Firehouse Pizza — Restaurant in Snyder Township

Mixed Feelings

Bear with me. This one is complicated.

I've eaten here a few times with my family. Experiences have been positive, but today, mixed. If you don't have any problems, it's a decent place to eat. If you want to offer feedback or make a complaint, buckle up for some attitude.

Food: Solid, good...about what you'd expect. Nothing to rave about, but tasty. It's good.

Atmosphere is nice. Cozy firehouse theme really works. Kids like it, especially that there's a little fire engine ride and that they get hats.

Service. Generally slow from my experience, but that's kind of standard in Central PA. It's no worse than anywhere else, and the fact that they are all adults (as opposed to Penn State students) is a big plus.

Today, it took about ten minutes to get noticed. Waitress told us that she's new. This was a recurring theme today. Wait was a bit long with kids, but we kept them more or less under control. Zucchini fries helped with that, as did the fire engine ride. Waitress was generally helpful and seemed to care during service. We never did get menus or silverware and we had to ask for napkins. Hey, she's new, right? We found takeout menus on our own to order from. It worked out.

The bill....sticker shock.

Previously, I had asked if I could get something besides chips for my cheesesteak. Waitress was new, so she called in help. Sure, you can order any appetizer as a side dish with an up-charge. They really don't have sides, per se, just coleslaw and cottage cheese. That's a little weird to me, but all right. I ordered onion rings. I didn't know it, but so did my wife.

So, my wife ordered a burger with onion rings. I ordered a cheesesteak with onion rings. Kids each had a slice of pizza. We had zucchini fries and drinks.

$46.00+

Yep. I questioned that figure and the New Waitress went to ask somebody. After a while, she came back and had taken off three dollars, because...try to follow me here: The menu says that you can add onion rings to a burger for $2.00, but that doesn't apply to cheesesteaks because of chips. So, she mistakenly charged $5.50 X 2 for a total of $11.00 for two orders of onion rings with our burger and cheesesteak. After correction, $7.50. To me, that's still excessive. It's not an "up-charge". I asked the New Waitress if she could pass along that feedback. I got a list of excuses, deflecting blame. She couldn't understand my request and got defensive.

Nobody there really wants feedback. Owner and a female employee got a little aggressive in "explaining" the bizarre pricing structure. I was frustrated at that point, too. Like talking to a brick wall...It seems the owner finally heard me when I said, "$11.00 is excessive for two orders of onion rings." At that point, I felt like that was the first time anybody actually heard what I was saying.

Let me state that my only goal today was to offer genuine feedback to help these people improve their pricing model. It's tough to get through the wall they put up. I suspect that they don't get a lot of constructive criticism, because it did seem like an alien concept to everybody there. Their knee-jerk reaction was to deflect blame and make excuses. It took some effort to get through, and I'm not sure they care.

As for the New Waitress, she kept saying that she was new. I suggested after some frustration that she wasn't really listening, and she took great offense at that, offering the passive-aggressive "YOU HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS" while storming away. At least she said "Christmas". That's a plus. She could have offered some indication that she understood my concerns and that she could pass that along to the owners. Not what happened.

Now, I understand that the service industry is tough, and so I'm usually a pretty good tipper. I figured on giving her a decent tip, but her inability to deal with simple feedback gave me pause. I left my normal tip in the hopes she'll think about things. maybe not, but maybe.

My experience, for...

My family and I ate here tonight or I guess I should say "tried" to eat here tonight. The building was extremely hot. No one greeted us at the door we had to ask the waitress if we seat ourselves or if we should wait to be seated. There was only one man cooking the food. We waited a solid 40-45 minutes for our meals and the power went out. Two out of six people ordered burgers at the table so the waitress brought us those. We asked if she knew how much longer the rest of the food would be and she didn't know since the power was down and they had limited resources to cook the food. We had no water at our table and she said she couldn't give us any because the machine was down. We decided to leave and go somewhere else...and they still made us pay for the two burgers at the table that weren't even eaten. That is pathetic customer service. We got 2/6 meals to the table and left and they still wanted us to pay. 10/10 WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE. I will not...

We were visiting Tyrone on a Sunday afternoon, and very few places were open for takeout, so we gave Firehouse Pizza a try. It’s on the outskirts of Tyrone, and almost halfway to Port Matilda, but it was worth the short drive! It’s conveniently located just off I-99 and South Eagle Road / Pennsylvania Avenue.

We ordered a few pizzas and a stromboli, and everyone was very happy with them. Food was prepared quickly, staff seemed friendly, and it looked like a family-friendly place you can dine out as well. It’s decorated with a lot of fire station items and memorabilia from around the country. Pricing for the menu items was very reasonable.

If we’re back in the area again, we’ll...