Each week in 'Knockers' we order from a different delivery restaurant, assessing their efficiency and keeping a running score.
Brother's Pizza
4151 Travis
214-219-5200
Promised delivery time: 50 minutes
Actual delivery time: 90 minutes
The Score
Actually experiencing a John Hughes movie moment in real life: 15
Experiencing a John Hughes movie moment that involves my dinner: -15
Short and to the point ordering process: 20
Not lying about delivering to my neighborhood: 35
Wrong food and buttery Caesar salad: -30
Refunding my card without hesitation : 10
Giving me something to bitch about: 2
Total Score: 37
(Brothers logs lowest score ever)
Top Ten
New Big Wong 92
Lover's Pizza and Pasta 91
Philly Connection 90
Piggie Pies Pizzas & Pasta 90
See complete 2009 standings here
Where do I begin? Do I start with my "Pretty in Pink" moment with Sol's Taco Lounge, or do I jump ahead to being stood up by Brothers Pizza and Pasta? It's pretty much all the same high school flashback, so lets go with the Andrew McCarty letdown.
All day I racked my brain on where I could order from. I've always
ordered Chinese or Italian, and, well, I needed to spice things up a
little bit. You could only imagine my excitement when I discovered
Sol's Taco Lounge did delivery after 5:00 p.m.
It was the middle of the day--so I wasn't quite ready to order, but
wanted to make sure they ventured out to my neck of the woods. I called
them up and the man on the phone gave me the over the phone thumbs up.
I patiently waited for my roommate to get home later that evening so we
could call them again and order our Mexican fiesta.
Everything was going smoothly until it was time to give the address and
the person on the phone politely let me know that they don't deliver to
our area, because we live on the other side of the tracks, aka the
Dallas tollway. I let him know that I called earlier and checked, but
he wasn't going to cave. He was the James Spader to my Molly Ringwald.
On to option two, Brother's Pizza and Pasta.
I found the menu when I was packing up our kitchen junk drawer (did I
mention that I'm also in the middle of moving) and was curious to try
them out before the big move. So again, I picked up the phone and
dialed another restaurant number. Before they could even say hello, I
immediately asked them if they delivered to our area and they did. I
could breathe a sigh of relief...or so I thought.
Placed the order, told him the address again, gave my credit card info,
and he let me know it would be around 50 minutes. Normal delivery time
considering it was a rainy weekend night.
Well, a little over an hour passes by, so I decide to call and check on
the status. I let the phone ring for what it seems like forever and no
one picks up, not even an answering machine. I start to think that
maybe this whole restaurant thing is scam and now they have my credit
card info and are boarding a plane to Costa Rica.
Well, maybe not Costa Rica. They could at least get a nice meal for three at McDonald's.
After experiencing momentary insanity, I call back again and finally
someone answers. The same guy tells me that his delivery man hasn't
exactly left yet. He hasn't exactly what yet? My stomach and I started
to panic. He assured me that I would get my food in the next 10-15
minutes.
The Brother's employee was right, I did get food in the next 10 minutes, but it wasn't my
food. I ordered a Caesar salad with two slices of pepperoni pizza with
jalapenos and black olives, and fettuccine Alfredo for the roomie. I
open the pizza box to discover a small whole pizza with pepperoni and
pineapple instead of my two slices. Ugh, pineapple. I chased the
delivery man down the hallway and gave him back the box. I told him not
to worry about coming back since the weather was gross, but if they
could take the pizza charge off my ticket...
So I sadly walked back to my apartment not looking forward to a container full of greens.
I plopped down on my couch and reluctantly started to eat my salad.
Yuck, get this out of my mouth was my first thought. The Caesar
dressing tasted more like a weird thick buttery stuff with a bitter
aftertaste. I also had my suspicions about the romaine lettuce they
used. That was the last straw of the night, I had finally reached my
boiling point.
I called up Brother's for the fourth time that evening and told them all
the problems I had encountered and asked if they could give me a
refund. They were very nice about it and went ahead to void out my
charge. My lucky roommate ended up enjoying her free pasta, and well, I
ended up down the street at Zini's finally enjoying my two slices of
pizza.
