Attempt #52 - Mesa's Pizza

Menu

The Venue

114 E. Washington St.

Iowa City, IA 52240

(319) 351-6372

What to order?

Nested in Iowa City's pedestrian mall near the University of Iowa campus, Mesa's has a representation for serving unique and sometimes bizarre-but good, pizza. As you might expect from a college town, the inside of the joint is rather basic, with a long stretch of tables against on side of the wall. Customized monster-like artwork covers the inside all four walls, with the far back section is where you order by pointing at each pizza and asking “What's that?”. The prices were cheap, and it was awesome that they commonly serve by the slice. Their procedure involves reheating the pizza in the oven for a minute after you choose what you want, so its hot when you get it. The menu items are simple, pizza, pop, along with a little salad. You can check out their website menu at http://www.mesapizzaia.com/menu.html.

The Pizza

Chicago Style: No

Crust Thickness: Thin

Our group consisted of six participants, so we ordered 14 pieces of pizza. Since they serve by the slice as well as by the pie, we capitalized on the wide variety that Mesa offered. The only have New York style of crust, but if you order a whole pizza, you can choose a size to meet your needs (12” Medium, 16” Large, and 20” Extra Large).

Cost $3.75 per slice

The Verdict

The best I can say about this pizza was the variety! It overwhelmed me. Half of the time I had no clue what I was eating since we shared each piece. I did not care for the re-heating each slice, as it made the crust thick like a shell and a little harder to chew. The toppings were interesting, but still good. The pizza size was great. I found the sauce to be lacking enough flavor on most of the pizzas. It seemed to be on the very light side. Each of the six participants voted for a different pizza as their favorite. Therefore, the winners were:

Southwest Steak and Guacamole

Kielbasa

Mac & Cheese

Spinach Feta Pesto

BBQ Steak

Bacon Garlic Mashed Potato

Here are our ratings, where 1 = worst and 10 = best.
Overall 7.25

Cheese 7.67

Sauce 6.83

Topping 8.92

Crust 6.67

Venue 6.67

Favorite None-we tied with one vote for each