Critic's Review
Midici has put up signed in the windows to try to convince us the "Neapolitan" pizza is better than American Pizza. They can only fool us once.
Review 3/27/18
This place opened suddenly last Friday so I thought I'd check it out. With the disappointing Doc B's next door, I wasn't sure what to expect from yet-another pizza franchise. Flashfire, Blaze and Pieology failed to impress me. This place seemed like a restaurant more like an Anthony's type concept.
First is the parking. The lot has an exit only opening onto North Federal, you have to go around the block and go into the paradise bank drive in. It's not entirely clear that this is a public lot. There's no signs that said I couldn't park there, but none that I could either.
Their signage here has very poor street visibilty; Trees are nice but you want your signs to stand out as people drive by. The front sign can only be seen from 1 angle from the road, and the side sign is obscured as well. They have a gimmicky hand sign that's kind of odd; MidiCi means "You Tell Me", which is almost as dumb a name for a restaurant as Menchie's.
Their outside space is kind of dreary mainly because it's in the shade. Too many tables very close together. They're very optimistic about turnout for the pizza.
Walking in, my deepest fears were realized; this is a quick serve restaurant. They have menus at the start of the counter and you're supposed to order, select your toppings and then walk over to the register which is on the other side of the counter. The problem is that the menu is 6 pages long; a girl was rattling off the whole process to me as I tried to read the menu but there was way too much to take in. I just wanted a pizza.
Still not understanding why this was so difficult, I just ordered a Margherita pizza. I wanted to see the base product. They have a toppings bar just like all of the other fast food pizza places; but I was just sticking with a plain pie. I wandered down the counter until I reached the register. The first time they scanned my card it didn't work and they asked for it back. I noticed they had a very expensive Micros POS and quipped that it was funny that it couldn't scan my card.
You pay, they give you a number and a glass, and then you're on your own.
Everything here is overly fancy; the idea here is to make it feel like a nice restaurant. The iced tea station has all sorts of syrups to put into your tea and metal utensils. Self service utopia. Except there is no lemon for the iced tea.
They have 2 freestyle machines. Luckily you don't have to push any buttons to get ice.
I looked around and ended up having to go to the bar to get some lemon slices. They have the skinny lemon slices that are impossible to squeeze.
Even the numbers are overly fancy. Gaudy really. I don't see the point. Who is going to polish all of this brass?
Music here is misguided and way too loud. "Premium Emo", Li'sha and the MisKeyz were detected. I'm not sure what kind of crowd they're trying to attract, but the middle aged lunch crowd around here isn't going to love this.
I didn't really like the seating in the place; with 3 tables occupied it was fine, but I wouldn't want to sit here in a crowded restaurant. It's also a loud room; loud with nobody here.
When I paid they asked if I wanted a copy; I'm not sure why they just don't give you a receipt. The receipt only had the total on it, and it seemed high. Could a place selling $8.50 pizzas be charging $3 for iced tea? I looked at the menu and the "organic" iced tea was 2.75., so that's $11.25 plus tax. I broke out my calculator app and the total should have been 11.93.
I love the tip line: I'm supposed to tip in a place like this? WHO gets the tips? Counter people are only eligible if they serve customers; food preparers and cashiers aren't. I'd be hesitant to even accept tips in a place like this, except at the bar because of possible conflicts on who can participate in the pool.
As I was about to go up to ask about it, I saw the manager girl coming over with my pizza. A handsome looking pie.
I asked her if she could help me figure out the check, and she offered to get me a check with the breakdown. A couple of minutes later she came back with the detailed copy.
1.01 tax, let's see, that's 9% sales tax. I said to the girl; " ah, it seems your pos is set up to charge California Sales Tax", as I knew the franchisor is based in California. "Oh, we"re based in California", and she seemed to think that was an acceptable answer. "Well you can't do that; you have to fix it", I reasoned. She said she'd have to find out what to do.
Meanwhile, I dug into the pizza. The crust was beautiful and it tasted pretty good also. It was soft and very thin in the middle; I think perfect Neapolitans are supposed to be a bit crispy. The problem with this pizza was that the sauce had no taste. Given how good it looked, I though it should taste better than it did.
The pie was kind of 'meh'. Since fresh Motz doesn't have much taste, you really need a good sauce. I think they were a bit aggressive with the basil.
Meanwhile the owner came over and explained that "they" were working on the POS; probably the franchisor setting it up or something. He seemed pretty concerned about it; I wasn't too concerned about the 30 cents, but I wanted to make sure they knew about it so they didn't overcharge everyone. It seemed out of his control so you really can't blame the franchisee. He later offered me some free gelato which I declined; eating a whole pizza is enough calories for lunch.
I felt like I had to get a refill on my $2.75. iced tea. I finished the pizza (minus the crust edges of course), and I was surprisingly not full. I didn't see any garbage stations (nor were there any bussers running around), so I just got up and left. I never know how these QSR places work.
As is tradition for me, I don't eat the crust. Got to leave some calories on the plate.
Conclusion
As far as the QSR concept goes, I really hate it. And in fact I don't see how it can work well. They have appetizers and desserts; was I supposed to order apps at the pizza ordering station? What if I wanted dessert; there's no servers. I have to go back to the register to order some gelato, or do I have to order it when I order the pizza? Or do I wave my arms and jump up and down to get someone to come over? You're at a table with a group of people and you want another round of beers. You have to go up one by one and get another beer? The concept encourages you to just leave. It's too much trouble to order more stuff.
You're sitting outside and you have a long walk to get a refill. This place is too big for Quick Serve.
The menu is too large for this concept; you can't hand someone a 6 page menu at the register and have them figure out what they want on the spot. I guess when there's a line you'll have time, but with no line you just feel stupid paging though a menu while the guy looks at you. The menu is mostly different pizzas; why complicate the concept when you can just choose your own toppings? "Large Pie and a Miller Lite Please". Pizza should be easy.
They also don't have an American Pizza, which is a big mistake. Margherita's are edgy, but it's just not as good as an american pie to many, many people. While the crust on this pizza was superior to other fast-serve pizza places, the other places have better tasting pizza.
I've expressed my feelings on the Quick Serve Concept. I deplore it. The point of a restaurant is partially the experience, and they ruin the experience with awkward ordering and making me fetch my own utensils. And they still ask for a tip.
Price wise, the beverages are out of whack. A pizza for $8.50 and $2.75 for colored water? Fast food pizza price and a fancy restaurant beverage price.
This place is still quite disorganized; they never even took my number. I suggest trying it off hours as it's probably a mess when they're busy.
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