Barraco's Pizza — Restaurant in Worth Township

I sent the below email after calling 5 times to speak with management. No response so I am leaving this publically in efforts it might help someone.

On Monday 12/13/2021, I visited the Evergreen Park Barraco’s location with my husband and grandmother for dinner. Our server was Alyssa. We ordered drinks, appetizers and ultimately dinner. When the dinner arrived – my entrée (Joey’s Pasta) arrived cold and inedible. I alerted our server Alyssa immediately that my entrée was cold. She offered to “heat it up”. A microwaved plate of food was not appetizing to me and since my husband had ordered a large pizza, I told Alyssa I did not want it reheated, but just wanted to send it back. She huffed and walked away – leaving the entree on the table.

When Alyssa returned she flatly stated “We don’t remove food from any checks- that’s our policy”. I asked to speak with a manager. Manager Carly comes to the table – visibly frustrated and repeated that the policy is that they do not remove food items from any customer check. I asked, “Even if it is inedible?” Carly responded that she herself had plated the pasta and that it was “steaming” when she did. Insinuating that I was lying. She again repeated that she would not be removing it from the check. Not wanting to cause a scene, I relented and asked Carly to box it up, which she did and brought to me.

When Alyssa brought the check she sat it down and on the table and made a comment that the gratuity had been placed on the bill and actually circled the service charge on the check. To our surprise, there was a 20% service charge added to our check. I asked why the service charge was added for a table of three people? I was told that since “Covid”- the service charge is added to all checks and was then referred to small print in the menu that stated a service charge could be added.

My husband and I dined at this location just over two weeks ago and no service charge was added. On my way out, I also asked one of the other customers that were seated next to us if the 20% service charge was added to their check. The customer showed me their bill and to my dismay - no charge was added

I asked Carly for contact information for her manager or someone I could report this to. She told me the policy is also not to give email addresses to customers and Carly proceeded to write the phone number down for the 111th street Barraco’s location and told me to call and ask for Vince. After two days, today- I was finally given your email to make a complaint.

To be clear, the 20% service charge in my opinion was added as a final “dig” to my group because of the disagreement about the cold food. It was discriminatory in nature as it is clear that our table was singled out.

I write this complaint because as a business owner, I would want to know if my employees were representing my brand and providing such horrible customer service. I have visited your restaurant on at least 20 occasions over the years and have never experienced such.

I have attached a copy of the receipt from our table for reference. My hopes are that my email does not fall on deaf ears and someone actually cares the way customers are treated.

I look forward to hearing from...

Horrible experience! Was overcharged, brought it to their attention and they didn't care or attempt to adjust it so they lost a customer over $5.50.

The situation: I called in today when I found out the place had whole grain pasta on their website. I was told the pasta with meet sauce would be just shy of 16.00. I told the person on the phone I had never been to any of this chains restaurants, but told her I would be coming into eat shortly. When I arrived I told the host(I think he was a manager to be hobest) "I have never been to one of your restaurants before", when he mentioned the buffet, I told him I would look at it, but I had called in and was coming in for something else. The time before I finished eating she brought the check and came and peeked several times BEFORE I was done eating to see if I had put my card with the bill, it seems like she just wants to get me out asap, despite me being extra pleasant.

Long story short I went over the menu with the waitress Raquel S, who stated that since I wanted meatballs that is a side and would be 4.00 extra. I agreed to this, imagine my surprise when the bill came and I was charged 20.50 for the pasta and 4.96 for the meatballs, I raised my objection to the waitress before getting into the payment part.

She asked who I talked to on the phone, I pulled up my phone log and recited the phone number to the restaurant and told her I had called at 2:02pm today. She then said she would find out who I talked to. I told her I had specifically asked about a lunch portion and was told there isn't one. I figured the more details they have the better if she is going to track down who I talked to.

She(Raquel) came back and said she couldn't figure it out, but that the menu says prices can chance so even though she said the side was 4.00 earlier I was still going to be charged 4.96. she then went on to say that the person told me the carry out price which is a smaller portion. So, imagine at this point my reaction when I had specifically requested availability of a lunch portion.

She went onto tell me that this is the price. I then told her you guys are losing a customer over 5.50, she acted very nonchalant about this fact. It's a shame as I was JUST texting a friend saying she should plan on coming to eat with me here sometime. But not now, due to a blatant attempt to overcharge me I will neber set food in here again and will advise anyone and everyone of my experience.

As I'm typing this she also came and decided to dig around my hands and cleared the table.

Due to the attitude displayed here I would suggest going elsewhere like Giordano's. It was my mistake trying out this place as they obviously do not care, as I was clear that due to the over charging they would be losing my business. The food just wasn't worth the price. The service wasn't good, and the place wasn't that busy for the service...

If I could give this place 0 stars I would! I will start this off by saying everything that transpired last night was obvious and blatant. There was no room for misinterpretation! This establishment clearly does not welcome people of color! My two sisters and I along with our husbands tried to stop in on 5/21/22 around 9:30pm. We were headed to the bar for drinks. As we entered, a group of Black gentlemen said, "I heard them say they are only taking reservations as y'all were walking up." Now I'm unsure if they were told the same thing or if they had even been served. We continued in and the hostesses stated that it was reservations only. We said we were only heading to the bar. They then proceeded to say that the bar was closed for a private event. What?!? At almost 10pm. My brother in law said I'm a regular and they allowed us to the bar. It was clearly no private event going on. The bar was pretty full but there were 2 high top tables and a few booths available. We went to sit at one of the high top tables and they then said that the tables were for the private event but we could sit at the booth. Ummm no thank you! Is it a private event or a reservation? There's a difference! As we exited, I asked to speak to the manager. After 10 minutes we walked out because it didn't appear the manager was coming. We then saw her appear behind the desk. I expressed my disappointment and confirmed that there was no private event, instead a party had reserved the two high tops. Well you're telling me that that reservation warranted you too nearly turn us away when there were clearly available seats? I explained that there was zero question that we felt discriminated against and would never be back. We were clearly the only people of color during our brief stay and it appeared that we were treated much differently than the other patrons. As we were exiting a Hispanic family was told the exact same thing. They were closed for a private event. But what happened to the booth they were reluctantly going to give us? All in all, we will never be back. And as other reviewers have pointed out, if you're a person of color, you are not welcome. So we will take our money and business elsewhere. Oh and just so you know, they have their comments disabled on their social media platforms and I'm sure that's no coincidence. They don't want these type of comments appearing. But no worries, Yelp, Google and word of mouth works great! We will not patronize any establishment that is...