pitch pizzeria

we just visited the west omaha location for a relaxing dinner out with a couple that we haven't seen in a while.  we are new parents and found a sitter and had a fantastic night planned out with dinner, drinks and some desert at this small local restaurant.  unfortunately at an hour and 20 minutes into our evening, the "hostess" came over an demanded that we either leave in 10 minutes or move to the bar to continue our evening.  she said "you should have been told you only have 90 minutes".  well, one we were not or we never would have spent our money at this establishment and two, most places would be proud that we choose their establishment to continue spending money as long as we were being friendly, and respectful, which i assure you we were.  it's insulting to me that i have been to some of the best restaurants in the united states and yet at a local restaurant i get kicked out on a timer.  i'm sadden that you are considered a part of the community and i hope that visitors to our area are treated with more respect than we were this evening.  thanks for your time, i'm sure it's your managerial policy that your "hostess" was following, so i am wasting mytimewriting this, but i needed you to understand how important it is to fit into a community, not just push people around on timers.

let me start of by stating the positive.  for many years my wife, friends and i have been visiting pitch pizzeria and have enjoyed many meals and great service.  today that image was completely destroyed.  we entered pitch west to be greeted by the hostess who started by saying we had three options, table one had a reservation in 60 minutes, table two. at the high top. had a reservation in 90 minutes or we could sit at the bar.  to be clear, we arrived at 5:20pm for happy hour.  i have been in the service industry for over a decade and worked for some of the finest restaurants in omaha, prime steak houses, and was floored by thistimelimit for eating at a restaurant.  it is very likely we would have finished our meal prior to that timeframe, but being given an ultimatum as soon as we arrived is bad service.  after speaking with the manager we agreed to stay and sit at the bar.  this is when bad service went to rude service, the vp of operations, dean leisman, came over after we sat down and interrupted a private conversation my wife and i were having to continue to inform us how we should have made a reservation if we wanted to eat at his restaurant.  from there things got even worse, i am shocked by the disrespect and unprofessional attitude displayed by a vp of operations of a business not to mention a restaurant.  after being "scolded" by the vp of operations for not making a reservation i told him that i would be leaving.  his response was "good".  it was only shortly after this incident i learned he was the "vp of operations".  as i exited the restaurant i spoke with the manager who was very friendly and convinced us to stay originally and informed him of how we were treated.  during that conversation the vp of operations dean leisman said and i quote "i am the owner and don't give them anything, let them leave". this was very embarrassing as we were chased out of the restaurant by the vp of operations or as he calls himself the "owner".  we will never return and will be spreading our experience to anyone that is willing to listen.  do not eat here unless you want to be treated terribly.  i cannot express enough dismay.  the worst part about this entire experience is pitch was our favorite restaurant.

a hip pizza joint that has great drinks and tasty pizza. a great staff and a nice atmosphere made up for the waittimein the nearly nonexistent waiting area. i ordered the doc pizza and the a-bros to drink. amazing combo for a warm night.

love love love this place! everytimei have been here i have received amazing customer service, and the food is phenomenal! i try to order something different each time, and eachtimeits my new favorite!!

sunday afternoon visit. we were seated promptly towards the back of the restaurant. it took a little bit oftimefor our server to get to us, but they were a little busy so i understood. when he came over, he went over the specials and brought us water. he didn't ask us what we wanted to drink until his 2nd visit to the table. my boyfriend's drink was brought out not so soon afterwards. the food was very good but the bread was a little tougher than usual. our waiter then disappeared as we were wrapping up lunch and looking for him to get out check. i spotted him up front watching the football game and drinking some kind of cocktail. i ended up flagging down another waitress to get us boxes and our check. thankfully she boxed our things. our original waiter decided to slide in and bring our boxes over to the table. the food was good but not for the price and the wait staff got distracted. if you eat here make sure you get seated towards the front, maybe you'll get more attention.

surprised by some of the reviews here, we have always had excellent service. the place is eclectic in decor and during busy times they do push community style dining/seating. pizza isn't the only thing done well here, try their mac and cheese. during lent months they can even make a lobster mac variation that is delicious and has generous lobster portions.


-----03 jan, 2011-----

what's with the hot red pepper flakes?. they have half off wine bottles on sunday - and they will cork it for you to take home if you dont finish it. it was really crowded and open seating once the booths are taken up. friendly service. we had the meatballs for an appetizer, they come two (tennis ball sized) in a bowl with a ton of marinara sauce - the flavors were ok, nothing extraordinary. ordered the benny pizza which was really really good except for some reason the pizza had a ton of hot red pepper flakes all over the pizza. no where on the menu did it state that they sprinkle red pepper flakes on the pizza. esp since they have a shaker filled with the stuff at your table. i had a slice and was done. my husband loves spicy spicy food so he was in heaven. we're willing to try it again and nexttimewe'll make sure to ask for no hot red pepper. great ambiance, a lot of families and a good mix of young and old couples dining.

the waiters and bar staff are friendly and greet customers familiarly, taking thetimeto introduce themselves and learn the names of their customers as well. between the delicious drinks, awesome service, fun ambiance and food that i crave weekly, pitch is a no brainer for anyone who finds themselves in omaha.

