Nick-N-Willy’s Pizza

Closed.
I thought the pizza was pretty good, and very different from the run of the mill fast-​food pizza’s around. They also let you take it home raw which i appreciated.
Where they got it in the end was poor customer service and a staff of newbies who really didn’t have any experience in what they did.

I feel compelled to write this after giving Nick-N-Willy’s a lot of my business over the past year and a half or so. It is always hit or miss with this place and there have been several times now where they have messed up my order or make me wait an unreasonable amount of time. And to make matters worse, the staff is almost never apologetic. Today was no exception. I went there for lunch, ordered and then took a glance around the place. The tables were filthy and the place looked disheveled. The girl informed my friend that they were out of sausage and but he was able to replace it with something else. I then went to fill my soda cup only to find there was no diet soda. So when I asked, they said «we are out». There were no other diet options so I ended up with water from the dirty soda fountain. No apology again. I told them they should put a sign over it then, which they ignored. There were seriously 3 people in the place and 35, YES 35 minutes later, one mini pizza come out. The other took another 5. Mine also came out with burnt edges which I cannot stand. I give up on this place, there is better pizza at Toppers in Thousand Oaks and the place is clean and the food is much better.

I love the Agean pizza!

There are a lot of things to like about this place, and really just three things not to like. I like to start with the bad news, so let’s do that. They are a little expensive, maybe about double what you’ll pay at something like a Pizza Hut with a coupon. Granted, that’s pretty standard for an independent pizza place, but it’ll make more sense in context of the rest of the bad news.
The pizza took absolutely forever. I’m usually pretty oblivious to things taking a long time, but this was more than obvious. And after we’d already reached the point of discussing how this was taking an eternity, another member of our party joined us. He’d placed his order at the same time as us, but at Presto Pasta, and had gotten it delivered, eaten it all, lingered, and walked over here. We checked up on the pizza and they told us it was still a few minutes before it would even be put in the oven.
The last downside that I was going to list is that the service just doesn’t seem to have its act together. They’re not rude — really very subdued — but the wait really revealed that they have a lot to iron out. They dropped off the pizza with a sort of quiet attempt to avoid the awkward tension about the wait, never once even acknowledging the issue after multiple prompts. Service with some common sense would have known to at least make some sort of insincere apology-​explanation combination — probably even some free item as a symbol. Chick Fil’A gives free chicken sandwich coupons as apologies without prompting. Panera one-​upped them by giving me a free soup and sandwich for losing my salad order and having it delayed. Generally, I think the KFC strategy is smartest, where if they have to cook something that’ll take like 15 minutes, they give you a drink which basically costs them nothing but shows they care. The point is really that you can be slow sometimes, but good service — which this wasn’t — knows how to address and resolve it.
And now, we reach the upside. The location itself is very good. They have some nice four-​seat outdoor tables with umbrellas, and even nicer tables indoors, plus a long counter running alongside where they make the pizza. They offer five types of a Liv-​N-​Lite pizza in large size, which is what we got, and it tastes great. It’s very low and thin with a soft cheese (at least the Marguerita we got), and they often have choices that use an olive oil glaze instead of tomato sauce that really works well with the rest of the cooking. They really could have been a lot higher if they could deal with the time and service problems.

2.5 stars would be my rating, but hey, I’m feeling generous. First, they get points off for not serving beer. Pizza and beer were just made for each other, so there oughta be a law that every pizza joint has to serve beer.
The seating area is small, so I assume they do mostly take-​out orders, which is what I was there for.
They offer pesto sauce as an option, so I was happy about that. I placed my order, and the cashier introduces the guy who’s going to make my pizza as the best pizza artist in town. Then he proceeds to weigh out the cheese and count out the ingredients using some chart or template. Hmmm, I’ve never seen pizza made like that before, but hey, portion control is a good thing right? I mean it can either assure that the customer is getting what he paid for, or the restaurant is keeping their costs down. Either way, it didn’t strike me as being particularly artistic.
The pizza is then cooked in an open flame gas oven like they have at Whole Foods. I get my pizza and head home, wishing that I had been able to enjoy an ice cold beer whilst awaiting my pizza.
Anyway, got home, served the pizza to the family. General consensus was «eh.» It wasn’t horrible, but there are better pizzas to be found out there.

1.5 If I could.
Stopped here for a quick bite and saw on the Unilocal iPhone app (which I absolutely love btw) that this place had a decent rating. Plugged it into the GPS and off I went, for what I would later discover to be mere mediocrity… if that.
I gave it 1.5 for a reason. I like clean hands on my pizza. But before we get into that… here’s the first reason why they ranked low… like Wil F. mentioned, the cashier and pizza baker were having a side conversation while taking the order, which made it really difficult. Secondly… the man who rang up the bill counted out the change and proceeded to fondle cheese onto dough… which would later be my pizza. nK! N?!EKL@NF??? Even worse? All three employees followed his lead.
That was it for me. I did… I tried to enjoy the colorful pizza that was «handed» to me (if you get my drift) but I couldn’t bring myself to it. Had the money/​cheese fondler previously visited the restroom and disregarded the sticker on the mirror that reads, in two languages, «All workers must wash their hands before returning to work» ?!
Maybe…maybe he had.

I was torn between giving them 2 stars or 3, but «Meh, I’ve experienced better», just fits Nick-​n-​Willys Pizza best. It’s not BAD… but certainly nothing to write home (or a long review) about.
I had an hour to kill while I waited for my next race at the indoor go cart track down the street, so I checked this place out since it had ⁴⁄₅ stars.
I got a personal classic pizza (pepperoni, sausage, a few different cheeses, olives and mushrooms). There we three guys behind the counter and didn’t seem to have it all together. I had to repeat myself a few times while my order was taken because they were yelling back and forth with one another. They didn’t actually start on the pizza for over 5 minutes and I got a little concerned about their hand-​washing habits as I wanted them go from cash register to dough to topping duty with bare hands and no washing.
All in all, it took much longer than it should have, considering that they only had one other customer in there.
The crust was… egh…I think I could do better if I tried.
Maybe ok in a pinch if you are in the area and really want some pizza, but be prepared to wait and not be amazed with the pizza.

They offer soy cheese for the lactose intolerant crowd! Really fresh ingredients, and very friendly staff. All of our orders have been completed quickly and correctly. The prices are decent, and the offer take and bake pizzas as well as pre-​made salads and deserts. The bacon and chicken pizza is really good with soy cheese! Their lunch specials are fairly priced. They also offer a lactose free olive oil glaze in place of the marinara sauce which does have a little bit of cheese in it. The olive oil glaze is really tasty so we don’t feel like we are missing out on the marinara sauce at all!

Based upon the other positive reviews I decided to give this place a try. I also grew up in Chicago followed by 10 years in New York. So I know what those styles of pizza are supposed to be like. I ordered a medium pizza with extra cheese and hot italian sausage, and instructions to cook the pizza well done. My first visual impression upon receiving the pizza was not good. It was clear that the «well done» instruction was ignored. The cheese was as white as a new snow, not browned as it should have been. The sausage and flavor were just okay. If you have a taste for a thin crust crispy pizza, try Pizza Hut. They do a more credible job.