Al’s Beef

I ordered pizza for delivery at 630on a Monday… it is now 830 Still no pizza… Sorry Nancys, 3 strikes and you’re out. The manager on duty said the only thing she can do is give me 10% off on my NEXT order??? You expect me to order again from this pice of crap restaurant??? I told her to cancel my order, she said OK and HUNG UP!!! DO NOT ORDER FROM HERE!!! THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU!

Placed a order at 3:49 pm for pick up its 5:15 still no food. one person making sandwiches.

For food quality, between 4 and 5 stars. Good to great pizza, beef, tamales, fry variations, and good hot dogs. The burgers are good, too. The food is not the issue at this place, it is very good quality for most items.
But the service? You cannot get much worse. Some of the girls are very nice, attentive, and you do not wait long. Ordering the food for pickup is basically useless; they do not make it until you are there. Plan on waiting a while for just about anything.
Yesterday, I ordered $ 30+ worth of food, showed up 20 minutes later… not one part of the order was even started. It was steady but not busy, but it took me 10 minutes to even speak to the girl at the register because she had a phone call. Not her fault, but the other girl (white girl… mostly I guess) was too busy playing with her kids to tend to me. My order sat there while the girl was carrying her kids around and talking to her sister who brought them to prepare my order that was getting cold. Another girl went off on her and apologized to me, when she realized the situation and hurried up to complete my order. So it took me almost 50 total minutes from my call to the time I actually had my order. Half hour waiting there for a pre-​called in order. Oh, they were out of Provolone and did not put hot peppers on my beef sandwich as requested, both of which made it even more aggravating. So longggg wait and food quality ended up not as good with the missing cheese and hot peppers.
Other factors are a few weeks ago, I got a regular Al’s beef and it had barely any meat on it, when I complained to the girl at the register, with an attitude she told me that is how they always were! I eat there a lot and have since they opened, never before or since have I got one that pathetic. Again, goes back to the service. Some of the girls are very rude (despite politeness) and others seem like they do not want to be there.
In summary, good to great food but watch your orders for mistakes and watch the workers for just about everything (not all of course, but a few… you can spot them quickly and hope to avoid them at future visits.) My rating would be 4 of 5 if the service was dependably good.

I really, really love the original Nancy’s pizza and Al’s Beef. I was so excited when I heard new owners were taking over this location because the previous ones obviously didn’t know what they were doing. Well, corporate found another franchisee that obviously doesn’t know what he is doing. He is in the insurance business and should stay there. There was a problem with deep dish order and he didn’t bother to offer an apology although he was standing right there. He ran to his little corner to hide from the problems. You can do that in the insurance business but not the hospitality business. When a Nancy’s Pizza restaurant doesn’t have anyone on staff including the owner that knows how to get a deep dish pizza out of a pan, you know that this place is no good and won’t be around too long. It’s a shame that corporate lets their brand be bastardized like this. Oh well, I won’t be going back and highly recommend that you don’t waste your time and money. Somebody did say his insurance business is good though…

I’ll agree that the food is generally good but sometimes the service is questionable. This is true among many, many fast food and convenient food restaurants. There is no better solution for this problem than a professional attitude from an on-​site manager. Kids left on their own just start slacking off it’s a sign of the times.
The «Italian beef» is really good here. Lots of places call theirs «Italian» and in actuality are just normal plain beef. Al’s actually tastes like italian beef should. You either love or hate blue cheese there’s no in between. Al’s blue cheese fries are a heart attack in a basket, but sinfully «blue cheesy». The place is a cut above many sandwich places it is nice and roomy and has a lot of seating. It’s new looking, I’d compare it to a Portillos. Al’s beef is a little better than Portillos IMO. This location actually started live music Friday evenings and I find that refreshing. Stay and listen, (or participate it’s like an open acoustic night) or grab your food and go, it’s your choice. If I owned this place I’d have meetings with the staff and emphasize that they should be enthusiastic about customer satisfaction, and promote the place. When you have customers stop messing around, stop your inside conversations with the other employees and do your job… with a smile if possible. I up’d the stars from 3 to 4 because this place is clean and it’s trying new things and the food is tasty and affordable and what I come back for time and time again. In future visits I’ll try other items (burgers, polish/​dogs, wings, pizza), try the regular fries (to see if the oil tastes somewhat fresh) and edit my rating if need be. I say try it.
An update: 8÷19÷2013
Just left there after a pickup order of blue cheese fries. I love blue cheese and these fries are quite blue. The order was taken by a cheerful and smiling employee. She didn’t mind that I had her repeat the total twice (my bad ears) but even expressed sympathy after I commented on my bad hearing. The ordering experience was all together better because of the winning attitude of the order taker. It looks like they have made an emphasis on customer satisfaction a priority, that’s encouraging. It’s still clean and a comfortable eat-​in setting. I noticed you can bring your receipt in with you on a return visit within 10 days and receive 10% off your total bill. That’s a good deal. They have a sign up that after you go to the movies at the adjacent theatre, you can bring your movie ticket stub in for a 10% discount. Another good idea. I am posting positive because many people only post when they have a complaint. I want this place to do well and stay in the Heights for a long time because this town needs nice places to stay around.

