Been a long time patron of different Marco's around the Houston area, depending on home/ work location.
This particular location has been very good to me for the past three years. Knowing that not all of Marco's are owned by the same people, I attribute this mostly to the team they had working there. In the past year, I've seen a complete turnaround on all of their employees. All of the old faces that were nailing this day in and day out Have gone away and the new team has never been able to rise to the occasion. It's been a noticeable decline in quality and service.
In my last two visits my pizza was greatly undercooked. The first time I didn't say anything because stuff happens. The second time I made sure to check my pizza before I walked out and identified the same problem. I brought it to the attention of the people working and I was told that it was done correctly and that they're not doing anything different. I told him that the final result is very different from what I usually receive and from what I expect, and they need to look into why that is.
I'm a chef and one of my specialties is pizza. I have been making it for over 25 years from scratch, and I also teach cooking in several capacities around the city. After a long hours of working, I often just do not want to have to cook anymore in my day. This is why I come here.
I was patient and thoughtful in the way I expressed myself, and the manager on duty, Steven, continued to be combative with me in telling me that there was nothing wrong. Any situations, employees should lose the idea of ego, and do everything they can to help the customer. I did not feel like I was heard or that they cared about my concerns.
He put the pizza back in the oven and baked it longer for me, after it had been cut already. This made the edges dried out and crusty in between each slice which was not a pleasurable eating experience. I was already tired and hungry and didn't wanna wait around for another brand-new pizza to be made, or have to coach him through the process on making it correctly.
I asked him who I could talk to besides him and he said the other manager had left for the day. Then he told me just to fill out the survey on my receipt. He wouldn't tell me anybody's name to ask for if I called back and he was completely uncooperative.
I immediately went and filled out the survey and expressed myself in detail so that the company could know everything that happened as it was fresh in my mind.
I received an email from a district manager, Ronnie, and he requested that I call him. I called him, and he was driving and asked if he could call me back later that day, and he never did. Granted, this was the Fourth of July and while most food and beverage people like myself will work on the Fourth of July, I give the benefit of the doubt that he had commitments for that day and was not able to get back to me. It's now three days later, and I've still heard nothing at all.
I won't be patronizing this location any longer, and there's not an any location close enough to me that I'd be willing to drive out of my way to patronize them anymore. However, the location on dairy Ashford has been decent in the past.
It's a real shame because I always gave major props to this location for making some of the best pizza in the area. It's not the absolute best, but it was convenient to our neighborhood and I always appreciated the personalized service I got from the last team that was there.
Unfortunately I don't know any of their names, because our interactions were always so brief, but my wife and I always jokingly called them the headbangers ball, LOL. Just a bunch of long-haired guys making pizza perfectly and taking good care of their customers.
Something's missing from the equation of this location, and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe new ownership, maybe not enough hands-on from the owners or from the regional, or maybe they just don't care anymore.
Whatever it is, I'm not going to try to figure it out anymore, but I wanted to share my experience.
If any of you reading these reviews have any good pizza place suggestions for me and Westchase area please send me a message. read more