Straight From New York Pizza — Restaurant in Salem

“Cashier handling food with her bare hands”. It had been along time since I’ve been here and wanted to rekindle my first few experiences with my first son and take my boys out. I was greeted with a long line at 6:30 on a Saturday night. I’m patient so it wasn’t a problem. When I got To the front there was not a lot of pizza to choose from. I asked which ones were coming out and her answer was not pleasant or inviting. Im flexible so I went with what was available. (Only kid friendly pizza to choose from was pepperoni .)

What looked like bread loafs were out and I inquired about the cost of the slices she told me. When I received the three I ordered they they looked like huge mini loafs. I was smugly informed that they were bread sticks. Frustrated she was not clear in the first place when I asked. Still I went with it. It was when the cashier that was taking my order grabbed one with her bare hands that she touches the money with and re positioned it on the paper plate that I decided I was having a bad experience.

I asked mentioned that she takes the money and touched the “bread stick”. She said in a very uncomfortable tone “yes I do” and waited for me to take it and help the next person. I asked her for a new one and she informed me it was falling. We both knew that was far from the truth. She was extremely put out like I was the one engulfing her food with millions of bacteria from my ungloved money taking hands. She then discussed with me verbally said, I’ll throw this one out and get you a new one with an unfriendly demeanor. This made me feel extremely unwelcome. The next several minutes were awkward and extremely long. Never an apology.

Maybe her life is not going as expected. Maybe her family member died or cat is sick.

We all have life that is coming at us hard and quick but we can use encouragement instead of discouragement. I feel bad for the owner because I would hope that my employees make a positive impactful difference in the lives of others instead of the experience I had. I also feel bad for the owner to read such a negative review. This is what they are here for.

The bread was extremely good. The kids enjoyed watching the dough makers twirl it above their heads. The pizza was ok. I’ll come back in another 3-5 years or so and...

We called in for a pickup order of a large pizza, two orders of wings, and a large caesar salad. They said it would be ready in 35-40 minutes. We showed up to pick up the food 40 minutes after we had made the call. I went to the counter to pick the food up and pay. I was told my order would be ready shortly, 8 minutes to be exact. Nothing unusual at this point...

I then proceeded to watch our pizza be made, our wings get made, and our salad get made. While this was going on, one of the cooks was eating bread sticks and touching our food and other's food without washing his hands. Both cooks had their mask's pulled down almost the entire time as I sat their watching. The restaurant received a phone call from a customer that was inquiring about the ETA of their delivery. After reading multiple reviews for this restaurant, poor delivery service seems to be the norm. The employee that worked the register and took our order over the phone noticed that our meat lovers pizza was missing Canadian bacon. The cook that was eating the bread sticks the entire time then attempted to grab cold Canadian bacon and put it on our already cooked pizza... I stopped him immediately and told him that I did not want that on our pizza. He looked at me sideways and tossed the meat back into its dish.

I ended up sitting in the restaurant for an additional 30 minutes after I had paid... Remind you, our food was supposed to be ready when I first arrived.

I brought my concerns to the employee that was running the register. I told her that it was not her fault, but what I had witnessed needed to be addressed. Her reaction to my concerns was as if she had been desensitized to these types of conversations with customers. This made me feel very bad for her, because I would hate my life if that was something that I had to endure on a regular basis.

The food was hot, fresh, and delicious, but a restaurant's reputation is much more than just that. I know employers are struggling to hire and keep competent employees right now, however the owner needs to be made aware of what is going on. I hope this review is taken seriously and changes are made so that the good pizza can be accompanied with a...

Since moving to Salem, a dining disappointment has been a lack of great pizza. Until now, we had concluded that the best pizza in town (that we had tried) is probably a take-n-bake pie from Papa Murphy's. The Commercial & Owens location is a small space, maybe 6-8 tables, three booths and a number of bar seats along the outside walls, plus patio seating outside. The interior walls are brick with some nice photos of various New York scenes. Our order was taken at the counter by a young lady who is friendly but a poor listener. While we were waiting, one of the guys making the pizzas was clearly unhappy with her - scolding her because a completed pie had been finished "for a long time" while the customer sat waiting - the order taker merely forgot to call his name. We had contemplated ordering "by the slice" as there are a number of choices available in the $2.50 to $3.50 range. But we decided to go for broke and ordered a whole pie, the "SFNY," which features pepperoni, sausage, olives, green peppers and mushrooms ($22). The menu has lots of other interesting choices, including "build your own" options, along with salads, calzones, soda, and several macro and microbrews. After seeing the inattention by the order taker, we figured we had best keep an eye out for when our order might be ready. After 30 minutes of occasional glances at the counter, I decided I had best look closer. Sure enough, a pizza, in a box, was sitting on the counter. It was ours, the order taker incorrectly wrote "to go" on the order, and again, didn't call out that our order was done. That said, the pizza was still "out of the oven" hot so it probably hadn't sat for very long. Despite the service issues, the pizza itself was quite good. Fresh ingredients, an appropriate amount of toppings, and a very tasty crust with just the right amount of crunch - perfectly baked. For Salem, this is the best we've had to date. We'll be back, although hopefully next time we'll have better service at...