Welcome to YuppyVille - Pizzeria 712

Location: 


320 S. State St. #185
Orem, UT 84058
(801) 623-6712

Critique: 


When I first walked in I immediately felt like I needed an iPhone just to fit in. My friend and I just stood there in the middle of the restaurant looking confused as to if we were to seat ourselves or if someone was going to come and seat us, maybe we just needed an app for that. Finally after 4 or so minutes we were put out of our confusion by a waiter finally seating us.  Once seated we were poured water from a fancy bottle to give the illusions of something nice, yet it was still just culinary water as noticed by the taste of chlorine.  We were given paper lunch menus that were completely lacking in coherency. There were no titles given to the dishes, just descriptions of the ingredients, leaving me to guess as to what it really was.  When our waiter finally came to take our order I had to ask what each dish was, the one dish I was looking at ordering actually was a sandwich even though it was no where to be found in the description.

Once I was able to order my food, I felt that it came out in a timely fashion.    The particular dish I ordered was a sandwich with pastrami and well, I cannot remember what else was on it because it was just that memorable. My first thought upon seeing it was "Did they cook this with the George Foreman Grill?"  The sandwich had a one dimensional taste, each flavor blended into the next leaving me with a forgettable sandwich.  It was so greasy that the grease was literally running off my hands. Needless to say I was very disappointed in my $9 sandwich.

My friend who was with me ordered the Sausage Pizza, and gave me a piece.  OK now here is something to remember.  The pizza was a Brick oven style pizza, the first thing you notice when you take a bite is the freshness of the sauce.  You can actually taste the real tomatoes that were used to make the sauce.  The sausage was good, and I welcomed the splash of roasted green peppers.  Had it not been for this slice of pizza, my experience at Pizzeria 712 would have been so negative that I would not have been able to in my right mind ever referred or even referenced this place for another to eat there.  The pizza, which was about 14" was priced around $13 bucks, which was on par with what I would expect from a non-chained restaurant.

Once we were done with our meal and we had thrown in the towel (The napkins on the table), it took the waiter over 5 minutes or so to even recognize that we were finished.  When he came to clean our table, he could/should have brought our checks, but instead we waited what seemed like another 10 minutes for the check. My overall time to eat lunch there (mind you it didn't seem that busy) was a little over an hour.

Over all, I was not impressed at all by the sandwich, but I did enjoy the pizza.  The service was on par with the worst I have had. I have a simple rule on how to gauge the service of a restaurant. If my glass is empty that is poor service, if my glass remains empty that is bad service, if my glass is never filled, it is terrible service. To sum up how my glass was when I left, I actually left the establishment parched and needed to go get a drink.

The environment reminded me of nothing less than a trendy little downtown shop, ran by the straight legged skinny jean community.  I don't think I would eat there again for lunch, possibly for dinner, but only if I ordered a pizza.  The $10 bucks spent for lunch vs. the taste, vs the amount of food just doesn't make eating there worth it. 

Rating: 

Today's Food: 3
Overall Food: 6 (Saved by the pizza, had it not been for the sandwich it would have been an 8)
Customer Service: 3
Overall Satisfaction:4

URL:

Pizzeria 712

The Italian Place

Location:

 569 N State St.
 Lindon, UT 84042
 801-796-5622
Critque:

The Italian Place serves up some great sandwiches and salads, with the Steak & Cheese being their speciality. Their sandwiches come in 3 different sizes: Half ($4.79) Full ($6.99) and The Monster ($9.29). I usually order a Full and a water which brings my bill to about $7.50, but I think in the future (because the full is so filling) I might cut back to only the half sandwich and get it in the combo meal for the same price. The combo meal comes with a drink and your choice of a salad or potato chips. Today I had a Full Philly `n' Everything, slightly modified to my liking. The Philly `n' Everything comes with: Steak, mushrooms, cream cheese, green peppers, onions & tomatoes. I like to add marinara sauce to the mix to give it that little extra bit a flavor. Today's sandwich was good as always, my only complaint being the roll (bun, hero) that they use is always on the dry and on the brittle side (I believe this is probably a roll that is close to what is used in the boroughs of New York City). If they were to change the roll to something more of egg style roll (I like the heavier feel of the bread) I think that the overall sandwich will benefit from it and would be better. The meat in today's sandwich seemed to be chopped up a bit finer than normal and I prefer larger chunks of meat to give the sandwich more texture which my mouth seems to enjoy. Overall I quite enjoy The Italian Place, and I frequent the establishment often, which says a lot because I have rarely found a place out West that serves a Philly style cheese steak that is worth eating at more than once.