my husband went to pitch on a monday night. the hostess was great and allowed us to sit in the back for a quiet experience. it was our firsttimethere and we really enjoyed the happy hour appetizer meatballs. now, it probably says it on the menu, but i wish our waitress would have told us that pop is served in a can, and that it's $2 for one can before she brought it and opened it at the table. i would have stuck with water rather than one can of overpriced soda. we had the mia pizza and the special-- a lobster pizza with goat cheese, garlic oil sauce, tomato, and scallions. it was really good. but again, i wish the waitress would have mentioned that it was $25 when she recommended it. most of the pizzas are around $18. we probably would have still ordered it, but it's always nice to have a heads up. overall the food was good and came out of the kitchen quickly. i just wish my waitress has been a little more informative.

great food, need reservations. this is one of my favorite restaurants however the lasttimei visited i made the mistake of foregoing on reservations, i wont do that again. i have tried all of the pizza's and loved them all, however i haven't taken thetimeaway from them to try anything else on the menu. i also enjoy their beverage selection, they have one of my favorite beers on hand, jk's scrumpy hard cider, i recommend giving it a try if your into that sort of thing.

7/19/2012

hmm. been here a few times and the food is good - mia's pizza and the shrooms pizza are my favorites. solid meatballs, great hamburgers with truffle fries (awesome now that blanc is closed). service has been hit or miss (mostly miss). the hostesses probably need to find other jobs or learn to put smiles on their faces - we've noticed the same ones eachtimeand they look bothered to be there (hey, i know you are in high school and would rather be doing other things but, really, a smile won't hurt you). and on previous occasions our wait staff were not much better. our waitress this particular night was fantastic so perhaps they could take lessons from her ( wish i would have gotten her name but blond shoulder length hair, worked in the back around 7pm). food is very good and hopefully service will get better :-).

p.s. - wouldn't recommend going here on hot days - their ac doesn't seem to work very well.

long wait might not be worth it. if you are coming in a party of two, don't plan on eating for a while. pitch will not seat you, even if there are open spaces. the food is good, but not sure it's worth such a high price. i can see why people like the atmosphere--if you have a table, it's awesome. if you want to eat there, try going at an unusualtimeto avoid the crowds.

worth the wait!. we went this past friday night & couldn't get a reservation until 8:15 & didn't get seated until around 8:25. there isn't much room to wait & with the weather waiting outside wasn't an option. you could tell right away why we had to wait - people were not only enjoying the food they were enjoying the experience! the guests were sharing pizzas & bottles of wine. nobody was in a hurry to leave because they were having fun! the inside is really cute & cozy. our waitress was very friendly & did a great job. we had the brusselsprouts for an app, pizzas (shrooms & added chicken to it & the two peps), mac n cheese, wine & beer. our out of town guests were impressed!

my advice: make a reservation in advance for an earlytimeso you don't have to wait if you are impatient.

decent food, awful service.. i've never been a fan, so i'm making an effort to be fair here. i want to like pitch... a good food and wine place in dundee is always welcome. everytimei try, though, it always fails! i thought i'd try again, i bought the living social, so atleast it was a bit of a discount. i made a reservation online for lunch. we arrived ontimeand were told it'd be 35 minutes. there were clearly empty tables but the hostess seemed frazzled. several people after us left. surprisingly we were sat within 5 minutes. short 35 minutes... we were given water pretty quickly but then didn't see our waitress for about 10. after ordering we realized a drinking glass was dirty but couldn't track down any staff to get a new one, so we stole one from the empty table next to us..also dirty...tried another..finally a clean one! after 15 minutes one glass of wine arrived...then our appetizer and my main course. still no wine. i finally flagged a manager down and asked after it. she brought it to me about 5 minutes later. we loved the truffle fries- yum. haven't had those anywhere before. the oil was super overpowering, though, and we were all tasting it for a half an hour after! the sprouts were supposed to be with my main course- they were pretty good, but cold by thetimeeveryone else's meals arrived. the other part of my main was potatoes, also good... but neither was notable in anyway. i think once you've tried the potatoes and sprouts at dante...nothing else compares!

my friends has soup/sandwich combos. loved the soup and meatball sandwich and veggie sandwich. the food was all pretty good..it was just served in just poor timing that it ruined it! it took fifteen minutes for the server to come around after we were done to get the bill. she did seem to be working hard...just over worked running all over...but there were several other staff. not sure what the problem was. there was little apology and no compensation for the poor service.

they have such a good idea about food.... but they've clearly stolen it from another restaurant and tried to make it their own... and failed. it isn't anything amazing and the service just kills the experience. never again. even if you paid me.

perfect for lunch. i have dined at pitch for lunch 4 different times now. everytimehas been great. love the pizza, the burger and the meatballs. we have never had to wait, the noise level has never been out of control and the service is always good. i will keep coming back. but if i am ever charged $3 - or even 3 cents - for a glass of ice, well that will be a deal breaker!

not sure about this place.. we tried pitch for the firsttimelast night. place was crowded with a 90 minute wait. food was over priced. ten dollars for a wedge salad with watered down blue cheese dressing and three dollars for fountain iced tea. you would think a place like this would at least brew their own tea. pizza crust was soggy and limp but not too greasy. mac and cheese doesn't stand up to mark's just down the street. we will go to dante before we give pitch another chance