Cici’s Pizza

I honestly don’t know what people are complaining about. It’s Cicis. You give them a reasonable amount of money and you can eat all the pizza you can stomach. Dirty tables? Who cares? This is probably most of these kids first job and I can’t imagine how much working here stinks. Ease up, eat some cheap pizza, and have one of those apple pizza slices cause they rule.

Cici’s Pizza in Denton today was definitely a «meh» to «alright» experience for the average person, but I would definitely not recommend it to someone who has been in the foodservice industry for longer than 20 minutes, as there are things you may witness that would horrify you.
I’ll start off by saying the hot food was kept hot, and with the high output of food, was always fresh. This is about their own saving grace compared to the rest of the visit.
As we walked in, a good portion (at least 75%) of the unoccupied tables still had dirty plates and cups on them. I was slightly miffed at the idea that I may have to clean off a table for my family to sit, but thankfully there was one where we wanted to sit that was clean. After we received our drink cups, a busser came out, and slowly started to work his way around the dining room.
There was no ice in the fountain, so I had to inform the staff of this. Around 10 minutes later, someone finally came out to refill the machine. I understand that sometimes, back-​of-​the-​house operations can be hectic, but with about 4 hours before closing time, and the front not being busy (about 20% full), this was questionable on the part of the staff.
Considering this has been rainy season #2 for the area, with the off-​bands of torrential rain from Hurricane Patricia, I wasn’t entirely surprised that the ceiling would be leaking, as it was tonight. There was a ceiling leak right above the salad bar, as evidenced by the vegetable inserts (round metal pans used commonly to house soup or other liquid food items) sitting on the bar to catch the drips. What’s the problem with that? Well, nothing, if there wasn’t any food in the salad bar, and especially not any open items that could be contaminated by who-​knows-​what coming from the ceiling leak. Yet, lo and behold, one side was kept empty save for the packets of crackers, then the squeeze bottles of dressings, and right on the corner nearest the drip (in the splash zone) was the black olives. The drips were in more than one spot as evidenced by the salad bar sneeze guard, and some were right above the black olives. Who knows how far the leak dripped onto the rest of the cold bar over the course of the day? A food service manager would have definitely closed down the cold bar. That’s a hazard for the health of the customers.
One of the gals working there was doing some cleaning of the hot line, including picking up the dropped silverware from the floor, wiping down the customer side of the hot line, and tidying up the back side. I did not see her wash her hands from the time she picked up the silverware off the floor to the time she continued wiping the line (you know, where people GET THEIR FOOD?!?). There isn’t a handwashing sink anywhere to be seen behind the cold and hot lines. Where is it in the back? I don’t know, but I know she didn’t go there. I’ve also witnessed this same gal playing with the back of her shirt (looked like she was picking a wedgie at first, but was not the case) before continuing her task of wiping down. I lost my appetite afterwards. If you mess with your clothes, your hair, touch your face, *anything* like that, you wash your hands. This is one of the cardinal rules of the foodservice industry, and something that was blatantly violated tonight.
Half of the games worked, which is unfortunate because that’s a big draw for folks with kids.
The hallway to the bathrooms were flooded. I am unsure if this was due to the rain or an issue with one of the restrooms, but the manager seemed to be taking on this issue by himself, with mopping the hallway. He really needs to understand delegation of tasks. The gal who was not washing her hands could have done this job, then afterwards, he could have tasked her to wash her hands for 30 seconds with hot water and soap.
Overall, it was a disturbing experience. If the front of the house had these issues, I am afraid of what the back of the house looks like. I would definitely not recommend this place to anyone until some serious retraining of the staff takes place. Wash your hands, kids.

This is a very average Cici’s. My girlfriend and I stopped in for a quick bite while we were in town. Whenever you walk in you’re greeted with what is supposed to be all the employees saying in unison «Hi, welcome to Cici’s», but it ends up sounding like a bunch of workers half-​heartedly yelling a catch-​phrase they’re no doubt forced to say. I got the spaghetti first which was pretty good, and then some Alfredo pizza which tasted like normal average pizza. I got a water cup, and noticed that the water dispenser wasn’t coming out at a good speed which worried me about the condition of the water. I got some normal cheese pizza at one point, but it tasted a bit too soft, and doughy so i didn’t finish. My girlfriend also got some garlic bites that were to doughy and chewy as well. I ended with the brownies, and cinnamon rolls for desert. The brownies were way to soft in the middle and were definitely under cooked, but the cinnamon rolls tasted fantastic. Overall it was mediocre, and they should really work on cooking their food all the way. If you add that and a bit more customer service, you’ll be getting five stars soon!

Generic all you can stand belly filler pizza. An army recruiting office used to be right above them so recruiters could conveniently harass hungry customers. Yay.

This place is like a daycare with pizza in charge. Viva la Si Si’s! I’m out.

Many dirty tables tonight. Lots of new people behind the counters that do not se to know what they are doing. If it was not for free kids night, I think I would ask for my money back. I know that this is a buffet, but I have been here many times before and the cleanliness. and staff were much better. going to stay away for a little while