Grimaldi's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Sugar Land

Man, this was so depressing for me.

I've been getting delivery since COVID happened and haven't gone out to eat. My family just got vaxed though so we decided now is the time to get back onto the food scene.

I called before we left to ask about rules and such and wait times. They said there's no wait right now. Alright cool.

Family gets there about 30 mins after I get off the phone. Wait time is 30 minutes...

I specifically called because I got 2 young kids and didn't want to deal with this. During my 30 minute wait I found out that I could've done a wait list on the Yelp app. That angered me.

Then from outside I see multiple tables open, so I go inside to wait to maybe prompt the hostess to pay attention or do something. She finally acknowledges me and I asked if she had an idea how much longer the wait would be. She looks over to the open table, then tells me a table has just been prepared and we're ready to be seated. What a joke, I saw that table through the glass sitting there for over 5 minutes.

There was multiple ready tables too. I don't know if it was a directive from management to make families with young kids wait needlessly or what, but obviously we're starting off on a bad foot already.

They have this door in the kitchen that is squeaking terribly and it's very annoying as people constantly going in and out of that door. Do you need guests to tell you to WD-40 your annoying doors? Is that something that no one there is capable of?

I sat there without anyone saying anything to us for almost 5 minutes, so we asked to change tables. I'm not gonna be put in a waiter / waitresses section that can't acknowledge me in 5 minutes. Stupid move on our part I guess. Once sat at new table the waiter greeted us promptly and that was the only prompt thing he did the whole night.

I told him our order and let him know my little guy might be melting down soon if he doesn't get food and asked if we could get some bread or something while we waited. We insta-ordered our food because we knew what we wanted during that 30 minute wait. He said he'd get us bread no problem and acknowledged my little guy might be melting down soon, then our relationship dissolved. He brought bread... 10 minutes later when our appetizer came out also.

Dude was loafing around the whole time, only looked in 1 direction, never looked over at us, never acknowledged us, 30 minutes after ordering our pizza finally came out, delivered by someone else. That person refilled all our EMPTY drinks, got all the dirty plates off our table and did it quickly. She moved like, I don't know, she was working at a job or something. Meanwhile our waiter was still just loafing around somewhere. I had to revert to waving him down and hey calls at him if I needed anything. I guess he did me a favor because he saved me money because I tipped him poorly for my bill size.

Sorry dude, I'm not cheap, you just suck. If it wasn't a pandemic I would've tipped worse, but I know people are struggling so I can't be a total jerk.

Anyways Grimaldi's... you broke my heart. I waited over a year and this is what yall gave me. See you on the other side... cause you're...

If there on a Wed night, sit in the bar area and ask for Caroline. She's a great waitperson and bartender. The pizza here is delicious although cook time can be long at very busy times. The wine selection is pretty good too.

Update December 2021: My wife and I have been going to this location almost every Wednesday night for around 10 years. During 2020, we ordered out from there many times as we did with other eateries to help the business and, as restaurants began to open up again earlier this year we returned to our in-person visits. About a month ago we were there again on a Wednesday evening, and had our usual order of a large pizza and a bottle of wine. Due to COVID, the store hours were scaled back and now closes at 9 PM. At that time, we were still finishing up and a few other customers were still at tables. About 6 or 7 minutes after 9PM, even though we were ready to box up our remaining pizza, we asked for one additional glass of wine each. The waitperson said OK but a minute later the shift manager came to the table and said they wouldn't serve us anything else due to the time. When we protested she said she had been instructed such by the store manager. We said we had often gotten a final glass of wine before paying up and usually just after closing time (our Wednesday evening schedule causes us to arrive later in the evening). Plus the staff would be spending quite some time to do their clean-up for closing. We understand that new people will not be let in to order after 9PM but customers finishing up shouldn't be rudely pushed out. Coincidentally, we also learned that our long-time friend and bar waiter there had recently departed. As a result of both of these matters, we have largely decided to no longer go to this location, at least in not person. We may order out a few times a year but our weekly visits are over. In contrast, in place of Grimaldi's we went to another nearby place - Japaneiro's - the following Wednesday. They also close at 9PM and when the time came and we weren't quite finished, we brought up the topic with the bartender (we were sitting at the bar). She said no worries - to take out time finishing up even though she was starting her closing duties.

Update April 2022: Yesterday the company sent out a "tax day" promo with a price of $10.40 for a 16 inch (medium) "traditional" pizza (cheese and sauce). This is a discount of $6.60 as the regular price for this is $17. I placed an online order for pick-up and specified an 18" (large). I added toppings (which cost extra) and a salad. I wanted to use the promo but I did not expect to pay $10.40 for the 18" size (the base cost is $19). I simply expected that I would receive the same $6.60 discount. This means my base pizza cost would have been $12.40 where I pay the $2 difference. The store called to say that I made a mistake in my order - that the promo was for a 16" pizza. I explained the above and the person said no. I talked to a manager and they said the same. I cancelled my entire order. It would have been close to...

We decided to celebrate my nephews birthday at Grimaldi‘s since he mentioned it was his favorite pizza place. Honestly, I do think it’s also because of the small park outside the restaurant where he and his cousins could play before and after dinner. Our experience started off somewhat rocky, and I can understand that despite us having a reservation there on a Saturday, it would be a bit of a wait but an hour? Really? But OK, we ordered about nine or 10 pizzas and a few salads aside from our drinks. Some of our pizzas were badly burnt and they tried to convince us it was just a “little extra crispy”. Once they realized we weren’t going to take it that way, they offered to make us more.

I will admit after that, they were very attentive throughout our experience refilling our drinks making sure everything was to our liking. We finished dinner around the time that they had close, and asked for the checks. This is where the entire experience just went completely south. We had individual checks and someone had totaled them into one and could not figure out how to separate them. When we offered to write down what each of us ordered the waiter refused to do it because he wanted to make sure everything was accounted for. We made a suggestion that they would just crossed off the items as they charged us and if anything was missing towards the end we would just figure out whose it was. His response was along the lines of either it’s all on one ticket and y’all (us) figure it out yourselves later or wait until the tickets are correct.

The perception I was getting at this point was that they were accusing us of not being honest people and we were trying to leave without paying for something we ate. Even if that was not the case at this point, our children were upset and bored (this was around 11:50pm) waiting on the staff to figure this out and being accused of being dishonest, I had had enough.

It was now midnight, and at this point I asked for the manager and basically had to take over the situation and ask them to print out the entire receipt on one bill and that each of us would write exactly what we ordered and they would just have to cross out the items themselves.

It was ridiculous , unprofessional, and upsetting the amount of time they were taking to check us out and the amount of times they came back and questioned us again what we ordered. It felt like we were being interviewed like a suspect in a murder trial because of the amount of times they asked us what we ordered, seeing if we would slip up somewhere.

It was also upsetting to know that the manager waited till the very end to take care of the situation when we were the only ones left inside at this point. Our night was just completely ruined, parents were upset, kids were frustrated and starting to act out, horrible! Safe to say, we do not plan on EVER going back...