Ratings:


Today's Sandwich: 7
Overall Sandwich: 7
Customer Service: 8
Overall Satisfaction: 7

URL: 
The Italian Place

Smokehouse Pizza & BBQ

Location:

  214 E University Pkwy
  Orem, UT 84058-7601

Critique:


Today the lunch crew and I went to Smokehouse off of a recommendation of a friend of mine, he recommend the pizza, but being a lover of a good cheese steak I had to give their cheese steak a try.

The atmosphere had a typical BBQ feel to it, large bench like tables, and a wonderful smell of smoked meat. Our waitress was friendly when she greeted us and was cheerful about helping us to decide what side dish we wanted with our food.  They provided a number of different side dishes ranging from baked beans, to fries.  I ended up choosing coleslaw.

The cheese steak featured slow roasted smoke meat, with a house BBQ sauce green peppers and grilled onions. So far so good.

Usually when talking about food one would pretty much describe the taste and that description alone would be enough to determine if the food was good or bad, but in this instance I am going to have to bring in texture.  The cheese steak had a wonderful BBQ flavor and the meat was very tender, but here lies the problem I had with it.  The meat was too tender. Yes I said it the meat was too tender.  This might not be a problem with most people, but with me it made it very difficult to eat.  In my mind I already have an idea of what I think a sandwich should be like, so I am expecting to chew my meat, but in this case the meat was so tender it came across as more of a meat paste than meat. The only way I can describe this is the difference between eating a banana and eating a mushed up banana.  If you have ever had to eat a mushed up banana then you know what I am talking about.

The cost of my sandwich and coleslaw after tax was nine bucks and seven cents.  It was a filling meal, but defiantly was a little more than I like to spend on lunch.

After eating my Philly cheese steak, I had wished I would have gone with the known classic, their pulled pork sandwich, where the tenderness of the meat could have been fully appreciated.  The next time I eat here, I will be ordering the pulled pork sandwich or a pizza.

Rating:

Today's Sandwich: 6
Customer Service: 8
Overall Satisfaction: 6

URL:

Smokehouse Pizza & BBQ

Rocky Mountain Wingshak

The Wingshak (as I call it because saying "Rocky Mountain Wingshak, just takes to long) provides some tasty wings at a slightly high cost. For around 9 bucks you get 8 wings of one flavor, fries or tots (I love the tots choice) and a drink. 9 bucks is a little more than I like to spend for lunch, but I do like the wings so I usually end up eating here frequently.


The Wingshak provides 12 different flavor of wings. 8 flavors of the buffalo style, and 4 of the sweet style.

Buffalo Style

· Mild · Medium · Hot · XX ·

· Garlic Pepper · Hot Garlic Pepper ·

· XX Garlic Pepper · Lemon Pepper ·

Sweet Style

· BBQ · Pineapple BBQ · Hot BBQ · Teriyaki ·

Today I ordered the garlic pepper wings, which in the past have been my favorites but today they seemed to be a little closer to the mild wings. They were lacking in pepper and garlic. Will I order them again? Of course, I have had them before and usually they are excellent.

Customer service was great. We were greeted warmly by the cashier, and at multiple times were asked how things were by both the cashier and the cook.

The most important thing behind taste (obviously) is for the money did I get my fill or do I feel like I need to eat again after I leave. The answer to this question is no.  I always leave full, which makes the 9 bucks easier to swallow.

Ratings:

Today's Wings: 7
Overall Wings: 8
Customer Service: 9
Overall Satisfaction: 8


URL:
http://wingshak.com/