El Greco Pizza — Restaurant in South Orange

I recently visited El Greco Pizza, a spot I used to frequent over 30 years ago on my way home from high school. Seeing it still open brought back a wave of nostalgia—memories of playing arcade games, hanging out with friends, and enjoying some of the best pizza in the neighborhood. My family would even order their chicken parm sandwiches on Friday nights.

Excited to step inside and reminisce, I walked in and immediately noticed that the place looked just as I remembered. I saw an older man working in the back who seemed familiar, so I approached the counter, hoping to catch up and maybe place an order.

However, my excitement quickly faded. As soon as I asked, “Hi, what are your hours for today?”, I was met with an unfriendly and confrontational response: “You want pizza?”—delivered with a frown and an aggressive tone. I tried rephrasing my question, thinking there was a language barrier, but he curtly repeated, “It’s online!”. The whole exchange felt unnecessarily rude and off-putting.

Maybe that’s just his usual demeanor, or perhaps I don’t remember him being this way, but unfortunately, it left a bad impression. I had hoped for a moment of nostalgia and connection, but instead, I walked away disappointed. Sadly, this experience has made me decide that I won’t be returning or ordering from El Greco...

I have never complained about customer service because I've worked in the food service industry and know how unforgiving it can be. However, the service at this store is completely unacceptable. I ordered a large pepperoni pizza and received a large plain pizza from the delivery guy. I called the store back right away and told the owner the situation and he said he was going to call the delivery man. After waiting 20 minutes with no call back I called the store again and the owner was completely rude and nasty. He told me to drive to the store and he'd switch them out and when I told him I was a student and didn't have a car he said there were no more delivery cars available. The sad thing is he'll keep doing business as long as Seton...

Today I didn’t want to cook dinner so I found El Greco Pizza and picked up a large bbq pizza with some “garlic bread.” I opened the box in the house and saw and little spots of bbq. When I ordered bbq pizza I expected it to be bbq all over. Then I open my “garlic bread” and it was barely garlic on it and just a lot of seasonings. Also when I was in the shop the lady picked up the phone and then went straight to making a pizza. I would expect them to be a little cleaner because of Covid but that wasn’t the case. Not only that but there’s was a dog running around in the kitchen. Overall I do not recommend...