I worked in a pizzeria for a couple years and still regularly make pizza, and I think this is an interesting pizza but it has some significant flaws. I think the folks saying this reminds them of elementary school pizza must have gone to...
Read More
I worked in a pizzeria for a couple years and still regularly make pizza, and I think this is an interesting pizza but it has some significant flaws. I think the folks saying this reminds them of elementary school pizza must have gone to much better schools than mine...
The good: The crust is almost focaccia-like, with a lot of interior bubbles. Texturally, it has a nice mix of chewy on the inside and crunchy on the outside, and in terms of flavor, a nice mix of some sourdough notes with golden-brown toastiness. I also appreciated that the cheese had some good browning going on, and the pepperonis had crisped and cupped, adding more toasty brown flavor. The pricing model is also very interesting, with $10 for about 36 or 40 square inches of pizza regardless of number of toppings selected. $10 for a meal in downtown Kirkland is definitely a contender just on price.
The not-so-good: My two immediate complaints were that the tomato sauce is too sweet for my taste (and is applied liberally out to the edges of the pizza, which is usually good because it saves dull crusts, but here the bread is better than the sauce) and that there wasn't quite enough cheese to hold the toppings on (but it was their version of a Supreme pizza, so that's sort of the worst-case scenario for topping overload; still, other pizzerias may add a layer of "top cheese" to hold toppings on, and that seems either absent or too small here). Further consideration turned up a couple more issues. The red onions and bell pepper bits weren't all quite cooked. This, combined with the browning on the pepperoni, suggests a quick, high-temperature cooking process. But there's no way the thick focaccia crust would cook through in a cooking process that doesn't cook tiny onion bits. So I'm pretty sure they're cooking the crust first, then putting toppings on it and firing it quick and hot. This is supported by the observation that the crust is browned even under the sauce and cheese. I don't know how I feel about this, morally. The crust is also quite oily; I was unable to determine whether it's olive oil or vegetable oil, but at this price point... I almost wonder if they're frying the crust - it's that oily and that consistently golden-brown and delicious. I like pizza and donuts as much as the next guy, but I think adding pizza-on-a-sourdough-donut to my regular rotation might be a bad idea.
Food: 3
Service: 4
Atmosphere: 3