Posted
by Liz Weslander
February 7, 2005 at 10 a.m.
WELCOME TO CICI'S!
Last week, after a long evening swim at the indoor pool, our family decided to try the new Cici's at the corner of 23rd and Iowa. My distaste for these types of family restaurants chains is [no secret][1]. However, on this particular night, downtown was brimming with pre-basketball crowds and we were too ravenous to wait for a table. Besides, the ads I'd been seeing on television for Cici's that tout stellar service and an all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta and salad bar for $3.99 ($1.99 for kids) intrigued me. I mean, what sort of shenanigans and crappy food can enable a restaurant to pull off these prices? Well, here's what I found.In short, Cici's is a low-rent Mr. Gatti's. The restaurant is nearly identical to Mr. Gatti's in concept, however Cici's game room is but an ugly stepchild of Gattiland, and Cici's buffet makes Mr. Gatti's mediocre offerings look like a gourmet spread. For instance, where Mr. Gatti's has a fresh, respectable salad bar, Cici's has a bare bones affair that is best enjoyed by lovers of iceberg lettuce and unnaturally thick salad dressing. Where Mr. Gatti's usually offers a variety of sauces and pasta, Cici's offers one thin, red sauce, one white sauce, and a choice of noodles, or slightly crusted spiral pasta. My aversion to the pasta was sealed when I watched a Cici's employees, in plain sight of diners, squeeze white sauce straight out of a plastic bag and into the container on the buffet. And what about this great customer service the advertisements were bragging about? As far as I can tell, Cici's idea of "service" is frequently and randomly yelling the phrase: "WELCOME TO CICI'S!" Now, yelling this upon customers' arrival I could handle. However, on my fourth trip to the pizza buffet, and in the middle of scooping some canned pineapple from the salad bar, I found someone barking "WELCOME TO CICI'S!" at me to be awkward, startling, and strangely comical. Another oddity about Cici's is that they do not accept debit cards, but instead have a cashier operated "ATM" from which a Cici's employee can extract cash for you for a small fee. They're basically making a dollar for every customer who walks in there without cash. Talk about shenanigans. To be fair, I will say that the pizza at Cici's was comparable to their competition's, and in all honesty, my kids ate more than their two dollars worth of food, and loved every bite. The restaurant met our family's need to have our stomachs filled quickly, and really, I think we got what we paid for. However, if you get what you pay for, I'd just as soon drop $30 on a meal and really enjoy it. Barring ravenous hunger and pre-game crowds, I think that next time our family will at least opt for a place that squeezes its food out of the plastic bag in the privacy of the kitchen. [1]: http://blogs.lawrence.com/gotkids/2004/mar/16/exile/
Comments
Lawrence.com does not necessarily agree with comments posted below - responsibility lies with the relevant user alone. Read our full policy.
chrisgladfelter (anonymous) says…
Cici's as a low-rent version of Mr. Gatti's---that's too funny.
When I ate there, the random yelling of "welcome to cici's" began to frighten me. I'd look up from my meal whenever I heard it, but more than half of the time I didn't see any customers at the counter. I didn't even see the employee who did the shouting. I was afraid to go to the bathroom because the shouter could have been waiting for me in one of the stalls.
Both Cici's and Gatti's are depressing. Bring back Showbiz Pizza!
murderama (Rob Gillaspie) says…
Dude, Showbiz was the coolest... My folks took me there for my birthday when I was in kindergarten and one of the robot animals wasn't working right... I was awestruck to find out they were actually robots under all that fur! Then they announced someone else's birthday before mine and I had a total glamour fit in front of the whole restaurant. Sweet, tearful memories...
leslie (Leslie vonHolten) says…
Any experience with ChuckECheese? Do they have the robots, too? Our son was promised that if he practiced piano X number of times, he'd get to go there. It took him 9 months, and doomsday is upon us this Saturday...(I'm nervous; I overstimulate easily.)
chrisgladfelter (anonymous) says…
My last visit to ChuckECheese was about 14 years ago, but I do remember a few robotic manimals---though they weren't Billy Bob or any of the other way-cool Showbiz band members. I also remember one of those pits filled with little plastic balls that the kids jump into. I saw a little boy climb out of the pit with a leaky nose, then he turned around and sneezed all over the balls. I haven't been back since.
Don't worry, Leslie, you'll be fine...
