Pie Five Pizza Co.

A new pizza place on Wanamaker opened in December called Pie Five Pizza Company. I was finally able to check it out for an early dinner this afternoon.

 Don't get confused with the other restaurant down the way called Five Guys Burger and Fries, (I reviewed that one the other day). They both have the number "Five" in the name but they are nothing alike. They are completely different places, and I would say to try them both.

Pie Five is called such because they claim you'll get your pizza within five minutes of finishing your order.

How is that possible?

I was watching the crew build pizzas during my wait, which wasn't too bad on a Sunday at 5 p.m., and it seems as if there are cooks who pre-bake the personal sized crusts before others put the toppings on when you're ordering. There were three or four employees who seemed to only be there to make and bake crusts in advance. I did get my pizza within five minutes, along with the rest of my order.

The way it works is you pick your pizza crust -- Classic Pan, Artisan Thin, Whole Grain Thin, and Gluten Free ($2 up-charge for gluten free) -- then you pick your toppings, anything you want. It's set up Chipotle-style where you walk down the line and tell a cook what you want for your toppings. It's $6.99 for a pizza with whatever toppings you want. Ten dollars gets you the pizza, a salad and a drink.

Side garden salad

If you want a side salad I would say to go for the meal deal because it's $2.99 for a salad alone and I just don't think it's worth that much money. With the meal deal it's half that and maybe more worth it. Still, I wasn't impressed. The side salads come in a bread bowl, mine was stale and hard. Just trying to break off a piece of it, I could tell it was stale. The salad was small and unimpressive. The pieces of romaine lettuce were huge and hard to eat because they were so big. I did appreciate that the dressing was already tossed and everything was already coated because if it hadn't been I would have had an even more difficult time eating the salad.

I ordered the High Five with Classic Pan crust. It's basically a meat lovers with Canadian bacon, ham, beef, Italian sausage and pepperoni. I added tomatoes to mine because you can add whatever other toppings you want, no extra charge. I thought the pizza was good, the crust was fluffy and crunchy at the same time. I enjoyed the crust the most, the toppings were good but I didn't like the beef, it seemed a little crunchy and overcooked to me because they were small little pieces, compared to the other meats.

You can pick one of their signature creations and add to it like I did, or you can build your own pizza from the crust and sauce up. They offer a variety of sauces, olive oil, Tuscan marinara, Sriracha marinara, bbq, buffalo ranch and alfredo.  For a list of the toppings, visit their menu page.

I plan to return and try a pizza on thin crust. My husband Ryan ordered a pizza on the Artisan Thin crust and I tried some, so I know I'll like it. I enjoyed that the crust was thin, but it wasn't like eating a saltine cracker, either. It was soft and thin while still holding up to the toppings. The only thing I won't be ordering again is the side salad, it just wasn't worth the hassle or the extra money. The bigger salads looked more substantial, but to me they didn't look like they were worth $6.99. Maybe I'll try one sometime but so far I say stick to the pies at Pie Five.