My first and maybe last time at Firecracker Pizza & Beer.
Tonight was one of the worst dining experiences I've had in Saint Louis for a long time. My friends and I went here for dinner and it wasn't too busy. There were a good amount of empty spots for people that called in for a large party and some two-top tables that were open.
Upon walking in, we were not greeted by anyone. I think it was a cook that noticed that we were just like lost and confused so we were finally helped with seating. We ended up sitting near the pizza cooks/ovens. It took around 10 minutes for us to be greeted and even get menus, which was strange because it was not busy. Since the cooks were right there we asked him for recommendations because the server kind of left us for a long time after dropping the menus off. Luckily we had some good suggestions on pizza from him.
Our dinner order was a pizza flight consisting of the: No Sleep 'Till Brooklyn, One Bad Apple, and the Spuds Rodriguez. All the pizzas parts had good flavor but my favorite was the Brooklyn portion, the sauerkruat made the slices very distinct from any pizza I've ever tasted- though it did lack a thousand island dressing taste, it was clearly the orange drizzle on the top. The apple portion of the pizza just tasted like half a dessert pizza and the Spud Rodriguez was basically a fully loaded baked potato but in pizza form.
All three parts were flavorful and worth the price.
The issue I had with this place was the service, or rather specifically the server we had. I would rate the food alone to be 3-4 and the server we had 1.
Our drinks sat empty for way too long. We would go 20 minutes or more without the server checking on us at a time, there was even a point that my friend took a phone call and we checked how long it was since we were checked on. Using the phone call's time stamp we noticed it was at least 23 minutes... As I am starting this draft for the review it is 8:53pm and the phone call was around 8:30pm.
After we finished the pizza my friend ordered the Holy Mole cookie dessert. The cookie actually was finished and sat on the rack for 10-15mins before it was delivered to us. Since we were sitting right there we noticed it was clearly the cookie ordered. The server then appeared with the checks after being gone for too long of a time. The funny part was when we finally got our checks my friend asked for the cookie and the server admitted to forgetting about it. I ended up putting my card down and looked for where the server went, she was watching tv! It took so long for the server to grab the checkbook - a person in my party went to the restroom and then came back, sat it was there and brought it to the bar area to get it taken care of. The entire dinner we had not a single refill.
Overall, I think the pizza has unique options that are worth trying. Maybe order and take out? The service was horrid, possibly the worst I've ever experienced so far- the cooks are nice if you are sitting there. If I had to rate the food separately from the service I would rate the food 3-4 stars and the service 1.
Firecracker Pizza & Beer
4130 Manchester Ave
St Louis, MO 63110
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