Pizza & Beer of Richmond - Hanover — Restaurant in Virginia

second edit:

I called with an issue with to-go order, specifically my salads. My mom and I ordered Cobb salads and she got her without blue cheese. When I received my salad I was a bit grossed out by the bacon which was slimy and chewy and looked uncooked. The menu says they have crispy smoked bacon, I included a photo. When I originally added my review, I had only seen the back and hadn’t tried my food but when I tasted it, I realized they put probably half of a cup of blue cheese in it. It was absolutely overkill and inedible, as blue cheese is a very strong flavor! My mom said she ate about half of her salad but she didn’t take the bacon off of hers and the texture and greasiness got to be too gross for her. I called that evening around 5 and the manager was initially very kind and understanding and said she’d refund for the salads. She said she normally tells people to get extra crispy bacon on the salads, which is funny because when I looked back at the menu it absolutely states it comes with crispy smoked bacon. She took my info (my mom’s info since she bought our lunch) and said she could try to get it before it processed that night, otherwise it would be taken care of in the morning. I was actually shocked by how helpful the manager was, because usually when I call with a messed up order the restaurants around here don’t really try to fix their mistakes. The manager emailed me the next day saying she couldn’t find any ticket number with our order and asked for the last 4 of my mom’s card, which I provided. She then didn’t follow up at all for a couple of days so I emailed again to follow up. She told me she simply couldn’t find our ticket and at a point told me to look in my trash for the receipt… I was able to take a screen shot of the charge on my moms account from her online bank and email that, but she just passed my info along to their accountant who also said she couldn’t find any ticket with my moms bank info and simply stopped replying to my emails. This went from being a simple solution to realizing maybe this restaurant has some internal issues. I won’t post my moms bank info online but if I’m easily able to pull up the charge which shows the date, location, and time processed, it feels really crummy to feel like they either a) don’t believe me or b) simply don’t keep well enough track of their own sales. Whatever the reason I don’t see myself returning to this business between the insane price for a simple salad, the misrepresentation of the menu items and the ball that was dropped on the restaurants end. It’s such a shame that most restaurants in the area behave this way and have 0 accountability when something gets messed up, and as consumers we are just trying to support local businesses with our hard earned money. When did it become so backwards that there’s never any apology or will to fix mistakes? I included a pic of the menu and highlighted the two items that we received that state they have crispy bacon and came with gross...

I entered PBR a boy and left PBR a man. When I first entered I was greeted by the typical sports bar atmosphere. White people with their iPad kids littered the space. Sure enough, there was a wait. I politely agreed to wait the 15-20 minutes. Unbeknownst to me, my life was about to change. A spiritual, emotional and physical awakening was moments away as I stood quietly waiting to eat pizza and drink beer. A waiter rounded the corner and began walking away from me and let me tell you, I'm not religious but his jeans were doing the Lord's work. A dumpy that could move mountains was matched with a bulge that could end world hunger. I eagerly approached the host. I needed to be sat at a table be was serving. I begged the host to accommodate this request. His shoulders slumped and his head hung, I wasn't the first person to fall under this spell. Finally, he agreed, the wait would be 45 minutes in this case. I agreed, I'd wait literal days to get a second look, a second taste.

As each moment passed the anticipation rose. Finally, I was seated. He approached the table and I was able to take the magnitude of the moment in. The magnitude of course being the two boulder like formations that hung from his hips assembling a bottom that couldn't be replicated by the most talented of sculptors. He spoke, "Hello, I'm Sam and I'll be your server tonight. Can I start you with a drink?" It took every ounce of self control to not retort with the typical "I'll have a glass of you." I quietly ordered a beer. Trying not to rush through my response since watching him walk away was something I had been yearning for for an hour now. I ached for the strut, I ached for the jeans.

The food came out. The desire has festered into hunger and I ravaged the pizza that Sam had laid out for me. As I was finishing (the pizza) Sam came out. "How's everything tasting?" I smirked and blushed, "The pizza was incredible." Sam smiled and laughed, "I can tell, you ate it really fast." Tragically, I slipped up, without thinking I said "I eat a lot of things fast." A wry smile came across Sam's face. "I'll get the check." My face was red, had I gone too far? Sam walked away with a distinctive strut that wasn't there previously. He wanted me to see, he wanted me to want him, and I did.

I knew my bill was about to come, I knew I wasn't far behind it. I ran to the bathroom, splashed water on my face, "Get it together!" I told myself over and over. I called my financial advisor, Michael. I explained I needed to tip Sam my life's savings. I needed to give him everything, my body wasn't enough. I told him about the jeans, the pizza and everything that had unfolded here at PBR.

Alas, I paid the bill, tipped him everything Michael would allow ($15). The pizza? Acceptable. The tension and desire? Agonizing. I will be back...

First time in, we grabbed a to go order. I’ll start with the pizza.

-Soggy crust and very chewy -cheese undercooked, not browned in anyway -Sausage was so plain. No flavor. -big crust and a pool of cheese and toppings in the middle -lacked flavor

Here is the first problem, the sauce was so heavy it made the pizza soggy. I am a fan of sauce but you have to either make it thin or have thicker dough period. Looks like diced or crushed tomatoes causing too much moisture on a thin pizza. The sauce also lacked any seasoning what so ever. Red sauce needs some olive oil, fresh basil, garlic, salt etc. conclusion - having pizza in your name you better execute a nice pie and with a fancy pizza oven give me some char. Why are you using a plain sausage? Grab some mild or hot Italian if you want a crumble. It needs red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. This tasted like Bob Evan’s minus the sage.

Italian sub. Easy right?

-Meat to bread ratio is abysmal -supposed to be a hot sub but the bread tasted like it came out of a bag off the shelf. -barely any toppings -dry.

Let me help out here. A light coating of butter on the bread with a gentle toast on the flattop. Warm the meats and melt the cheese under the salamander, super thin slice the lettuce, Roma tomatoes, onions, vinaigrette, and some hot cherry peppers.

$14 for a sub that maybe had 2 ounces of meat is harder to digest than the sub itself. Jersey Mikes next door gives you a foot long that can feed 3-4, tastes better, triple the meat, same price. See where I’m going on this sub?

An Italian sub should be on a roll with a crispy exterior, soft inside, and not over power the meats. Speaking of meats I couldn’t tell you what was on there. If I can pronounce the meats, you got it wrong.

Highlight of the order? The ranch. They seemingly scratch made ranch is pretty darn good.

To be fair I think they use some quality ingredients here. The problem is training and execution. I would never let the food we received be served. Period.

Portions are also something they need to work on. I mean a $14 sub should have some substance to it. If all your tasting is bread (not even toasted) pile the cheap toppings high and try to fool me.

I could fix this place with a few hours of training their line and balance the portions better or lower the cost and give smaller portions balanced better to optimize the taste. I rather have a half sub that tastes right than a whole...