Brixx Wood Fired Pizza + Craft Bar — Restaurant in Raleigh

My husband and I have only been to Brixx once a few years ago and decided to give it another try last night. Waste of time and money. I would give negative stars if I could, as this was easily our worst dining experience in a long time.

First of all, the food is wildly disappointing and I don't know what any other reviewers think is so great about it except that I've realized many people don't know the difference between good and bad food, especially if they're properly boozed up.

We had the Korean BBQ Meatballs for our appetizer and they had the texture of canned dog food and probably wouldn't taste much better without the overly-sweet bbq sauce all over them.

I ordered the Jerk Chicken Pizza and I found that it should just be called the Chicken Pizza; there was absolutely no spice or heat whatsoever and I could barely even detect the slightest traces of any traditional jerk flavors.

My husband kindly offered me a slice of his Bourbon Chicken Pizza, but I thought it was even worse. No bourbon flavor, sickly sweet and boring with half-cooked mushrooms and too many, too-long ribbons of half-caramelized onion.

As if the food wasn't bad enough (and it really was the worst pizza - and meatballs - I've eaten in ages, possibly ever), the service and overall behavior of the entire staff left us feeling like we were hanging out in a college dorm. And let me tell you, that does nothing for an already-suffering appetite.

Our server, one other female server, and one male who I think was a bartender or barback, spent most of our dinner having very loud, obnoxious, profane personal conversations and even some horseplay not ten feet away from our booth.

Just because it is late in the evening, raining, and not very busy doesn't suddenly mean that you're not only still in public, but on the clock! Also doesn't mean that every one of your customers is just another of your basic bro buddies at the bar who don't care. Very unprofessional and off-putting. And they didn't keep it to their little corner by us either, they sort of carried on all over the whole dining room. I have been both a server and a manager, and nowhere that I have ever worked would have begun to tolerate such behavior from the staff, no matter what time or how slow it was.

Granted, I could have refused to pay for my pizza and could have complained to whatever manager may or may not have been on duty about the childish staff, but it was late and we were tired and frankly we just wanted to get the heck out of there. The only enjoyable parts of the evening were the drinks and the Joan Jett song that came on the radio.

So I took my mostly uneaten pizza home in the hopes of adding our own excellent jerk sauce to try to redeem it. However, the rest of the pizza really was so bland and flimsy and low-quality that it just didn't matter. You want real pizza? Good pizza? And good service too? Go to Trophy or Lily's for some of the best pizza ever and please forget that this place exists.

Oh well, one fairly expensive lesson...

UPDATE: I have decided to change my review from 3 stars to 5 stars. I tried this location again yesterday and it was so much better. The server that we had was top notch and she was so kind and was on top of everything. The staffing issues seem to have gotten much better! I tried the BBQ chicken pizza and I personally think that this is better than the 4x4.

I wish that I could rate this location higher but I can't for the following reasons. If things change, I will be happy to write a new review.

1.) There have been too many times that we have gone here to either be ignored entirely by our server or have a very long wait. One time we were literally waiting for 20 mins just for someone to greet us and order our drinks. It was not busy during this time so I am unsure why it took so long.

2.) The quality of the food has gone down. The pizzas are always super greasy, sometimes cold (even when ordering in) or burnt. I ordered the wings the last time and they were awful. Truly the worst wings that I have ever had. They say on the menu that they are marinated but they were somehow extremely dry, burnt, undercooked and flavorless all at the same time. I went with a group and the server did not even offer to put the extra grated cheese on their pizzas. They also gave me an extra soda without asking if I wanted one and then charged me extra for the refill. The root beer is so good and continues to be one of the best things that I get at Brixx.

3.) What the heck is going on with the staff. Keep the cattiness in the back and away from customers. Please. It seemed like someone did not show up for their shift and there were two girls going at it at the very front in front of customers. It is extremely unprofessional. As someone who has worked in the service industry and works with people on a daily basis, I can understand how frustrating it can be when people do not show up to their shift. Arguments, snide comments and passive aggressive behavior should not be taking place at the very front of the restaurant especially not while there are guests waiting to be seated. To make matters worse, both of these girls went to other coworkers in the restaurants and were loudly gossiping about each other. Additionally, one of the girls went to their table and was complaining about their coworker. I think a manager stepped in but ultimately did not put an end to the drama and it continued to escalate until the one girl left the building after their...

I really wanted to like this Brixx location. Brier Creek is an amazing area and is a quick jaunt from where I work for a good lunch.

We went last Wednesday. I shared the Spinach and Artichoke dip with my coworker, and ordered the Four Cheese pizza with mushrooms and spinach added as my entree. It was delicious. Wait staff was very quick, and we were of want for nothing. I also loved they did cauliflower crust, which is a great low carb alternative. Went back to work, stored the left overs in the fridge immediately, looking forward to a great lunch the next day.

However, when I ate the leftovers the next day, I got a bad case of food poisoning, the major symptoms of which lasted until Saturday morning. My coworkers left overs were just fine (I can't remember what pizza she ordered, but I don't believe it had spinach or mushrooms).

I am positive it was food poisoning and was the left overs because I got nauseous (and physically sick) at work within 2-3 hours of eating the meal (I hadn't had anything else that day). I didn't store them improperly or any differently than my coworker, and they should have been safe to eat. So unfortunately, while Brixx did pretty much everything right, I won't be returning. I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 because of how great everything else was despite my illness at the end.

I haven't called the location to discuss this (frankly, by the time I was feeling well enough to call, it was probably too late to notify them anyways). I'm not looking to get anything out of this. Just wanted to relay...