Company: Walk-in for 5
+Elliott was telling us about an awesome Deep Dish Pizza place in Palo Alto during our visit to San Francisco and luckily for us, we were going to pass by during our way out of the city. After our final stop of sight-seeing at Marin Headlands, we were heading out to get closer to Yosemite National Park for the next morning and it was just past dinner time, so we were all ready for some delicious pizza. We drove through a quaint neighbourhood which I guessed was downtown Palo Alto to find parking for the restaurant after a long drive out of San Francisco. Even though it was pretty late, the restaurant was still busy and we still had to wait for a table.
The waiters let us know that if we were ordering the Chicago style pizza, it would take about 40 minutes so we could pre-order to minimize the wait when we got a table. We of course took him up on the offer as it probably would have taken a while to decide what we were getting anyways. There was 5 of us so we split off in 2 groups as we wanted different toppings. +Elliott and I went for a Small Authentic Chicago Stuffed Pizza with Pineapple, Spinach, and Garlic-Fennel Sausage pricing at $20.50.
Shortly after, we were seated at table right in the middle of the fairly small restaurant. It looked more liked a bar with the TVs on the wall and the rustic wooden decor. The seating area wasn't that big and covered only about half the restaurant, the bar was situated near the front side going half-way back, the kitchen was in the back with a window looking in, and stairs going up to the very nice bathrooms. They had a nice selection of beers but I opted for a water since I was driving.
Our wait seemed to take forever, especially because we were starving and it was pretty late already. We were seated after a few tables which didn't have their meals yet so I knew it would be a while. But finally, when our food arrived and it looked amazing and well worth the wait. That first slice from the pie was just oozing with cheese on all sides with a layers of toppings in there also. The small pie has 6 pieces and feeds 2-3 people. Both groups got the small so ours was a bit excessive since we had to have 3 slices each (but we did it). I have to say though... it was the best deep-dish pizza I've ever had, I haven't had much but this definitely sticks out in my mind. There was so much sauce and cheese, I felt like that was all I was eating... the sauce wasn't too extravagant and stuck to the simple but bold tomato flavour. The toppings we had were delicious and fresh, lots of spinach in there! They also had honey on the table for the crust (because we saw other people eating it this way!) and it was kind of interesting and tasty, it obviously added just a hint of sweetness to the crust and tomato sauce. I was thinking that it was pretty pricey for pizza, being about $15 each, but the quality was great and they really stuffed that pizza to the max... totally worth the splurge.
Food: 5/5 - Amazing! Been craving this ever since and looking for some deep dish places in Toronto to check out now!
Decor: 3/5 - Pretty small but very comfortable and roomy, they need more tables!
Service: 2.5/5 - Average service, at least they warn you about the wait time!
Willingness to go back: 4.5/5 - Yes, definitely would try to find one of their locations if I was nearby! Glad we made the trek to find this place!
Overall: 4/5
Website: http://www.patxispizza.com/