TERRIBLE. First off, how in the world does a PIZZA place NOT have pepperoni? Then I ask for half sausage/​half green pepper, extra green pepper, and they put green pepper on the whole pizza. Call the manager after it took over an hour for delivery to Matteson, and wanted the pizza sent back to send another. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Never again. Especially for the $ 4+ delivery charge.

Two large 2 topping original thin or super thin pizzas and 4 large fountain drinks for $ 22! It has come to the point that using coupons is the only way that we can afford to eat here. Their prices seem to keep rising. The seasoning also has diminished, which I noticed since having to add salt and pepper to my pizzas (sometimes garlic seasoning). Still, it’s miles above most pizza in the area (Beggars is #1 but not so local). The staff has been polite and.professional. The portions are large and filling. They have pick-​up, dine-​in, drive-​thru and delivery. The sit down area is clean and comfortable. There is a separate ordering counter for Al’s beef and one for Nancy’s pizza. They are within walking distance of the Chicago Heights Marcus Theater (a convenient location off Lincoln Highway). Overall, very good food with rising prices (coupons available). Definitely a YUM!

The hot dog was not good today. But the small cheese fry was yummy and definitely seemed like a Large. If it’s just you don’t ever order the large cheese fry it’s HUGE! Pizza isn’t so bad either. I like that it’s so close to the movie theater I can sneek the food in, SCORE!

The food is delicious, but beware that there is a long wait.
When using any sort of voucher, you will get taxed as though you didn’t use one here. On a $ 20 bill with a $ 10 voucher, you will have a bill of $ 10 + the tax of the original $ 20. When I confronted the company, they didn’t apologize because this is what they do on a regular basis. Beware!
Clean seating area.

Had Nancy’s Pizza last night in Park Forest. Absolutely the WORST pizza ever! Think about a mediocre pizza that you’ve had lately, then refigerate it, microwave it, refrigerate it again, microwave it again… BAM! You have what Nancy’s Pizza tasted like! It was dry, burnt, the breadsticks were crunchy, the marinara sauce was cold! They will be getting a call from me today! THEN… they had the nerve to charge $ 32.64 for a large with breadsticks and a soda/​pop!

Their bacon, cheddar burger is AWESOME! Their loaded fries are delish as well!

When you go to this place for a carryout be sure to check your food order before leaving.
I had two recent visits. During the first one, I asked if they would exclude cheese from the salad that I wanted. They assured me they would but when I got home, I saw that the salad was full of cheese. During the second visit, I asked for a thin crust pizza with several ingredients and very light cheese. So what did I see when I arrived home? You guessed it: a pizza full of cheese.
I’ll give 2 stars only because I enjoyed their Italian beef and sausage combo. I think the pizza would have been good if they had prepared it as I requested.
Get it together, Al’s!

Normally I won’t dock a place with good food for having bad service. I’m going to make an exception here.
This place has the worst register experience ever. I’ve been to many places where the cashier is unattentive, doesn’t want to be there or is even rude.
At this location of Al’s, you literally wait 5 minutes or so for someone to even come to the register. Yes! I was there at 1 PM today. There were no customers waiting for food and no one at the drive thru. I stood there for five minutes at an empty register while two girls standing 15 feet away stared out the drive thru window chatting it up. I’m convinced they never even saw me.
The girl who was at the register was actually working and finally came over and apologized, but it begs a question. While I appreciate her apology (she was a mixed girl with very light skin in case management is reading this), what were the other employees so busy with that they couldn’t have covered her at the register? There was nobody there!
The food at Al’s is good because of the origins of the company. However, the company representatives need to either get out to this location and do something, or admit that they don’t care about this location just because it’s in the hood.
Waiting 5 minutes to even be greeted when you’re about to drop $ 32? Deplorable.
EDIT: So I contact the owner about the problem in his shop, and he emails me back asking for more details. Upon providing those details, I don’t hear from him for days. So, I replied again asking if I should edit this message to reflect not hearing from him. Here’s what I got as a reply:
«Joe,
This is an internal matter that I am dealing with. Thank you for your input.
Have a great Weekend,»
Condescending much?
1) Input implies that he didn’t ask for the info. 2) Internal matter? You sent an email asking for info. Usually that email, when responded to, gets a ‘follow up email.” This is classic Service 101.
This location reflects the owner’s lack of value for the time of his customers. In my book, keep going to Al’s, but avoid this location at all costs.