Monday, December 29, 2014

Attempt #44 - Za's Pizza

Menu
The Venue
1944 42nd Street NE STE B
Cedar Rapids, IA 52402
(319) 200-4566

Za's Pizza is a new arrival to the Cedar Rapids pizza scene. Located off of 42nd Street, this locally owned restaurant serves up New York Thin and Detroit style crust in small, medium, and large pizza pies. They also serve beer as well as the standard soft drinks.  They had two tables and around 10 booths for seating with beer available. The restaurant was very clean and the staff was very friendly and helpful. Currently, they do not offer weekday or weekend specials. You can check out their menu on-line at this location:  http://www.zaspizzacr.com/menu.html.

The Pizza

Meatza Slice
Chicago Style:  No
Crust Thickness:  Average with Caramelized Cheese around the rim (Detroit), Average, and Thin

Our group consisted of 10 participants, so we ordered two large (14") pizzas and two medium (12") pizzas.
Meatza - Pepperoni, Italian sausage, beef, ham, bacon pieces, salami (Large 14", Detroit crust, $24.99).
Taco - House refried bean sauce, beef, lettuce, tomato, nacho chips. (Large 14", NY Thin crust, $22.99).
BLT - Ham, bacon, mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato (Medium 12", Detroit crust, $20.99).
Meatza, Large 14", Detroit Crust, $24.99
Potato and Bacon - Homemade mashed potatoes with bacon and cheddar.  We made it a loaded potato with onions, black olives and a side of sour cream (Medium 12", NY Thin crust, $18.99).
 

The Verdict

Every pizza was cut into triangular-shaped pieces. The toppings were a little on the light side (Potato and Bacon) on some and on the heavy side on others (lettuce on the BLT); however, these ingredients consisted of high quality.  The crust was firm, not soggy which is a plus.  Za's used real bacon stripes that looked and tasted extraordinary this wasn't the pre-prepared strips or bits that you might expect.  The BLT was the crowd favorite, scoring 50% of the vote.  The use of real mayonnaise and real bacon propelled this to #1 for our group.   Personally, I enjoyed the Meatza with all the fresh flavors of meats on my pizza. Either way, the Detroit crust won the votes!  So, if you are in the north east side of Cedar Rapids, I would recommend checking this joint out.

Here are our ratings, where 1 = worst and 10 = best.
Overall            8.30
Cheese            8.50
Sauce              7.80
Potato and Bacon, Medium 12",
NY Thin Crust, $18.99
Topping          8.80
Crust               8.40
Venue             8.90



BLT, Medium 12, Detroit Crust, $20.99




Taco, Large 14, NY Thin Crust, $22.99

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