April 2nd, 2013, I was excited about visiting Brickyard Pizza for dinner that evening. I bragged about the distinctive taste to my boyfriend and mentioned to him how I would have considered Brickyard Pizza to be the best tasting in the city. It hadn't been too long since my last visit. My brother and I would often stop in, for a slice and drinks, before concerts or basketball games. For this reason it somewhat pains me to write this negative post about our experience that evening.
It was Tuesday afternoon when we walked into the dining area located directly across from the University. Neon beer signs decorated the windows and walls. Three television screens placed overhead were broadcasting sports. Peoples chatter and music contributed to the loudness in the room. We seated ourselves, and the waitress took her time to get to us. We browsed the menu and noticed a pizza named after the former Lobo Men's Basketball Coach Steve Alford. Recently, around the end of March, Alford was picked up by UCLA. My boyfriend asked the waitress if they were going to keep his pizza. She said it was going to stay because they had just printed out new menus.
We ordered chicken wings and a Hawaiian pizza but asked that the ham be replaced by pepperoni.
It took more than thirty minutes for our order to reach the table. The half order of chicken wings were a disappointment.
Before the pizza came out, our waitress brought us little pizza trays to use as plates. The pizza looked good but its taste wasn't great. I'm not really sure how to go about describing the awful cheese but it was runny and chewy.
Cheese and topping trails from tray to tray, were left with every slice picked off the pie. The giant pepperoni slices left a spiced tangy taste in my mouth. The crust was thin and the sauce tasted of various herbal spices.
I had to explain to my boyfriend how that was not the usual Brickyard pizza I had been used to. We were both very disappointed with the service and taste. A band was starting to set up for an intimate open mic night performance when we decided to leave.
Brickyard had recently been voted the best college bar in the city, by a local newspaper. On that I would agree, the laid back environment makes for a decent hang out. So, if you ever go to Brickyard have some drinks, watch some sports, listen to a live band, but eat something other than the pizza.
A video from an open mic night.
Hello Albuquerque Pizza! My name is Derek and I am the owner of Brickyard Pizza. I try to respond quickly to customers that have had a bad experience at our restaurant. Don't know how this one slipped past me but better late than never. I am sorry that you had a poor experience at the Brickyard on your last visit. We strive to provide great customer service and consistency in our product and it appears we fell short on both of these things when you visited. In an effort to improve our order time we installed 4 new ovens over the holidays which doubled our capacity. As far as the cheese goes I am not really sure what happened. We have used some of America's most premium cheese from F&A Dairy in Wisconsin since we opened almost 10 years ago. Occasionally if the pizza is over cheesed it can cause it to be runny. We have portion controls in place and always strive for each pizza to be as consistent as possible. I apologize that yours was not up to our standards. I am even more sorry that you spoke good of the Brickyard and that person shared this bad experience with you. We hate to lose any customer at the Brickyard and hope to have the chance to show you the Brickyard you were used to. The Alford pizza combination has remained as Coach Neal chose to put his name on it. Thanks for the time and I'd love to buy your next pizza if you would like to give us another shot. Happy blogging and Pizza adventures. Derek
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