Sal & Mookies and the Missing Pizza

I love Sal & Mookies New York Pizza and Ice Cream Joint. The kids love it. I don’t always get pizza. I like the Hamburgers, I loooooove the Green Goddess dressing, but last night was the best & worst visit ever.

Wait, best and worst? How so? Well I’ve been there so much that I sort of thought that I’d already done an Eat Jackson post on the subject. Turns out we’ve tweeted about our food, and they are very active on twitter and so I almost thought that I’d covered the bases. So we planned to go, and I planned to go ahead and make notes this time.

We arrived and were promptly seated in the main dining room in a comfy booth. I love a booth, and they have great booths wide enough to fit 4 across (if you like each other…).

We ordered beverages, and with hungry kids asked for some cheese sticks ASAP. Our waitress (who’s name I’ve redacted) was johnny on the spot with the first round of drinks and the appetizer cheese sticks.  You may remember that I tweeted that I was going to take a picture of the cheese sticks but they were ravaged before I could remember to take the picture.  I stole this picture from a great photographer and Twitter guy @ChuckJR.

So our Greek Salad came out next… and it was awesome. We split it and the fresh greens and feta cheese were absolutely delicious. the Green Goddess salad is known to cure certain illnesses in these parts…. it came with two cups of dressing on the side… awesome.

But that’s when tragedy struck…  Our pizza wasn’t out. I started getting a little nervous…  I looked around  – people who had come in after us were getting their pizzas. Our kids got cheese slices quickly and were finished with their pizza looking for ice cream… our elusive pizza was no where to be seen. I walked past one of the managers on my way to the restroom and mentioned “our pizza hasn’t made it out yet.” She had a funny look when she said “I’ll check on it.”

I came back and sat down, nearly an hour after we arrived — no pizza — but everything else was wonderful… Still no pizza.

I looked over by the bar where the waitstaff puts in the orders. Our server and a manager were punching buttons on the computer… Andrew the other manager arrived at our booth… “Well, we screwed up, we lost your pizza!” He announced.  Wait — what, no blame shifting? No. He went on “So, I’ve got one ordered right now, and they stuck it in the front of the line and it should be out in 6-7 minutes more. So what else can I get for you?”  I knew that they had a good service policy and that they want to take care of customers… but I’d never, (literally never) in 50 visits ever had a messed up order.

So we got our pizza, finally and they served it and if there anything better than Sal & Mookies pizza it’s being a LITTLE more famished before you get it. It was amazing and as always hit the spot…

So back to our dilemma… I have one of my favorite places to eat, messed up my order — but brought it out… But how much did they care? Well the manager walked back over and asked how it was — we said it was great and asked for a to-go box. She said she’d get one right away.  So next I asked “is she gonna bring us our check?” Praying that the answer was “NOPE,” or “nah it’s on the house…”   She replied “They’re working on it right now…”  Uhhg. working on it? What did that mean? Well I found out soon enough.  The grand total for an awesome bunch of food, and keeping a VERY happy and now MUCH more loyal customer — cost me $2.13. The check had 1 sweet tea on it. Turns out Manager Andrew has a sense of humor… I left cash in the check presenter. They did it – they fixed a problem, and I left happy. Now I get to tell everyone on facebook, twitter on the web what a happy customer is like.

Food: Our pizza was wonderful. I love the crust on the pizzas. It’s the perfect texture, not too chewy not too soft. It has a crispy finish and it’s the perfect thickness.  Our Greek salad was fresh the feta cheese was absolutely delicious. The cheese was amazing. The Green Goddess dressing should be bottled and sold. It’s that good. The kids always finish off their night with ice cream. There’s a host to choose from, and bubble gum and birthday cake were the two favorite flavors of the night.

Service: Rarely have I had such consistent service. Refills abound and came quickly. Even in the middle of a big “whoopsie” like we encountered, they were quick to help and were genuine, as they have been every other time I’ve been there. I’d put the staff here up against almost any white table cloth joint in town. Great service, even when they lose a pizza!

Atmosphere: We love the atmosphere. The checkered table cloths and huge mirrors make the dining room really cool and unique. Kids love the wiki stix, tattoos and pizza dough that create a wonderful entertainment center.

I love Sal & Mookies. I’m almost glad they faltered, so I can tell the story. Have you ever had a restaurant go over and above when they made a mistake?  Or maybe you’ve had somewhere mess up and not make it better? Tell us!

565 Taylor St
Jackson, MS 39216
www.salandmookies.com

Price: $$