I've been to this place about 7-8 times now, so I think it's time to give a review. Is the food good? It can be and usually is. Is the price good? Depends. Is it consistent as a great experience for meal time? Not really.
The selection of toppings (and the quality) is great, no argument. The fact that it is a brick-oven style pizza is even better. I am aware of this when it comes to pricing. If it were a little cheaper, I might give the place 4 stars. But my biggest bone to pick is not the pricing or the greedy rewards program (requiring $150 worth of purchases before any rewards can be redeemed). The biggest issue is personnel/environment.
There are some employees who are there consistently and have got things figured out. If you get such employees to build/cook your pizza, great; if not, then you are going to be disappointed. The situation that I've seen take place, which others here have also noticed, is that when inexperienced employees are under stress, they do a subpar job on the pizza itself, frustrating customers, which compounds an already stressful atmosphere behind the counter, which spills over into the rest of the restaurant. The result, in part due to the lack of organization for when the pizzas are done being cooked and are being distributed, is visually disgruntled employees who are no longer functioning as a team to do their collective job.
I came in on a Wednesday evening this week-- it was 9/11- and it appeared that they were understaffed for a modest dinner rush crowd. The manager I usually see there (who does a great job) was absent, and it seemed that the group of mostly teenage employees (or so it seemed) were on their own. There was obvious friction between the guy working the oven and the girl trying to distribute pizzas at the counter. I could hear them bickering and my pizza ended up burnt. They threw it away and attempted to remake it from what they could see (they missed a few crucial things)-- this is to say that they need a better system for recording which toppings are on a pizza, or ask the customer to work back through the assembly line with the them if the pizza has to be remade. At least it would make it seem that there was some concern that they dropped the ball. With that said, the subpar service and stress-driven reaction to remake the pizza led to a prolonged wait for a subpar pizza that was different than the one I had already paid for, and tipped on. I will probably withhold tips from now on.
Regardless, it seemed they were much in need of a more authoritative and stabilizing presence behind the counter, which was lacking that evening in which my pizza was burnt and incorrectly remade. I saw that they began throwing away, with great frustration, a handful of unaccounted-for pizzas, which is simply wasteful. Other customers were watching the dysfunction with contagious tension, the source of which was all too visible behind the glass barriers. As another reviewer said, they should be boxed put to the side instead. But the lesser-experienced employees probably need more training before being left to themselves even on a weeknight.
They might also consider having the same employee walk you through the whole pizza-making process, instead of handing it off to different employees for different toppings. In college, I frequented Pieology, a similar pizza chain in California, which used this system-- and it was seamless. I think I recall this Mod establishment trying it one evening I visited, but it obviously didn't stick. I would personally recommend this model of building the pizza. This way, each employee knows how to do everything as far as constructing the pizzas goes, leaving a couple of specialists to crank out the dough and to bake the pizzas in the oven, respectively. My first time at this Mod, it took 30+ minutes from walking in the door to getting my pizza-- not exactly "Super Fast" as they claim to be. It's better than that now, but still isn't the best selling point. I think of it more as an affordable boutique pizza. I don't come for quick service. But at least some of the employees try to be friendly. Others are, quite frankly, odd or rude (especially on that particular evening). Not the vibe they are going for, I think, while saying they are a "people place."
I say this to benefit the establishment, because it is (usually) pretty good and it's close to where I live. But an experience like the one I described kind of ruins the meal, especially when others' pizzas were done correctly, but not yours. I hope the establishment can observe it and consider what seems to be a growing consensus about the strengths and the weaknesses of the restaurant.
As for any prospective customers-- give it a try. Chances are, it will be pretty good. But if you go enough, be prepared for a trip like the one I described. At the end of the day, it's a pretty good pizza for a decent price if you take advantage of the toppings available to you. read more