Donatos--Poor Service, Poorly organized by the GM
Donatos Pizzeria is quick expanding in the Philly area as a casual chain pizza restaurant, owned by the megacorporation McDonalds. However, it seems that this chain has a big identity crisis between being an actual restaurant, and a fast-food chain. You first notice this when you go in and are greeted by an employee wearing a rather ugly faded gray/blue Donatos T-shirt--a very casual uniform. They seat you and instead of taking your order, they show you a phone at the end of the table and tell you that when you're ready to order after browsing through the menu, to pick up the phone and order??? This is creative and different, but also absurd and seems more "cutesy" than inefficient. What happens is, you pick up a phone, which is linked to the back kitchen, and then an employee from the kitchen answers it and puts your order into one of the store computers. Then the waitresses bring out your food.

With this method, the only interaction the waitresses actually have with the customers is greeting and seating, and then bringing out the food. Talking on the phone can be fun at first(especially for the kids), but impersonal and a very easy way to mishear orders and mess them up. This system suppresses waitresses' creativity to be extra personable, due to the limited contact they have with customers. There is not a set waitress for each table--whoever is available answers the phones in the back, and whoever is available brings out the food to any table. This creates mix-ups, can lead to the predominantly teenage employees ignoring the ringing phones in the kitchen(in hopes that "someone else will answer it"), and employees spending more time blaming each other for petty mix-ups than concentrating on good service.

The general manager, a young male in his mid-20s, is another thing. He smiles at the females who enter, but then barks orders to the employees in the back loud enough for the customers to hear. He does not care about how well the teen waitresses are serving, more about his profits and how early he can get home after work.

As far as tipping, the casual atmosphere makes one wonder if tipping is necessary. Also, not having one set waitress makes you wonder who to leave a tip for--which usually results in about half the customers not leaving anything on the tables. In reality, the tips are collected by waitresses and collectively put in a big pooled-tip box, and are later distributed evenly to the workers according to how many hours they worked. This results in lack of work incentive, and people blaming each other for mistakes, since others' mistakes can affect their own tips--defeating what Donatos attempted to achieve as "increasing teamwork" with the pooled-tip idea.

Donatos? The pizzas are good and have many options for toppings--although the crusts are greasy, not for the sensitive-stomached. However, the service needs improvement--both amongst the individual teeny-bopperish servers, and amongst the corporation's dine-in layout. In the Philly area, people want an actual dine-in restaurant with a formal server--not a call-in-yourself place.    []

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: spinach-n-tomato traditional crust pizza

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