Bwa-hah-hah-hah-hah!
liz (Liz Weslander) says…
Yeah, Showbiz had extra cache in our family because you had to drive all the way to Topeka to go there, which meant we rarely went. In fact, I think I only actually went there once. I do remember that my mom took my younger brother and me to see Bambi in Topeka one day. She flatly refused to visit Showbiz while we were there, but when my older brother and his best friend got wind of our trip, they look at us accusingly and uttered one word slowly and dramatically -show-biz!?
i've never done ChuckECheese...good luck.
squandra (anonymous) says…
If only Chuck E. Cheese were still Showbiz Pizza ... I guess playing second fiddle to Billy Bob in the Rock-afire Explosion just wasn't enough for that back-stabbing mouse Chuck E! ... Er ... Yes, I think they still have robots.
monkeywrench (Tim vonHolten) says…
even the promise of canned pineapple will not lure me to cici's. picturing a low-rent version of gatti's has got me near sobbing already. that place is a testament to the bare minimum. if the batshit insanity was restaurant-generated, a la showbiz, i'd appreciate it more, but gatti's (and presumably cici's) put tables in a room with an adjoining arcade (which, honestly, more resembles a casino for all the games of chance that outnumber the actual games), and that's where their involvement ends. the chaos is generated completely by the children, who are driven wild by the "occasion" of the celebration. they're so enthralled by the fact they're at a party that they don't realize there's nothing to do. i guess the journey really is the destination.
cwrist (Chris Wristen) says…
Initially I was under the impression that CiCi's was some new local joint and I figured I had a responsibility as a Lawrence resident to check it out and see if it was any good. Then while I was driving in Lenexa late last week I saw another CiCi's down there and it pissed me off that it was another chain. Then I read this blog. Now I'll probably never eat there.
Also, I don't like having employees shout at me, so I appreciate the warning :-)
kubbfan1 (anonymous) says…
The staff and management at CiCi's suck! My son got a job there, he worked consistently for 2 months then the management NEVER scheduled him again. They also never told him they didn't have a job for him. I will NEVER eat there again because of the way they handle their staff and their policies. The food was ok, but Mr. Gatti's has the best BBQ chicken pizza I have ever had.
I've also recommended to all my friends to stay away from CiCi's.
squishypoet (anonymous) says…
As far as new pizza places in town go, I've been extremely pleased with Wheat State Pizza. Their wheat crust pizza is to die for! It's a "chain" (they own more than one store, in multiple cities-- way to branch out from Baldwin!) but they keep that hometown feel. I'd recommend that over CiCi's any day.
Bad_Brad (anonymous) says…
I was first introduced to Cici's when my wife and I moved to Dallas in 1998. Cici's was only $2.99 for all you can eat instead of the $3.99 today. We were dirt poor grad students at the time who could barely afford rent and mac-n-cheese. So, the ability to gorge one's self for $2.99 on occasion was very highly valued. I still like Cici's once in a while. If you ever go back, try the dessert items. Yes, they are greasy and fattening, but as far as taste goes, trust me, you won't be disappointed.
strait (anonymous) says…
While Chuck E. Cheese is certainly no Showbiz (i know i was small back in the 80s, but it seemed like Showbiz had hundreds of video games. that place was a palace), it isn't half bad. The best thing about Chuck's is all the games are a quarter (or one token, whatever). Most places seem to have a least one Galaga machine, making it OK in my book.
The pizza stinks, though.
cwrist (Chris Wristen) says…
Galaga rocks!
lhs2002 (anonymous) says…
cici's is nasty. I'd take the shuttle any day over cici's.
OtherJoel (anonymous) says…
Like Bad Brad, CiCi's $2.99 buffet allowed me to get off my minimum-wage diet of ramen, mac & cheese, and Natural Light once in a while in my college days in Springfield, MO. Many times I would wait until about 2 in the afternoon without eating, go in there and gorge myself to the point that I would almost get sick -- and it would carry me through the rest of the day. Gatti's was significantly better overall (though still not great, I admit), but it was $3.99 in those days, so that was reserved for special occasions. I did like CiCi's spinach alfredo pizza -- don't know if they still do that one. Also, they used to give out free sauce by request, so if it was too bad, you could smother it in (admittedly very bland) tomato sauce and it would mask the nastiness of, say, their sausage pizza, pretty well.
lhs2002 (anonymous) says…
i think the nattie lite tastes better than cici's.
vertigo (Jesse Crittenden) says…
CiCi's = teh suxor
I'd MUCH rather have a Totino's frozen pizza than CiCi's nasty, cold ass buffet any day of the week.
The wife and I ate at one in North Carolina a few weeks ago... the atmosphere was horrid, the place was dirty, to say the food was awful would be an understatement. Thankfully we were spared the "Welcome to CiCi's!" yelling that apparently is a Kansas thing. After that meal I told my wife that she doesn't get to pick the restaurant we eat at for the next decade.