Chicho's Pizza 29th Street — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

RUN AWAY, DO NOT EAT HERE

I went to Chico's the weekend of the Virginia Beach Marathon. I was excited to get some pizza after the run and tired from the run and waking up early. I wanted to sit, enjoy some good food and a drink, and relax before heading back to my rented condo. Unfortunately, none of this happened.

I walked in with my wife and stood at the hostess counter waiting to be seated. The place wasn't busy and we could have sat ourselves, but we wanted to be polite so we waited for them. The set-up is a large square room, so we could see all of the employees (at least 6 employees near/behind the bar area), but none of them were acknowledging us. A few minutes pass and FINALLY someone gestures for us to sit and hands us menus wherever we'd like (first indication that someone knew we were there).

We go ahead and take our seats right next to one of the other groups, basically in the middle of the restaurant. We look over the menus that we had been given, while we wait for someone to ask us what we'd like to drink/eat. There are 2 other seated tables in the restaurant and each one seems to have their on waiter.

Ten minutes or so pass and no one has come back to our table (AGAIN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SQUARE ROOM!!!). I am facing away from the staff, so I decide to fully turn around in my seat and attempt to make eye contact with anyone. The staff is all clustered in one corner by the bar talking to each other, except for the two servers who are handling their tables. At least another 10 minutes pass and still nobody seems to remember that we exist. My wife is stressed, I'm stressed, and the whole idea of getting food and relaxing has gone out the window.

Finally, we decide to just leave. We were excited to have a relaxed lunch, but there was no chance we were going to have that there. I wanted to say something to the staff, so I waited for my wife to walk out first before approaching them. I went up to who I assume was the manager and said something to the tune of "we have been waiting for at least 20 minutes and nobody even came over to our table." To which she replied "I'm sorry, but when did you sit down? We didn't see you at all or we would have served you immediately." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????

So basically this just put a damper on what could have been an awesome morning. Don't go here, the customer...

Bottom line WARNING if you order take out or eat here they automatically charge you 18% gratuity!!! But they also add a “tip” line on the bill to trick you into leaving more. I HATE liars and this company is Very very shady if not downright deceptive. If you want the Long story read on. We were staying at The Hampton Inn at VA Beach south. Chicho’s bar/ pizza is attached to the hotel. We ordered from our room and I walked down to pick it up. The two small pizzas were reasonably priced, $12 bucks each. They were good, not great, but good. Later that evening I got looking at my bill curious how much food tax was in VA to find they charged me 18% gratuity without checking with me. And that’s without them providing any service, it was take out. On top of that, the bill has the standard line to add a tip, which I did. Come to find out I left like a 35% tip. Very tricky!!! So, the next day I walked down thinking this was a shady employee that had done this. Nope, the waitress says it’s a company policy and pointed to a little sign next to the exit door that says 18% will be added to all orders, which seemed to justify this in her mind. She further explained that they started this during COVID when they just did call in orders and no one was leaving tips…. Side note: ahhhh yeah, because on call in orders wait staff doesn’t provide any “wait service” to customers. Anyway, and after COVID they just decided to keep it a policy. Quite obviously a deceptive business decision. Ok, so, not saying not to go there, the food was good, not great, not terrible. Just know when you get the bill 18% tip is already added so you don’t need to add anymore on the tip line. One quick edit…. Seems this is common in VA beach.. went to another restaurant today and knew what to look for. They did it as well. Still doesn’t...

Walking around my kids and I were starving and we spotted Chicho's. Just being a pizza place we thought how could you go wrong. My kids are kind of pizza snobs, especially my son, so I was a little worried. Walked in and we were told we could sit anywhere. They have a small main area, then you can go into a covered patio/bar and also a outdoor patio. We went outside. Service was a tad slow, but I think she was covering a lot of tables. They had a number of different and unique pizzas. We all agreed to get the Chico Special. Pepperoni, mushrooms and extra cheese. The waitress asked if we wanted spicy or not, my son and I like spicy, but my daughter doesn't, so we got 1/2 and 1/2. We also ordered a basket of fries. We got some of the cornhole bags and my daughter and I played corhole. It took a little while for the fries to come, but they were worth it. Nice and hot, very crispy with a good seasoning. A few minutes later the pizza came. We were all were very impressed with the size. My son very much liked it, he said the cheese was amazing! At the end he said it was a little too saucy, but good. My daughter started off liking it, but her second piece she ended up getting a spicy one, even though it was on the side the waitress said was not. I even tasted it and it seemed to have red pepper in the sauce. We ended bringing back the "non spicy" side back to the hotel and my wife also, thought it was spicy. Not sure if all the sauce was spicy or not, I did see jalapenos on then "spicy side", so not sure if their sauce is just a little spicy naturally. They had some live music playing as well. Very much enjoyed the food and experience, would recommend if you're in the area staying or vacationing good place to check out or...