Let me preface this review with "I wanted Oregano's to be better".
However. Its common knowledge that there are excessive waits here at Oregano's and I assumed that is due to the high quality pizza coming from the kitchen. Well, unless you have a few hours to burn you are not going to find out.
I sat at the bar as I arrived solo and the bartender was friendly and quick. As I looked at the menu and asked for suggestions she alerted me that most items were about an hour wait or sometimes 45 minutes. That being said the only thing you can get in under 30 minutes is their famous "pizza on a cracker" dish. They suggest ordering your food while you sit outside waiting for you table. "That's how the regulars do it". Apparently this is due to the great pizza shortage in Arizona.
Its not cheap and there is nothing I can see that makes it unique other than they expect you to wait an hour for a 10" pizza.
They augment their hard to read menu by NOT offering Calzone or Stromboli. And as an added plus there is not a TV in the joint with any sports whatsoever. (All the TV's show some type of 1940's movie reel)
This was a Sunday night during the NFL season when the World Series was also being played but I enjoyed the black and white silent movie instead........
How nostalgic! Well that is if nostalgic means sucks.
And if that was not enough 6 minutes after I ordered a simple pepperoni biscuit I asked about appetizers realizing I would not see the biscuit for 28 minutes.
I ordered BOOM chips and BOOM they never arrived. I promptly cancelled the boom when the pizza arrived. Less boom more pffftt.
Oregano's reminds me of Bucco de Beppo but for pizza......And without the positives that Bucco has, whatever those are???
With all this nonsense I just found myself wanting to bail quickly and even left 3/4 of a beer behind. (Amazing) But the manager did inquire why I did not want to take the remainder of the grease biscuit with me and seemed genuinely concerned. The bartender was also very nice.
The kitchen and time to plate are the Achilles heel.
Please don't tell me this is the best Arizona can do for pizza. Lord there has got to be a Grimaldi's or Bambini's around here somewhere.