zpizza, A Laguna Beach, CA Chain With Several Locations In The DC Area - Whole Pizzas, Or By The Slice

[DonRocks]

Thanks -- have you tried the zpizza? We had one over here in South Riding, but the moron who owned that location decided to turn it into a Manhattan Pizza.

You didn't miss anything with zpizza - it's a Laguna Beach chain, and even in Laguna Beach (where I spent a couple of weeks last month, and which is absolutely *not* known for good restaurants), I didn't try the original. There's one by my house, and it's in the same shopping center as Nourish Market and Curry Mantra 2 - heck, even Robek's. I'll avoid it just about every time (I haven't brought myself to try Orange Monkey frozen yogurt yet). I'll try zpizza once a year just for diversion, but it's simply not that good - around the back of the strip mall, there's a little dive Indian grocery store called "Indian Spices" that has good frozen entrees (not homemade, but good quality and inexpensive), so if I'm feeling ambitious, I'll buy a couple to throw in the freezer (check the expiration dates).

[Al the Pal]

I've tried the zpizza in Falls Church twice and each time thought my slice (cheese, if I remember) was awful. The crust tasted like a smashed English muffin (although a real smashed English muffin may taste better.) I just couldn't get past the terrible crust. A friend raves about another outpost of zpizza in Maryland so maybe the quality varies across locations. We live so close to Pizzeria Orso where they have great lunch deals so we've never had a reason to return to zpizza.

[hopsing]

I used to order regularly from zPizza, but a couple of years ago, the service started being terrible:  late delivery and the toppings were all wrong.  One time they gave me the whole wheat crust which was almost inedible.  Then I realized that this pizza wasn't all that great and certainly not worth the service hassles.  I have since switched to Joe's Pizza and Pasta in Arlington.  It's no Pupatella but it is a convenient and not bad (although I wish they had kalamata olives as a topping).  Service is great--they use the Grubhub system so you always know the status of your pizza.

[JPW]

it's simply not that good

+1

[DonRocks]

I really thought zpizza had a lot to do with Nourish Market's downfall, but now I think I was wrong.

The owner of West End Plaza shopping center in Falls Church must have really stuck it to the tenants, because it seems like *everyone* is closing: Note this picture, which still has zpizza and Nourish Market, but you can clearly see the "Going Out of Business" banners for "The Party Store," which was the shopping center's staple (if you can call such a store a staple):

Not only is Nourish Market gone (it's now a pet store), but so is zpizza, and it's now Pizza Bonus, which was either named by a group of irate tenants (Bone Us), or else the owners should have hired a restaurant consultant and paid him $100 to think of *anything* other than this name.

 <--- Doesn't this look *good*? 

Taking it even a step further, the entire left side of that shopping center seems like it has "For Lease" signs on it - it's only speculation, but this is symptomatic of a massive rent increase which isn't built into companies' business plans.

The Robek's in that shopping center changed hands last year also, and having been in there several times, I've never seen more than one other person in there. I really don't understand why, as I have *never* had trouble getting a parking place, despite it looking like you won't find any spaces - I've been at this shopping center more times than I can count.

Remember, this shopping center used to have a good restaurant with Curry Mantra 2, which for a period of time less than one year, was making some of *the best* Indian cuisine in the DC area - yes, better than Rasika, and the comparison wasn't all that close. It was replaced by the wretched Saffron, which I tried once a couple years ago, and haven't tried since (this was not an "off night"; it was just plain horrible - the exact same thing happened to me a couple weeks ago at Kahinoor Dhaba, which was the worst Indian food I've had in over a year.

Something weird is going on with West End Plaza.

[stevem]

Although you *can* always get a space, it's quite irritating to navigate through there.  

This strip mall will eventually be across the street from a giant mixed-use development where the 7-11/Mikes/etc. is now. It's hard to say if that will make that area more or less desirable.