Pizza Hyena — Restaurant in Surfside Beach

Late lunch at Pizza Hyena on a rainy Tuesday. My first time here and I will happily say I will be back! A friend and I wanted to give this place a try and wandered in around 1:30pm. We were seated quickly and the server was very helpful in explaining what we needed to know. Beer choices are AMAZING. Names I had not heard of but had to try! Seems they bring in new ones on tap, and in bottles and cans, so when you are there try something new! We ordered two appetizers and two large beers. Hineys Pimento Cheese, with warm, crispy edged bread. This was the best I have ever tasted. I could have just had this and the beer and said WOW! But we also ordered Hyena Balls, which were out of this world with flavor. They also came with bread to dip in the sauce which was amazing!!! Who needs anything else? Well we managed to finish about half of each appetizer when our main entree arrived. My friend ordered the pizza, When You cant Decide, a 10 inch plate of pure perfection. The crust was simply the best I think I have ever had, crisp but light and fluffy, the sauce and toppings were plenty, and we both had two slices each and of course there were left overs to take home. I also ordered the Fun Caesar Salad, and we split that to go along with the pizza. Very good salad, with Funyuns and No worries they dont use anchovies in the home made dressing, (Darn it) but it was really nice. The pizza crust ring around the edge of the salad was pretty great too... No salad was left over, and we did manage to have two more large craft beers as we sat and listened to great music and watched the Bar Keeper talk to people at the bar and on the outside patio. Jeremy the manager came to our table to make sure everything was good and we had to both tell him we felt it was perfection. He sat down with us and I felt like I was interviewing him with questions about the restaurant. He was great answering everything and giving so much information about how they make things and the plans for new restaurants across the street they will be opening soon. BBQ even! And Breakfast! This tiny place, cranked out one of the best meals I have had in my years at Surfside Beach, SC. I am excited from the vibe, and really it feels like a place you go and dont really want to leave. Outside patio was inviting, and as we left a couple with their dog were sitting at one of the open windows outside sipping an evening wine and enjoying their Happy Hour. For a rainy cloudy Tuesday, Pizza Hyena...

Just ate here, and this is the best pizza in town. All their pizzas are 10 inches, but it was very clear the reason why when we got the pizzas. They've clearly spent a great deal of time perfecting their pizza so much, to the point when you pick it up everything stays in place. I thought the pork on the pizza would be chewy when I saw them in big squares, happily I was mistaken it MELTED in my mouth. Melted......So that's what I mean in saying, dont let the one size deter you at all from coming here, they clearly made this a top quality pizza possible. I quite literally would compare the quality of this pizza, to something you could find in Naples Italy. I want to add also, what it would cost to get a large pizza locally, would be the exact same price if you just ordered another 10 inch pizza here. So they really put a lot of thought into their product and menu. We also LOVED the names they created for their food. Weird thing to compliment, but they did a good job naming things as well. I hope we see pictures of their food on their menu maybe, and a description about the owner too. I like reading about the owners on menus. Our server Debby was fantastic, friendly, and attentive. Edit: all food came out at the perfect time. Not too short (which sometimes means low quality food) and not too long to where we are upset. They hit the nail on the head for everything, even decor. I know I keep adding stuff, but also do not let the size of the restaurant stop you from going in. It's NOT as small as it looks at all. They could hold probably 60-70 people in the restaurant becauase thet utilize the front and back porches (and we asked anyways to sit outside it's literally by the ocean), but the size of the pizzas allows for every table to be there for about 30 min. We were there for half an hour, so this place on a packed night could have you...

Updated 7/24/23: I had visited Pizza Hyena on Friday, 7/21. After placing my order online around 6:45 pm, I was surprised to see that the wait was going to be 85-95 minutes. A few minutes later, I received my confirmation email and pick up time of 8:22 pm.

Upon arriving at the restaurant around 8:20, I gave my order number to the woman handling take out and she seemed taken aback and quickly notified me that she was checking on my order. Her body language and demeanor however quickly gave the impression that something went wrong and I was immediately told that she would go check on my order. After waiting about 10 minutes with no follow up, I waved down the same woman and asked her what the status of my order was. She responded that they were backed up and would get my order to me as quickly as possible.

Overall, I ended up waiting an additional 35 minutes in the restaurant for my takeout order and wasn't even provided the courtesy of an explanation as to why my order wasn't ready at its original time. It was bad enough that the wait for food on a Friday night was originally 95 minutes. The breaking point for me was waiting in store for an additional 35 minutes and being ignored while asking for updates. Unless you are looking to waste an entire evening waiting for takeout, I would stay away from Pizza Hyena.

Original review: Absolutely atrocious service. If it were possible to give zero stars, I would have. Over 2 hours wait for 2 undersized pizzas and a mediocre salad. Highly recommend that you steer clear of this establishment. They don’t value their...