Trackside Pizza — Restaurant in Puyallup

Trackside and/or Crockett’s will never have my business again.

Came to dine in at Trackside last night with a larger group of 9. Arrived at 9:00 p.m. and placed an order for food within 15 minutes or so. The initial server helping us was very sweet and helpful, and brought drinks and took our orders right away. We ordered 3 large pizzas, one children’s pizza, and two salads. We were only one of two groups at the restaurant, so it was not busy at all. Our salads took over 30 minutes to come out and the child’s pizza (dough, cheese, and pineapple-not even cooked yet) took even longer. After over an hour of patiently waiting, the server came to our table with only two (one adult, one children’s pizza) of our pizzas and told us that the other two were burned in the oven, due to new pizza dough they are using, and they were remaking them. She apologized, and we told her that it was totally fine & we would wait for the next ones. Probably 15 minutes later, the restaurant filled with smoke and we were worried that the next pizzas were burning as well. One of the members of our party went and asked the kitchen staff if everything was okay as we had been waiting almost an hour and a half at this point, we had a child with us, and it was nearing 10:20 p.m. The next time anyone approached our table, it was a “supervisor” from Crocket’s bringing us one completely burned pizza. She told us that she had bad news that our other pizza was completely burned. We asked for the pizzas to be removed from our bill as we had waited almost 2 hours and only received one of our adult sized pizzas for 8 adults to share. She said she would not take it off the bill and said that she heard that we were mean to the kitchen staff. Not only did she not apologize for the terrible experience we’d had there so far, she began to insult us and accuse us of being rude. We were completely shocked. She began to take the pizza away that she brought over and a member of our party requested to keep it and she replied, “I’ll have to add that back to your bill then”. When she brought us the bill, she AGAIN began to talk about how the General Manager of Trackside was in earlier & heard that we were “mean to the kitchen staff”, and she “believes them”. Our bill still ended up being $140 for the salads, two pizzas, and a couple of beverages we had. She did not offer any way to make the experience right, adjust our bill, or apologize. None of us have ever been treated this way. We were the farthest thing from rude. Her name was Marika. Marika lost Trackside and Crockett’s 9 customers for life. I would never return and I would never recommend Trackside or Crockett’s to anyone. I completely understand being short staffed and mistakes occurring. Disrespecting paying customers and treating people the way that Marika treated us is completely unacceptable. Very...

It hurts me to say this, as I have fond childhood memories of this restaurant, but our last visit was subpar.

The food, to be fair, was pretty good (if extremely overpriced; that is to say, $16 for an 8-inch pizza, $28 for a 12-inch, and $15 for a salad with chicken, overall costing around $100 for 4 people!). Nobody had any complaints, and my California Zephyr (barbecue pizza) was an amazing blend of sweet and savory flavors.

Now, on to the service. There's a sign in the front entrance that says "please wait to be seated." We waited for about 5 minutes before a waitress wandered over just to tell us to "sit wherever." We sat and began to look over the menus, but I was indecisive and so she had to come back several times. However, before the last time she came back (I had decided soon after the second-to-last time around), we waited for about ten minutes. We ordered and it took about twenty minutes before the salads we had ordered came out (as entrees), with the (appetizer) breadsticks coming out after. It was another 5-10 minutes before the pizzas came out, and by that time one of the salads was finished and the other nearly so.

Trying to get our drinks was a nightmare as well. They have a soda fountain in plain view from where we were sitting, but when our waitress came to grab our first refill (about halfway through our visit) she took them off someplace and only brought back two of our four drinks, and even then we had to wait 10-ish minutes.

Finally, when we had finished and were waiting to pay, we sat for about 15 minutes before one of us decided to go up to the counter to pay (they have a tablet till there that we couldn't pay at for some reason), and about another 10 before the waitress finally brought the check.

Overall, I'm sorry to say, it was not a terribly pleasant experience. What should have been maybe 45 minutes of service with another half hour or so of socializing turned into an almost hour-and-a-half visit, starting from when we sat down to when our check arrived. The place wasn't full, and not once did the waitress offer ANY excuse. I understand completely if someone's new, or if they're having a busy night, but none of these apply.

I can't say I would recommend this place, despite its charming location and old brick building, at least not until they get their act together. I'll miss it until then, and I hope I can give them more than 3 stars sometime in the...

The taste of the food, as always was clean, fresh, and delicious. The environment is fun and energetic, capturing nostalgic history and signage for most of the decor. The service is friendly and responsive. HOWEVER, I felt a tinge sad at this latest visit. The salad plate is decidedly smaller. The veggies are now shaved instead a thick sliced. If that were all, I would not mention on a public post. Then the pizza arrived. Yes, delicious, but also tiny. Ingredients have downsized including thickness of crust and circumference of pie itself.

Perhaps a better business strategy would be to inform customers the luncheon price on the menu now purchases a 25% less lunch than a few months ago. It's understandable price of staying in business has increased, but communication with faithful customers is free.

I feel I'm witnessing the close of an era, the Trackside Era of Family Events.

Fresh tasting pizza can be purchased at competitors. If the attributes that made Trackside the go-to place are being slimmed down and shaved away, Trackside just pushed what made them special right off the table. It's sad. This icon is slipping into the status blur of 'every other pizza joint.'

Why do I call this the end of an era? While eating, I overheard a new hire being trained. He was told the owner wants everything much thinner, so cut it really thin. It suddenly made the food particle stuck adhering my knife to the napkin (brought to me this way) take on a new meaning. What other quality standards is Trackside trimming back on?

Owners, please understand your customers have invited you into their friendships and family moments. But if you slcrase to be the iconic Trackside we all love, then much more is lost. You'll never know how many non repeat visits impact your bottom line because other restaurants are picking up those profits.

On this visit, it was a single purchase, but it represented a drop in the thousands previously invested, and planned thousands more. Again, food tasted great, service polite, and environment consistent ... but the soul, that special something, its slipping away. Please consider the hundreds of reviews that are not left because they decided it just worth their time. That is lost revenue and your bottom line cannot...