Belly G.
Yelp
I first had the opportunity to try Blaze pizza through an elite Yelp event so everything was perfect and everything was free. However, that obviously did not paint a real experience of a regular customer just walking into Blaze trying to get some good pizza.
At the elite event, everything was working the way they were supposed to work. But that was expected. The main question for me was whether or not the the process would be as seamless as it was at the elite event if I had come in as a regular customer. Well, this is my experience.
Since I had tried the pizza, I knew what to expect and what to get (I made my own pizza). The ordering process was Subway/Chipotle like. You go from one end of the counter to the other end while you tell them what you want on your pizza before they put your pizza in the oven and supposedly 180 seconds later (that's three minutes, geniuses) you'll get your fresh fast-fire'd pizza. However, once they took my order and put my pizza in the oven, I probably stood at the cashier a good five minutes before someone actually took my payment. And just FYI, when I arrived here and placed my order, there was no one ahead of me. By the time, I was waiting to pay, there were probably six other customers behind me. So the workers took all their orders first before someone actually came to take my payment. This was definitely more than three minutes and my pizza wasn't ready yet.
After I had paid, I waited for my pizza to come out. But lo and behold!! THREE customers (a couple of whom ordered multiple pizzas) who had come and placed their orders after I did received their pizzas first. Why? I have no idea. And please be reminded that at this point, I had been waiting about a good ten minutes for a pizza that was supposed to be ready in about three.
I came in here because I wanted something quick to go. I expected that I would be here about 10 minutes max before I had to leave, but I ended up spending about 15-20 minutes from the time I walked in to the time I walked out with my pizza. Why was my pizza skipped? How come my pizza wasn't ready after over 10 minutes in the oven? Why didn't they have a dedicated cashier to take payments?
And pro tips: If you plan on coming here multiple times or with multiple people, for every $40 gift card you purchase, you get one free pizza. Buy multiple gift cards, get multiple free pizzas. You're welcome. And oh, they also offer gluten free crust but you'll have to shell an additional $3 for that.
The pizza was delicious. The experience, however, was not.
I'll be back in the future since this place is very conveniently located for me. If I get consistently better experience my future visits, then I'll update my review to reflect that. Until then, 3.5 overall rating. And no, I can't justify rounding up at the moment.