. They were unique and overall really tasty. Super filling. They also layered the cheese throughout and everything was melted to perfection. Would recommend for a hungry party of multiple people.

I ordered something outrageous, the BFP burger, which had a pizza bun, sautéed onions, bacon, fries, cheese, and was cooked to your preference, bloody, pink, done. I got it pink, and it was cooked as expected. The burger itself was as I said above, outrageous. Probably too much going on to be honest but visually it was really cool and as crazy as I expected. There's literally a mini pizza on top of this thing. The bun was soft and fluffy, patty was half pound, sautéed onions were plentiful and perfect. I probably wouldn't order this crazy thing again, but I wouldn't hesitate to order a normal burger here at all.

Wife got the steel city sub. She enjoyed it and I did as well (we share it all!) It was huge and all was home made, including the roll, I believe. Had a unique flavor and would order again.

Kids got pizza slices. We gave them the old Portnoy bite and they held up. Good crust, good sauce, good cheese, I love it. Will probably grab a pizza our next visit.

Finally, the service. This is where this place was lacking. When we walked in, we walked up to the hostess counter which was unmanned, waited a moment or two, and finally asked the two servers who were standing nearby if we seated ourselves or to wait, which they not rudely not not friendly like replied, no, wait for the hostess. Could've greeted us and told us to hold on, but that's alright. When the hostess did finally get there, another server walked up to her as she was leading us to our seats, and I believe told her not to sit us in her section. She came off as very rude, didn't acknowledge us at all, and didn't want us in her section. For whatever reason. Not cool. Our server was kind and went out of her way to try and keep our kids happy, though our plates were never cleared and our drinks were never refilled. Our food came out one item at a time, nothing came out together. She also gave us the wrong check. In our eyes, these are little things. The food was good and our server was kind, so we didn't mind the little issues. I will say, though, having observed the other staff, there seems to be a lot of toxicity in this work place and no one appeared warm or inviting. Seemed inconvenienced by having to do their jobs. Had service been better, the review would have been 4 or 5 stars.

Overall, I'll be back. The food here is crazy and exciting, but the service could...

Edit: Don’t know if original post was somehow removed because I could not find it in my list of reviews. The encounter was a month or so ago.

I know this review won’t impact the booming business this place does, but this review is what happened to me:

(Left the extra star because Connie was nice)

Had the most horrible experience here this past week.

I have dined here a few times and the house side salad with house dressing and feta added are fantastic. The pizza is quite decent.

The problem has always been the service and my experience this past week is the final straw.

I took my frail, little, 86 year old mother for pizza here. I had taken her here once before and she wanted to go back because it is one of the few places where the bartender knows what a Negroni is and she says they make a good one. She also likes a very thin crust pizza and they have this as well.

Anyway, after waiting just a few moments the waitress named Deb, who has waited on me before and can run hot and cold in her attitude, grabbed some menus and proceeded to lead us to a table that she started to clean off/wipe up. I asked her, quite nicely, if we could please have a booth. She stated, in an annoyed voice, that she didn’t have any clean booths. I pointed to a booth at the other side of the restaurant and asked if we would be able to have that booth. (I assumed we would wait until it was cleaned before being seated there). Before I could blink I was being yelled at “I told you I don’t have a clean booth!” I was taken quite aback. I tried to ask if she might have an idea how long a wait it would be for the booth. She became even ruder. Then my tiny little mother looked up at her and started speaking to her in Italian (my mother is not Italian but she knows some). Deb looked down at my mother and told her she did not understand her and get this…did not want to know. My mother was flabbergasted. I told my mother we would not stay, and tried to get her to leave. She was so shocked she just stood there. Finally, I insisted on speaking to the manager. At this time a very nice waitress named Connie sidled over to us and said she had a booth for us in her section. Since my mom really wanted to have the pizza and Negroni we sat at Connie’s booth. The manager eventually came to the table. I explained what happened. He looked at me like I had two heads. He said these waitresses regularly work this daytime shift and tried to impress upon us that he doesn’t have issues with them but he “will look at the video or tapes.” Right, sure. He didn’t even offer to take our names to let us know what he finds out. My mother tried to let him know that at 86 and having lived in NY and San Francisco and having traveled the world that she has NEVER been treated so poorly by a waitress or waiter.

5 stars for atmosphere because it is a very cool building.

PS just read other reviews about the manager, Sean. Seems he should have some restaurant customer service training or be...

THE GOOD: I ordered a 14" Christina Pizza for a little over $26. The pizza looked like the picture on their website and tasted great with the eggplant just the way it should be, crispy.

THE MEH: The redesign of this place is not cozy or intuitive. I walked in through the screen area, then through the door pass the bar into this giant open area, which is not a great design for a cozy dinner. They had one wall with booths and then a ton of tables, which makes the place loud.

THE BAD: There's no proper signage to pickup your order. They have a screened in area, but front/corner door facing the road, which is neither place to officially pick up your pizza apparently. After walking around lost, feeling like an idiot and everyone just passing me, two workers practically ran into me (it wasn't busy), I decided to waited at the front counter where desserts were, standing behind a server doing whatever for quite a while, waiting. When she finally turns around, I asked her where to pick up my pizza and why isn't there signage to guide customers. Keep in mind, I'm already feeling lost and invisible, waiting a while to be noticed. She tells me that they told me to pick up the pizza in the back over the phone as if she was on the call. I told her they did not tell me and she proceeds to patronize twice with a banter between us by telling me that's what they do, tell customers where to pickup, and me telling her "that wasn't the case for me." Then she starts on this long winded explanation about picking up the pizza in the back, but I can't go back there, and to pay at the bar and by now I was over her, still upset about the phone call banter. I finally had to stop her and ask again, how do I just get my order and go. So she starts patronizing me AGAIN, "sir I'm trying to tell you," and I stop her again and tell her that I'm already put off and just want my pizza. So instead of just doing that, she flips my frustration around on me and says, "so because you're having a bad day I have to have a bad day too." Now I'm pissed and just walk away and ask another server how to get my pizza and in two words they say, "the bar." I go there, they take my money, and they have someone bring me my pizza.

That said, all this could have been avoided with signage. They have a big meaningless neon sign over the pizza bar with a dinosaur and "Sinclair," but they can't put a neon sign over the bar outside that says "Pickup"? Come on!

Picking up a $26 pizza should not be a...