Oliver's Pizza Raymore, MO - Don't Stop, Just Keep Driving or buy a snack at the gas station next door...
A couple of weeks ago we decide to try this new little pizza place in Raymore, MO that has been open about 8 months. With Dave having been gone for so long, and been busy since he got home, we just haven't gone out, so thought we'd give it a shot. For a weekend evening, it really didn't meet the criteria - crowded parking lot, but we gave it the benefit of the doubt and went in. It smelled OK and was clean, with about a half dozen patrons between the bar and tables.
Oliver's said that they specialize in Chicago, New York, and St. Louis style pizzas. That's a lot to take on for a teeny-tiny place. They have since taken St. Louis off of the menu. The first one came out cool with a semi-raw crust. They are trying to Chicago deep dish pizza in a conveyor oven! They said that they don't like the customers to have to wait for 45 minutes for their pizza. Anyone who orders, and expects to get, a traditional deep dish Chicago Style pizza expects to wait. The second one was a bit better but still not hot! So, they ran it through the conveyer one more time. Now it was hot with dried up, over baked mushrooms, olives, etc. One word to describe it: HORRIBLE!
Then the waitress, followed by the manger both said "You really should try our tacos, they are fabulous!" OK, it's called Oliver's Pizza. Not Oliver's Pizza and Tacos, or Tacos and Pizza, or just Oliver's Restaurant. They did comp our pizza, not that I would have paid for it anyway, and gave us two coupons for Taco Platters. We did think it was weird that a purported pizza restaurant was pushing their tacos, but this is almost the boonies, so sometimes you just have to go with things. Since the menus had gone away when we ordered, we didn't know what was included in the Taco Platter and didn't really care. We figured that we'd either go there with Tim, who loves tacos, or just give him the coupons. Two platters might be a nice snack for him. (those of you who know Tim, know what I mean:) A couple of days ago, I gave Tim the coupons and he called and ordered the two Taco Platters to go. Guess what he got? Yep, tacos. 3 'unflavored' tacos in each platter. Nothing else. Some platter! WOW, that was an awesome insentive to bring a customer back. Are these people stupid or what?
We would have spent a lot less time and had zero aggrivation if we had just gone to Price Chopper and picked up a DiGiorno frozen pizza. It would have been 900% better too. I have since learned that they couldn't make it in Leawood, KS so guess they thought they could buffalo the people on this side of the state line. NOT. For a small town we have no less than 4 other very good pizza places.
Say Bye-Bye Oliver's!
NOTE TO OLIVER'S PIZZA: Give it up. You might as well cut your losses here too. Your pizza sucks, Your tacos do too! We felt bad for the server, who was sweet and tried, but when you have the owner and manager making excuses, how much more can she do? We left her a hefty double-digit tip. I wanted to include another tip - "Get a job somewhere else" but didn't.
