We just left Salerno’s on the Fox a couple of hours ago, and I can confidently say this was our first and last visit.
First, our waitress Jasmin was nice and did her job. I want to make that clear because our customer service issue was ultimately not with her.
We ordered a small veggie pizza with sausage and pepperoni on HALF because my wife doesn’t eat meat. We were told about 25 minutes. It took closer to 35, but no big deal. We had a Caesar salad, bread and a few beers while waiting. We also ordered the baked cavatelli. The pasta had a good texture, but the sauce was nothing special.
The pizza and pasta arrived together. Jasmin even pointed out which half supposedly didn’t have meat.
Plot twist: there was no meatless half.
The entire pizza had sausage and pepperoni. We literally went through every slice looking for the mysterious vegetarian half.
The small pizza had six slices. I was hungry and had already waited 35 minutes, so I ate three slices, exactly half the pizza. My wife ate the pasta because she couldn’t eat her half. I wasn’t interested in waiting another 35 minutes for Pizza Attempt #2.
We told Jasmin, and she agreed it was made incorrectly. Instead of waiting for another pizza, we asked for a small cheese pizza to go so my wife could eat it at home.
Then the bill came, and there was a charge for the cheese pizza.
Jasmin explained that management wouldn’t replace the incorrect pizza because we had “clearly eaten” some of it.
Well, yes. I ate exactly three of six slices. My half was supposed to have sausage and pepperoni. My wife’s half was the part they got wrong.
I jokingly told Jasmin that had I known the rules of this pizza negotiation, I would have surrendered the remaining three slices and asked for half a cheese pizza instead. Apparently I should have preserved the evidence.
Jasmin said if it were up to her, she would have given us the replacement, but management made the decision.
The best part? We never actually met a manager.
Nobody came to our table, apologized, asked what happened or attempted to resolve it. Management apparently reviewed the Great Pizza Case of 2026 from an undisclosed location and decided my wife could either pay for another pizza or go without.
We chose go without.
We left the remaining half of their incorrectly made pizza on the table and still tipped Jasmin well because this wasn’t her fault.
As for the pizza, it was incredibly bland. The sauce had almost no flavor. We passed Pal Joey’s, Riverview Pizza and Ella’s on the way there, all places we’ve enjoyed, and afterward wondered why we didn’t stop at one of them. I hate to say it, but Pizza Hut has more flavor in its sauce.
Mistakes happen. Simply replacing the half my wife couldn’t eat would have ended the story. Instead, management turned three slices of a small pizza into the most memorable part of our meal.
Unfortunately, the food wasn’t nearly as memorable.
First visit. Last visit. I wouldn’t eat here again even if management offered me a free cheese pizza.
Although apparently that’s not something I need to worry about.