Marketplace

If you work around Hotel Irvine, the Marketplace is a great spot to grab lunch. I tried the pizza and it wasn’t anything amazing but it was good. They make it fast and the prices for food are on the cheap side.

I usually pick up and drop off a lot of people here when I am driving taxi around Irvine. Since I come to the Hotel Irvine quite often, I figured I should at least try some of the eateries inside. When I got my hot, fresh pizza from Crave at The Marketplace to take home, I wanted to see if quality of the pizza matched the cheap price ($ 9.00 for a 12″).
When I took my first bite, all I could think was OMG!!! This was only $ 9.00??? I could tell right away that everything on that pizza was fresh from the dough to the toppings. And all of this time, I’ve been spending $ 15 or more on pizzas from other places. While this was not anything close to what I had in Chicago, New York, or Philadelphia, it was pretty damn good by Orange County standards.
The thing I love about The Marketplace is that everything is reasonably priced. No $ 4.00 bottles of water like at other hotels. I don’t know what the Irvine Company did to make this a great hotel, but I will certainly recommend this place and the Hotel Irvine to all of the business travelers I take around town. Why call Domino’s when you can get a better tasting (and reasonably priced) pizza here. The fact that this pizza place is open until 11:00pm is huge! You got a customer for life.

I am totally disgusted by the customer service or lack thereof. I eat here at least 3 – 4 times a week for lunch because my office is in the Plaza buildings and across the parking lot. Today I wanted some breakfast. When I arrived there was no one else but me and another customer who was being served. After waiting ten minutes, six people were in line at the register. I asked the server about the breakfast and she tells me I’ll have to wait because everyone else is before me. Are you kidding me. I am next in line and now I have to wait longer. I ask for the manager who comes out. He is a nice guy but no help. I have a policy that bad service trumps good food. I have to now seriously consider whether to go back after being treated so badly.