| Stuffed style pizza with monster toppings and a firm crust |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 9/18/2004
Rating: 9
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Does Zacharys Pizza live up to the hype? Ahhh...welll...yeah..it certainly does. People have been telling me to visit this place for ages. Im glad I did. For the many reasons I dont like deep dish (stuffed) pizza because the crust is never firm, dough is usually undercooked, toppings are sooo overwhelming it tastes like your eating some sort of lasagne. With all those pizza hurdles in the way, how did Zacharys do?
Crust - who would have ever thought a deep dish (stuffed) pizza could be crunchy and firm. I have never had deep dish pizza like this...ANYWHERE!! It taste sooo damm good.
Toppings - layers and layers of it, great stuff. Its about an inch of toppings. Cheese lovers will be in ecstasy.
Sauce - yikes, I love tomato sauce and Zacharys is one of the few places not to skimp out. Think real tomatoes and not that paste stuff
Sure you have to wait 40+ minutes to get your pizza or horror stories of waiting 1 hr for a table. Why do people do this? Because the pizza is that good..seriously, I dont even like deep dish pizza but Zacharys Pizza is the exception. Just reading on their site, they consider their pizzas as stuffed.
We arrived at 5:30ish and didnt have to wait for a table :) One more thing, their pizzas might be small in diameter, but remember the deep dish pizzas are 3-4x higher...be prepared to take tasty leftovers home.
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Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 739
Reviewed: 9/19/2004
Rating: 8.5
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Zacharys kept me up all night with heartburn. And I liked it.
The waiting at Zacharys is infamous. We waited a long time but that won't influence my score as they tell you beforehand that your pizza will take 30-40 minutes to arrive. I saw that some folks at the next table ordered a small thin-crust pizza (20-30 mins wait) and then a small deep dish pizza. This is smart if you are hungry and want an appetizer before the big kahuna arrives.
We went straight to the deep dish pizzas as they are famous for this stuff. I sampled the cheese pizza. When it arrived, Eddies first comment was that they (my cheese, and their sausage pizzas) look the same. The tomatos camoflauge anything underneath. On mine, the interior consistent of gallons of melted cheese. I like cheese...a lot.... but this was just insane. I had 2 slices of this deep dish madness, and between the cheese and the tomatos, I was up til midnight with heartburn, until I dug up some Tums and put my pain to rest. This is hardcore food, for hardcore people. Perhaps hardcore YOUNG people. No doubt, it is good stuff, high quality crust, high quality cheese, and a ton of tomatoes, topped with spices. Is it a good pizza? Its a different pizza. For those that like Chicago Style, this place would rate 9.5 or higher probably. For me, its all about the NYC thin crust style. Places like Arinells are king for me, and Zacharys are just cool places to go to with some friends once every year or so. This place is top notch, just the pizza style is just not my bag. I do, however, recommend everyone to try this place. Its a great experience. Just stack up on the antacid.
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Reviewer: Eddie
Total Reviews: 47
Reviewed: 9/19/2004
Rating: 7.5
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This was the last stop of today's assignment. When Jason told me that it takes 40 minutes to get the food after you sit down and order it, I was curious to find out why would people be willing to wait that long for a pizza. As soon as I sat down at the table and looked around, I was shocked to see the pizza. OMG, is that a lot of tomato sauce or is that a lot of tomato sauce? I have never seen that much sauce on a pizza in my life. Every pizza looked the same to me, they all covered by tons of tomato sauce. How can they tell which pizza is which? We ordered 2 small pizza, one with cheese and one with sausage and pepperoni. It did take about 40 min for the food to arrive, but since we just ate at 2 other places, it wasn't that bad to wait. The pizza was cut and served to you by the friendly host. Took the first bite, it was quite salty. I don't know if that's the overflowing sauce or the cheese, but it was too much for me. I had to order a coke for that. The pizza actually tasted good, even with all that sauce, you can tell the ingredients were fresh and I was surprised that with that much sauce on the pizza the crust didn't feel soggy at all. Guess there is something about this pizza place that won all those awards on the wall.
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Reviewer: Brandon
Total Reviews: 16
Reviewed: 9/29/2004
Rating: 10
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Food is very unlike music for me in one very important way: when a restaurant gets great reviews, I can almost always trust that it's gonna be good. So, just like House of Nan King, when you show up at Zachary's and the walls are covered with all kinds of awards and newspaper articles and banners of Voted Best Pizza 17 Years in a Row and the line goes out the door and around the corner, you know you've got something.
Let's cut to the chase. Zachary's is the best pizza I've ever had.
I don't know what makes it so good. Is it the toppings? The cheese? Spices in the sauce? The dual crusts? The unusual configuration? Or some kind of mathematically-proven optimization of all of them together? I don't know. But it's just very, very good.
The pizza is so satisfying, but yet I find myself eating more there than at any other pizzeria where you should have to eat more to get satisfied. You might as well stuff yourself, because as I've found out, if you go for the I'm-gonna-stretch-this-goodness-out-by-leaving-a-bit-of-room-and-having-some-more-in-an-hour-or-two strategy, re-warmed Zachary's, while still good, lacks the same magic.
The service is very good and friendly and professional, too. One time I was there a manager and a guy from the kitchen came out to make sure they'd gotten our order right 'cuz there was a little confusion about it (it was right, though). And last time we were there our waitress was this beautiful, smiley, black goddess with blue eyeshadow, dangly earrings, and a 'fro. Nice touch, Zach.
One price you have to pay for this treat, however, is that you should be prepared to wait for up to an hour to get a table. The takeout is a good option if you've got a place to eat nearby.
One more little note. I haven't been to the Solano Ave location that the other reviewers went to, only the College Ave location. This shouldn't make a difference but the pictures on this page look a lot cheesier than the Zachary's that I've had. I'm looking forward to researching this issue further.
10 stars. All hail Zachary's. Please come to Mountain View. Amen. |
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Reviewer: wchane
Total Reviews: 148
Reviewed: 10/20/2006
Rating: 9
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best. pizza. ever.
A few weeks ago I had lunch at Paxtie's in Palo Alto, ever since then I was left unfulfilled and longed for Zachary's. I've had a 3 year absence from the Solano or College Ave locations so I was extremely anxious. My chance came earlier this week and I did not pass.
We went to the Solano Ave location as Gordo's Taqueria is another must have for me. Service although very friendly is slow and even slower was the pizza, however they got me trained even from years ago. This was completely expected and we were just thankful we didn't have to wait long for a table.
At almost an hour after our order our pizza finally arrives, the familiar tall structure like crust holding in the flood of tomato sauce and tomato's. Lifting a piece was a work out, it's so thick it casts its own shadow. The first bite brought back memories...WOW that thing just came out of the oven. HOT HOT HOT. After the initial shock and hopefully you didn't scorch your tounge/roof of mouth you'd be able to enjoy the fully cooked although soft crust, fillings, CHEESE and the tomato topping. Mouth watering...and I could barely eat two slices.
Zachary's for breakfast...now that's out of this world.
9/10 - 9.5 if the pizzas came out earlier though.
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