CiCi's Pizza Buffet Promises Fresh Ingredients

CiCi's pizza is a growing, low-cost chain of pizza restaurants serving up pizza, salad, pasta and dessert buffet style.

This family-friendly restaurant offers self serve; no waiting pizza, salad bar, desserts and sodas at more than reasonable pricing. Kids 3 and under eat free with the purchase of a .99 fountain drink and that includes a "kid's meal" type toy. There is also a small game room in the back.

If you hate wasting money on kid's meals your children don't eat, take heart because at CiCi's it's free and they will eat it! My kids and I ate dinner at CiCi's for just over $8. Not bad at all for unlimited food and drinks.

Food: CiCi's boasts it's fresh ingredients and I was skeptical about the quality of the food based on their low prices. The salad bar itself wasn't very impressive. It offers two types of lettuce mix and a small section of toppings and dressings. The pizza bar made up for it though. They had a long line of pizzas always being rotated on the hot table. Most are specialty pizzas that offer variety for the whole family. Side items include plain pasta with choice of sauce on the side and cheesy herbed bread.

The dessert counter displayed 3 choices: brownie squares, apple crisps and best of all, gooey heart-warming, glazed cinnamon buns. What a perfect way to end the meal if you're going all out on carbs.

Service: Though CiCi's Pizza is self-serve as far as food and drinks, they could use a few extra hands to clear plates and tables as well as effectively take orders and ring people through the cash register. Staff should also be on hand to take carryout and catering orders.

Cleanliness: When we visited there were many dirty tables and stacks of dishes on the side of nearly every table. If they had enough people working it would have cleared up the problem. On the other hand, the food bars were clean and well kept and food was continually rotated and fresh.

They promise fresh ingredients, but can they deliver? Physically, no. But they deliver their promise for good food at a good price. Overall, the food was great for the price. I recommend CiCi's Pizza to families on a tight budget.