The Pizza Locust

This is not my first encounter with Noble Roman’s. Shortly after they opened, I randomly chose them out of the phone book for a dinner/review pizza. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that, not only were they just a stall inside a Circle K on the corner of 3rd St and Osborn, but that they’re only open till 6:00PM. (Hours: 6:00AM-6:00PM, weekdays only)

Basically, I crossed them off my list and moved on.

If I haven’t mentioned it before, light rail construction in this town really is making a mess for driving around. I suppose the theory is that if they make life as miserable as possible for local residents for enough years we’ll all be glad to take the train. That’s a debate for another day and another forum.

What it does mean though is that, For the last week or so, I’ve been winding my way down alternate routes to work and stopping in that very same Circle K. It’s one of the extra large-sized Circle Ks with a third-party eatery inside. In this case, it’s Noble Roman’s Pizza and Tuscano’s Italian Style subs. Since I’m going to work before 6:00AM, they’re still closed, but this morning, I pulled a sub sandwich out of the deli case and realized (to my shock) that it wasn’t stale as a brick. (How often do you get a pre-packaged sandwich at a convenience store that isn’t stale?) My second surprise was that it was labelled a Tuscano’s sub. Apparently, Tuscano’s supplies this Circle K with fresh(er) sandwiches. It wasn’t the greatest sub sandwich I’ve ever had, but it was leaps and bounds ahead of any other deli case sub I’ve ever had. I made up my mind to at least give their pizzas a try on my way home today.

Noble’s Roman’s smaller pizzas (7″) are “grab-and-go” like those are Pizza Hut express, which means there’s a real chance you’ll be getting and old, warmed-over pizza. The pizza I purchased has 3:10 marked on the box, and was purchased at 3:20, making it somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes old. I ate it in the car in the parking lot so as not to allow it to get any older.

The first thing that positively overwhelmed me about this pizza was the sauce. It was swimming in it, and it’s quite sweet. Not what I really like.

The cheese was melted, not particularly cooked and seemed sparse, although that might be due to the overwhelming amount of sauce.

The pepperoni was alright, but reminded more than anything else of the pepperoni on a Red Baron frozen pizza. (It’s true, I always take half the pepperoni off frozen pizzas and eat them before cooking the pizza.)

The crust was cooked through, but not noteworthy.

Overall, since this was a pre-prepared pizza, it doesn’t qualify as a true Pizza Locust review, therefore I won’t make a formal recommendation. However, as food purchased at a convenience store, it’s a cut above the rest. I wouldn’t mind having one of these at breakfast time. Pity all they seem to make in the morning in a “Pan One Breakfast Omelette” that looks deceptively like a pizza, but is really a crust with ham, bacon, scrambled eggs and cheddar cheese.

Their website implies that there are other, “traditional” store locations, but the only one that I can see in the Phoenix area is this location. If I can find a traditional store, I’ll give them a full review.

7″ Pepperoni, $3.79 = $0.10 (0.098) per square inch
Noble Romans
309 E. Osborn
Phoenix, AZ 85012
(602) 264-8497

Conclusion: It’s sustenance. Waiting for opportunity to try traditional store location.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Pizza, Restaurant, Review