Pizza

Everyone enjoys eating pizza. Pizza is a complete meal. You have dairy products (cheese), meat, vegetable toppings, bread and fruit (tomatoes.) What more could you ask, they even make dessert pizzas of chocolate and marshmallows. Over the years, pizzas have become more personalized due to options of soy cheese, weight watcher's and a variety of crusts. Fortunately for Alamedans, there are a lot of options for pizza.

For some reason, a fair number of pizza establishments are located on or around Park Street, here is the list: A-Town Pizza, New York Pizza, Bowser's Pizza, Linguini's Cafe, Barceluna, Tomatina and Village Cafe. I cannot say that I have tasted pizza at every single restaurant that is listed. However, I will say that the pizza joints that I continue to return to are: Mountain Mike's, Round Table and Little Caesar's (if I am really tight on money and hungry for a pepperoni pizza.)

I was excited to taste the pizza at Barceluna because I was curious to see if they would put a Spanish spin on it. They didn't. The pizza I ordered was pepperoni and vegetables. The flavor of the pizza was minimal and the crust was very thin which I do like, but there was something missing. The flavor, texture and ingredients lacked satisfaction. I would not recommend ordering a pizza here until they figure out a better solution for taste or get help in cooking with the wood oven.

Pizza at Zeytini's was a fiasco. First of all, the pizza appeared as if it was made by an elementary school kid. The quantity of the sausage was scant, there was too much cheese on the pizza and the other ingredients were missing. The pizza had a lot of grease coming off of the crust and the oil separated from the cheese. I know the restaurant is fairly new and it needs time to work out the kitchen staff. I will wait a while and return to see if they worked on their execution.

Tomatina did not have palatable pizza when I went there. The menu made the pizza sound awesome, but I was disappointed by the flavors and texture. The pizza was soggy in the middle and the cheese slipped away from the crust. Salads and pasta dishes are recommended instead.

The pizza at New York Pizza was palatable. I ordered a combination pizza and it was full of vegetables and meat. The crust was good and chewy, but not soggy. It was a decent pizza, but not memorable.

The sole pizza place on Bay Farm Island is La Val's. I heard from the teenage grapevine that is where all the high school kids hang out on the weekends. This age group appears to enjoy their food.

In all honesty, after Luciano's closed down, the pizza selection for me has been bleak. After all, Luciano had the best wood oven, thin crusted pizza in terms of quality and taste. Lucien (the owner) only used fresh and high quality ingredients. The other places do the same, but the flavor combinations and crust, aren't the same. I am hoping I can find a great, consistent pizza!