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.

Papa Keno's Really Has Slices Bigger Than Your Face!

Today was the grand opening for Papa Keno's, a pizza place from Lawrence.  I don't usually review restaurants on the day of the grand opening, but this place impressed me so I thought I would share.

Two slices of pepperoni pizza.

For some reason I didn't listen to their motto, "Slices as big as your face." I ordered way too much. One slice could easily fill me up, but I ordered six. Two pepperoni, two Italian sausage and two hamburger, one each for me and my hubby. Needless to say, it was too much food and we will have leftovers tomorrow. Lesson learned. The guy that handed me my pizza said, "Whoa, you got a lot." Yeah, thanks.

What I enjoyed was the thin slices that were baked alone, not as a whole pie. Cooking it this way gives the edges a slightly crisp texture and some of the cheese seemed to bake like a crust, which I enjoyed. It wasn't burnt, but cooked just right. (You can kind of see what I am talking about on the left side of the left slice of pepperoni).

They cut the slices into squares, and I thought that some of the sections were as big as normal slices of pizza at other places.

 The thin crust was welcome. It was chewy but crisp at the same time -- I didn't feel like I was eating a cracker with pizza toppings.

I found out via Twitter that Papa Keno's uses whole milk mozzarella on all their pizzas and make their dough from scratch every day. Yum.

Two hamburger, two It. sausage

There wasn't anything I didn't enjoy. At first, before I saw the sizes of the slices, I thought it seemed overpriced. But when it came I totally understood, and feel I paid for what I got.

The wait was worth the pizza and I plan to go back soon. I look forward to trying their various pizzas, salads and sides. Tonight they were only doing single slices because their ovens aren't big enough to hold all the slices and whole pizzas. The line was long the entire time I was there, from about 7 p.m. until 7:45 and the staff was working hard the whole time. For a grand opening, everyone seemed to be on top of everything, as I waited 40 minutes and they told me the wait would be that long, and the pizza tasted amazing.

I Went Back For Round Two

House salad with ranch dressing

The second night I went to Papa Kenos I knew to only order one slice of pizza. This time I got a meal -- one slice of pizza with two toppings, choice of breadsticks or salad and a drink. I got the salad and it was a basic iceberg salad mix with tomatoes and cucumber with your choice of dressing and there was plenty of it. It was actually quite large, I was surprised. My friend ordered the same meal only breadsticks instead of a salad and there were quite a few of those, too. I would say if two people went the best thing would be to order a salad with one meal and breadsticks with another meal and split the two and have a feast.

One slice with tomatoes and pepperoni

The breadsticks were good, but nothing too special. I liked them dipped in marinara but I would say alone, they are a little plain. But still good.

The meal is a good deal. You get a huge slice of pizza, a good amount of whichever side you choose and a refillable soda all for $7.50 plus tax.

Both times I went to Papa Keno's I enjoyed my visit. The pizza is good, the service is friendly and the price is right.

To check out their menu, click here.