Pizza Place at Hikes Point

Just last week, a close friend was telling me that none of my reviews were very negative.  I realized that he had a point, but I wasn't sure if that was because I'm always the optimist, or because I've genuinely enjoyed all of the restaurants Katie and I have visited so far this year.

The more I thought about it, I couldn't help but wonder if I was being too nice or letting things go that might annoy other patrons of these pizza joints.  I ultimately decided to rely on the fact that I am an optimist; I've only written about things I've experienced, and that's all I can do without bringing speculation into the equation.

Luckily (or not, depending on how you look at it), I don't need to worry about that anymore.  This week's visit was to a place that I will probably not visit again:  The Pizza Place at Hikes Point.

As I do when the foot hits the table, let's dive right in.

First and foremost, I'd like to thank my friend Erin for hooking me up with some gift certificates to various pizza places around town, this place being one of them.  Thanks Erin!  (It's all about the connections you have in life, guys.  Start making friends.)

As for the restaurant itself, Pizza Place (still not sure if there's a "the" in there at the beginning or not) is a locally owned pizza restaurant on Richland lane in Hikes Point (near the intersection of Taylorsville Road and Hikes Lane).  You can't miss it once you're on Richland, it's a white building with the word "PIZZA" in big red letters on the front.

Upon first inspection, this has great pizza written all over it.  It's a locally owned place, not a whole lot of people know about it, and it looks like the business should have been shut down a long time ago.  (Pizza places are like martial arts schools:  often, the smallest "hole in the wall" places have some of the best things to offer.)

As you walk inside, there is a sign that says "seat yourself" against a wall straight in front of you.  Don't go left.  There are a few tables on that side, but nobody was seated over there.  Going right, we had to squeeze behind a poker table occupied by the majority of the crowd inside the restaurant (there had to have been a maximum of 17 people there, including us).  We found ourselves a booth to sit in, but we were obstructed from the view of the bar.  Because of our hidden choice in seating, it took someone a few minutes to find us and bring us menus. (Our waiter [bartender maybe?] apologized and was very friendly.)

Another note on the crowd size:  we arrived as a UofL game was ending, and a sign outside said "food and drink specials during all UK and UofL games", so we expected it to be crowded.  It wasn't, surprisingly enough, especially considering that the game yesterday was an away game.  I'm not sure if this is an indication of how popular Pizza Place is or not.

The very hungry (and good-looking) writer of this blog (and wife) ordered the garlic bread sticks and a medium pepperoni, light on the sauce.  The food didn't take too long to cook because it was so slow, which was a bonus (there it is! I found the silver lining!  I'm so good at this).  Pizza Place likes to put their pepperoni below the cheese, which makes the entire cheese-pepperoni collaboration slide off of the saucy crust.  I'm starting to realize that I don't like my pizza like this, but it's not enough of a big deal to be bothered by it.

(The garlic bread sticks are pretty good, I'd recommend them if you venture out to this place.  The other appetizers looked good as well, and I hear the pasta isn't bad either.)

We ordered ours light on the sauce, and it was still pretty saucy.  It was either that they forgot to go light on the sauce (probable) or that Pizza Place has an in-house competition on who can get away with putting the most sauce on a pizza without upsetting the customers (not as probable).  Either way, Kate didn't care for this aspect very much.

I didn't enjoy that the crust was as soft as it was.  All of the food at Pizza Place is baked (never fried), so I'm sure they've got a great grasp on how long things go in the oven to cook.  I would have liked it to be at  least somewhat crispier; it seemed more like microwaved than it did oven-baked.

Leftovers:  I had two pieces cold, and it was just as soft as when it was hot.  However, cold pizza can get away with being softer, so it was fine.  Not great by any means, but serviceable for cold pizza.  Katie has yet to eat her leftover piece, if that says anything to you.

Overall grades:

Service:  Very friendly server, but we paid cash and he never brought back our receipt.  Didn't realize until later that I'm 80% sure he shorted me a dollar in change. I should have paid better attention and not trusted that he gave me the right amount back.  I also didn't like that we had to be discovered before getting menus.(Grade:  D)
Atmosphere:  Lots of TVs, great for sports.  It seemed like a weekly poker game/tournament was going on.  This place has "hangout" written all over it.  Not crowded immediately after a UofL game, definitely makes me wonder about others' experience.  (Grade:  B)
Taste:  It was okay.  Too much sauce for Kate, and too soft for me.  (Grade:  C-)
Accessibility:  Tough to get to a seat if you have to sit yourself and squeeze behind a poker player sitting too far back from the table.  Looked handicap accessible.  Easy to get to the place if you know where to look. (Grade:  B-)

Any suggestions for next week's visit?  We're open to ideas!