I saw some ads on the tv for CiCi’s Gourmet Pizza Buffet, and it so happens they have a location over near the WalMart on Ellsworth. Dinner for $4.49 a head? Well, family dinner out for under $20 seemed at least worth a try.

First off, that $4.49 doesn’t include drinks, so it was more like $6 a head, but still. Pretty reasonable. The place was packed with families and college kids, as you would expect. There is the requisite game room with video and pinball games. It’s not an overly attractive space and it was noisy, but the ceiling is high so there’s no really cramped feeling. It seems to be one of those places designed to encourage a certain rate of table turnover.

The tv ads claim how remarkably clean CiCi’s restaurants are. Um, this one, not so much. There was no one bussing the tables, so there were many tables unavailable, as they were stacked with trays and plates by peole trying to clear spaces for themselves. When we were nearly done eating, two young men started bussing, but by that time, there were mountains of plates everywhere. Completely unimpressed on the cleanliness count.

Gourmet is a stretch, a big stretch, in fact, but it was pretty reasonable for the price, and we could all have pizza we liked without any arguing. They had 3 different salads, all pre-dressed. There was one kind of pasta, a curly macaroni, and two sauces – a tomato sauce and a gluey ‘alfredo’ sauce.

There were 6 or 8 different kinds of pizza – spinach, bbq chicken, taco, veggie, ham & pineapple – and all the ones I tasted were passable or better. They had a couple dessert items – brownies, cinnamon rolls and an apple ‘pizza.’ Not much to write home about, but I can see how this could be a dinner outing which doesn’t break the bank once we have a couple of teenage boys in tow.

Overall, it was kind of eh. If they work out the bussing issues, it will be more pleasant. Sitting around looking at stacks of dirty dishes doesn’t really enhance the pizza eating experience.