We've seen and heard mixed reviews since Poor Richards Hanford opened so we decided to give it a shot today..... mixed review is best case unfortunately. My wife and I in our younger years both did stints in waiting tables, fast food, retail, and hospitality and unfortunately I don't think anyone here has had any kind of real training in any aspect of the aforementioned areas and it shows.
We visited today at 11:40 am Monday 8/3/2026.
I actually read the other reviews on here and someone already mentioned the young blonde kid at the bar/counter, not who I would have as the "face of the franchise" as it were. I will assume he is family to ownership because there is no urgency and certainly no worry of performing to any level of service. I will echo the other review in that aspect, we were 2 of 3 people in there who weren't on the clock when we ordered and it seemed like they were put off by having to stop prepping to take our order?
Another thing we've heard from multiple friends is how loud it is in there- this CANNOT be understated. I haven't the faintest idea why music needs to be blaring across the 2 speakers in the restaurant along with the TV's playing audio on multiple channels it seemed. I assume this isn't any better when you have a bar and restaurant full of people trying to talk over the music on a busier night vs a Monday morning. One last thing to the speakers- calling out my name for the order in an empty restaurant? Small service minded things like this are lost sometimes but he certainly could've walked our 1 pizza and cup of ranch over, I understand on a busy night that system makes sense, but a slow lunch service is the perfect time to really step up your service to your customers and take a little time to build some positive experiences. I would say this place is definitely family friendly with the little arcade in the back, a shelf of games in the front and a decent amount of larger tables. Flip side of this- it is family friendly- not quite johns incredible pizza, but definitely like an old school pizza hut!
My next concern would be the cleanliness of this place, I can tell you almost certainly whoever closed Sunday night cleaned ABSOLUTELY NOTHING- floors, tables, counters, and bar were dirty. more than 1/2 of the table top paper towel holders were empty or damn close. The front door and roll up door windows look like they haven't seen Windex in a hot minute either. The game shelf looks like my kids room right before I ground them for not cleaning their room. I didn't dare approach the bathrooms because based on the rest of the place I assume that would be nightmare fuel. Ceiling fans weren't spinning unfortunately for them so you can see they haven't been wiped down assumedly since before Hop Forged left.
Now onto the food. I have heard they get into the weeds pretty quickly on a Saturday night and I can see that being a thing for sure. Today we were probably the first or one of the first orders and our pizza came out in what I would call the perfect amount of time 10/10 for that. We ordered a garlic chicken pizza for reference. When it came to presentation though, not quote sure the "dump everything in the middle" look is one to strive for, but they hit it. The crust is the one true redeeming quality of this place- it is a cracker type crust on bottom, and its tasty with what seems like house made ranch? Otherwise the pizza was unremarkable to say the least. Chicken although precooked was lukewarm at best, and you can judge for yourself by the photo about the doneness of the mushrooms and onions. This would be the only thing that kept this a 2 star vs 1 star review.
I truly hope they can turn this around cause we need places like this in town, our downtown is a sad fraction of say Visalia, but we need places like this to stay open and make people want to come here if we have any hope of growing Downtown Hanford.
I don't think we will go back any time soon, but hopefully the right people can see reviews like this and make changes! read more