MOD Pizza — Restaurant in Saratoga Springs

Thursday night saratoga springs location. One dude in a beanie behind the counter was visibly in a terrible mood as he threw utensils and kitchen objects on the floor aggressively as he frustratedly made our pizzas. They were clearly bothered by customers being in there at 8:30 but I’m pretty sure the place closes at 10. The place was a mess but what was worse was the fact that all of the ingredients were all over the place and in a big messy mix. Most of the ingredients were bottom of the barrel scraps. He sloppily and slopped ingredients on to the pizza passive aggressively. When our pizzas were done the dude at the oven impatiently asked us if we want any dressings. As he was boxing things up I told him there was one still in the oven but he decided to argue with me telling me that I’m wrong while my entire family stood there wondering why he was being so angry. I explained to him that there was one more in the oven but he told me I was wrong in a very aggressive tone. I asked him why he was being so rude to me and my family and he told me it was because they were all closed and cleaned up and ready to close before we came in (with several groups ahead of us). I asked him why they were closing an hour and a half before advertised closing and he said it was because things got slow so they decided to. He continued to be extremely rude to me and my family. I have never seen the place like this. I’ve never had a bad experience before and this is a place we visit at least once a month. I rarely write reviews but the aggression really threw me off. Everyone in line was visibly upset about how they were being treated. The skinny dude in the beanie needs to find a new gig. I’m pretty sure he was the manager or supervisor as he was dictating everything to the other employees. Anything customer facing is probably not the best fit. The dude at the oven has typically been a pretty nice guy but tonight, he was an absolute prick. If I owned that location I would be making sure to get those two employees on to their next opportunity far away from...

I usually give the benefit of the doubt, but I'm tired of this particular MOD location. Last night I went with a friend, and the service was super slow for one thing. It was busy, though, so that's not a huge issue. The issue I have is their food safety practices. I've worked in the food industry and gotten food handler's permits in two states, Utah included. When we went last night, one of the girls making my pizza wasn't wearing a hair covering. She had a long braid with hair falling out, so I asked, hey why aren't you wearing anything over your hair? Her response was that she had been running late and didn't bring it. She and the manager both laughed a little, but after I just stared (in shock because it's food service. Your hair has to be covered!), the manager made her go put something on. She was grumpy about it, and as soon as I had paid for my pizza and went to sit down, I saw her go right back into the back room and take her hair covering off. That is absolutely not okay, and the manager was just fine with it. He didn't make her go put it back on. I asked an employee who was wiping tables why hair coverings weren't required (she wasn't wearing one either. Her hair was about chin length), and she said it just doesn't matter. Her hair was "short enough" that she didn't need it covered, but meanwhile, the men with much shorter hair all had hats on. That's ridiculous and gross. They are lucky neither I nor my friend I was with didn't find a hair in our pizza because otherwise, I absolutely would have made a much bigger deal about it than I did. FOLLOW PROPER FOOD SAFETY PROCEDURES. It's not that hard.

Aside from that, my other big complaint is that they burn my pizza half the time, and they take my order at the beginning of the line, but then ask me all down the line what I want on my pizza. Don't take my order if you're going to continue to ask me what I want on my pizza. I hate having to tell my order to the five different people working at different stations on the line. Isn't that why you took my order and wrote it down in the...

I tried the pizza and the salad for my first visit. The pizza was surprisingly good and the mod size (11") actually satisfied. The slightly burnt edges of the crust were really yummy and the ingredients were not bad! The weird thing is that they ask to dribble a sauce of your choice on the entire pizza after it is cooked. Who does that? I went ahead with it and it actually wasn't too bad. They had bbq, buffalo sauce, and I didn't see the rest of the flavors. The buffalo sauce is what I had and it was fine.

The salad, however, was quite terrible. It was instantly soggy, the ingredients bizzare and tasteless. The worst part was the dressing. I got to try two flavors they were both just wrong. (honey lime was basically sugar and blue cheese was quite abnormal). I wanted the salad part to work because I miss Salata (from Houston, at minimum) and the amazing flavors and freshness they had. I thought that by having them build my salad similar to the way Salata does it, it would be awesome as well. I was sorely disappointed.

I will go back to try a few options on pizza but not while it is crowded. I've heard stories from my neighbors about the awful service and wait times. When I went today, hardly anyone was there and the service was lovely.

UPDATE: I went back a few times now, especially to create my own pizza with as many igredients as I like since its all the same price! I was shooting for low calorie so I created a killer garlic-based pizza with chicken and gave it all the low cal ingredients plus lots of roasted garlic and jalapenos and it was very satisfying! I haven't tried the salads again yet, Still a little gun shy. But they have the thin crust...