The Pizza Locust

As I sat at the table at, to the best of my knowledge, the last Round Table Pizza in Arizona, I thought about my long history eating at that chain. When I was a boy, they had them in Tucson. When I was in High School, I didn’t go there much because I used to go clean out Shakey’s Pizza’s lunch buffet - it was more economical for a growing teenager. I moved to Phoenix and they didn’t have any. I’d been told that, once upon a time they did. Then they came to Phoenix, and I ate there fairly regularly.

Then they all went out of business in Phoenix, again. (Phoenix, for some reason, really is a lousy area for chain restaurants, and it isn’t because of a surplus of good places to eat, either.)

All the while, whenever I went to Tucson, I always stopped in for a pizza.

Then, years later, several more came back.

They, too, have slowly dwindled away to one. Even the ones in Tucson have faded away. For cryin’ out loud, they have them in Taiwan, and they hate pizza there. (They do, they just don’t know it.)

I sat and thought about that, and I thought how little sense that made. In all the years I’ve eaten there, I’ve neverhad a bad pizza there. I would not hold them up and say “this is the ultimate pizza” but they are my favorite chain pizza restaurant. There is something to be said about remarkable consistency. I’ve had not a single bad pizza at Round Table, not in any store, in any city, any state, any country. That’s pretty amazing.

Today, when they plunked the pizza down in front of me I knew that writing these pizza reviews is apparently bad luck.

I ordered pepperoni (I paid for pepperoni) and they delivered a cheese pizza.

A cheese pizza is still within the acceptable pizza zone for these reviews, but I mentioned it to the staff and they said, “oh, I’ll put some pepperoni on it.”

I wasn’t encouraged, slapping toppings on a pre-cooked pizza just doesn’t do the job. The grease just doesn’t permeate throughout making the tantalizing mixture that is pizza.

It was returned 6 minutes later, slightly overdone, but with cooked pepperoni on top.

Now for the surprise: It was still just as darn consistent as the rest of their pizzas. It was slightly overcooked on the edges - the cheese was blackened a bit too much. Towards the center it was fine, although the color was slightly more orange than usual. The crust wasn’t burnt, but was a bit drier than usual. All in all, it was still a good pizza.

Round Table doesn’t display the size in inches, and they do have a very small (5″ at an estimate) personal pizza, but this was a small. Measuring it, it was just slightly over 10″ in diameter, making it a little bit large for a single person.

The crust is about 1/4″ thick, and full of air pockets (I like that). Their toppings are of good quality. They use a cheese blend rather than straight mozzarella. I’m told the cheese is a mixture of mozzarella, provalone and cheddar. It gives it a bit more bite than the average pizza.

Round Table Pizza
9920 S Rural Rd
Tempe, AZ 85284 - 4100
(480) 961-9988

Prince per square inch: $0.08

Conclusion: Recommended

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Correction: There’s still a Round Table Pizza in Yuma, AZ also.

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Update: February 2007: Only Yuma’s Round Table Pizza is left in Arizona.