Nice try, but no cigar. Unfortunately, this restaurant will fail, and sadly, the owner has no clue what he's doing wrong. Hopefully, he pays attention to his Yelp reviews and is open to taking some advice.
Problem 1: The Name
"Slice" is fine, but what is "playbar"? I thought maybe it had some meaning I was unaware of, so I Googled it. The only thing that came up was the Sonos Playbar, which is a speaker for a home entertainment system. Perhaps the name is a reference to the tacky gambling machines along the wall. I guess these machines generate some revenue, but they belong in a seedy dive bar, not in an establishment that wants to be taken seriously as a restaurant. If I hadn't read the glowing Yelp reviews, I would have walked out immediately upon seeing these machines. I digress. The owner should get rid of the gambling and change the name to "Slice Pizzeria" or "Hot Slices" or "Slice of Heaven". Jeez, there are so many clever and creative possibilities here!
Problem 2: The Pizza
I hate to say it, because I had high hopes, but their pizza is average at best. It purports to be Chicago deep dish style, but it's nothing close to that. Five years ago, this might have been considered good pizza for Puerto Rico. Nowadays, however, San Juan has become something of a pizza Mecca. From the outstanding brick oven pizzas served by Biga, La Santurcina and Pímenton to the authentic Chicago-style deep dish and pan pizza served by Deep Dish PR, these places and many others serve way better pizza than Slice. The pizza at Slice is really just focaccia, which would be fine if they called it what it is and served it as a bread, not as pizza. It's decent focaccia, but if the owner wants to learn how to make authentic Chicago-style pizza, he should pay a visit to Deep Dish PR, formerly in Lotte 23 and now in Hato Rey. And no, I'm not affiliated with them; I'm just a big fan of their pizza and would love to have a place to go in Condado that serves comparable pizza.
Problem 3: The Service
After entering the empty restaurant and sitting down at the bar, I waited a good five minutes before anyone noticed me. Normally, I would have left, but I wasn't in a hurry and again, the glowing Yelp reviews made me at least want to give it a chance. Finally, a girl came over to take my order. She was friendly and personable, but I waited about 15 minutes to get two slices. Again, I was the only person in the place, so I don't understand why it took so long to heat up a couple of slices. After I finally got the slices, the owner asked if I wanted some hot honey and mentioned how difficult it was to get hot honey in PR. It can't actually be that difficult, since virtually every artisan pizzeria in PR has it on the menu, including all the places I mentioned above. Nevertheless, it was nice of him to offer it and I gladly accepted. I also ordered two more slices to go, since my girlfriend has asked me to bring some home for her. After a few minutes, the girl brought out the slices and I paid. As I was leaving, I asked for a little more of the hot honey. She said "sure" and brought out a tiny little condiment container containing the honey. As she handed it to me, she said "That will be $1.50". I was like "Whaaaaaattt???" and declined to purchase it. In that moment, they lost me as a customer. In reality, I probably wasn't coming back anyway, because the pizza wasn't all that. But this nailed the coffin lid shut. I don't care about the buck fifty, but it's the principle that you don't charge people for condiments, especially after the owner had just offered it to me without charge a few minutes before. Yes, I was asking for more, but I had also just purchased two additional slices, so it seemed reasonable to ask for additional honey. The other possibility is that they actually did charge me for the first order of honey without mentioning that it cost extra. I didn't check the bill before paying, so I can't say for sure. I'm giving the owner the benefit of doubt by assuming he didn't upsell me a condiment without my realizing that I was being upsold.
Overall, the pizza was decent and the experience wasn't terrible. Both the owner and the server were pleasant and friendly, but the place needs a lot of work before it would justify a return visit. I hope the owner takes my comments as they were intended, which is to help him understand a customer's perspective. read more