The Pizza Locust

The Pizza Locust has been holding out on you. I’m ashamed and I apologize. I have betrayed my readers.

The fact is, Pizza A Metro is my neighborhood pizza place (although I live just far enough away to be in not-so-rough a neighborhood as they are) and I haven’t reviewed them on this site.

Maybe I’ve been jealously guarding it because the place is so darned small that I’m worried they’ll move away to find a bigger space. Maybe I just don’t want to give yet another glowing review to this place as each one makes it more and more difficult to find a table for dinner.

Nonetheless, it’s nothing less than reprehensible of me for not singing their praises sooner. It won’t happen again. I’m sorry.

Pizza A Metro is in a surprising location, it’s in a small strip mall next to a haircutter and a zombie Circle K (the kind vagrants and the flotsam and jetsam of society seem to stand around.) The store itself has been a pizza place for as long as I can remember, but I cannot remember if it was just one pizza place, or series of equally forgettable ones. It’s very, very easy to miss the fact that a small, takeout only pizza shop was suddenly transformed into a full, sit-down, wood-oven pizzeria and Italian restaurant run by Italian immigrants.

On my first few attempts there was no parking to be had in their parking lot (and parking on the street is not an option.) On other occasions when we have been dining there, it’s not uncommon to see people sitting out in their cars in front of the restaurant, waiting for a table to open up.

The place is small, having been converted from a pizzeria that was nothing but a counter and couple chairs for waiting, to a restaurant with dining room. The dinning room only has about 6 tables and if there’s a restroom, it must be back in the kitchen somewhere. The decor has been done up nice and you can watch the pizzas being prepared and cooked in the wood-fired oven from most of the seats. None of this, of course, matters a jot towards the taste of the pizza, but it is a completely appropriate place for a dinner out or a date – if you can get past going into the area around Thomas and the I-17.

Having eaten there on many occasions, plus doing take-out from there, I’ve had quite a few of their pizzas and I’ve never had a bad one.

My wife tends to eat their Italian food, and she almost invariably goes for the daily specials, and usually they’ve got some sort of seafood pasta, which she always raves about. I’ve only eaten the Italian food there once, but I had a veal cannelloni that was sublime.

So, to the pizza.

The highlight of the pizza, to me, is the sauce. It has texture and is very flavorful and compliments the cheese wonderfully. The toppings have all been uniformly good. If there was anything I would comment on it would be the crust. It’s thin with a mild taste, but if anything I would like it cooked just a little crisper on the bottom.

(I’ll admit, that, Pizza A Metro is one of the few places that I’ll reheat their pizza the next day and eat. Typically, in the Locust household, leftover pizza goes to the dog, but not so Pizza A Metro’s. Because the crust is slightly soft, it re-heats well and takes on a slightly crunchier texture.)

Their pizza comes in three sizes, measurements of which are not given on the menu. I’ve measured the small to be 12″. The regular is… larger than that, and the Metro… which is where Pizza A Metro gets their name, is one metre. (That’s about 39 inches for you Imperial types.) It’s not one metre in diameter, as the Metro is a metre long and about 13″ wide and has to come in a special custom-sized pizza box. I’d guess it serves at least 6 adults.

12″ Pepperoni Pizza, $8.95 or $0.08 (0.0791) / Sq. inch

Pizza A Metro (website is combined with their sister restaurant in Scottsdale, the Amarone.

2336 W. Thomas Road

Phoenix, AZ 85015

Phone: (602)-262-9999

Conclusion: Strongly recommended.