Pizza Plaza
Categories: Vegetarian, Pizza [Edit]
Neighborhoods: North Oakland, Rockridge6211 Shattuck Ave
(between 62nd St & 63rd St)
Oakland, CA 94609 (510) 420-1433
- Hours:
Tue-Thu 11:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
Fri-Sun 11:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m. - Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: No
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: Yes
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Dinner
- Alcohol: None
161 reviews
Neighborhood: North Berkeley
"The pizza here is thin crust and oh so yummy. I had the funghi pizza and the sausage pizza and they were divine. I like the sausage a bit…" read more »
59 Reviews for Pizza Plaza
Overpriced and most often it leaves be a little unsatisfied. The cheesy bread is just toasted bread sprinkled with soy cheese.
Pizzas are okay, but I prefer buying a frozen Amy's pizza.
I really love this tiny little pizza place. The Veggie Vegan Pesto pizza is delicious. The vegetables always taste fresh, the service is great, and they have multiple kinds of good ginger ale to choose from!! I work across the street and I'm thankful for this lunchtime option.
It's awful when you really want to love something and you can't say that you do. I feel the same way about avocado; I really want to love it, I just don't.
Hence, vegan pizza. I've made it at home (my own dough, toppings, maybe some cheez or tofu ricotta a la Vegan with a Vengeance) but theirs... I had a hawaiian and got a medium hoping that it'd be good enough for me to take home and share with the newly-vegan boyfriend. Alas, at first slice, I knew it wouldn't pass for him. The ham was okay, but the sauce was like sweet tomato paste with onions, and the crust was definitely a strange wheaty concoction.
I'm weary of trying it again given the prices, but the delivery time was just as long as they said it'd be and it's nearby. We'll see.
Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza!
THEY HAVE IT!
Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza!
With fake meats! Meat-lovers! Fake cheeses! Fake cheeses and fake meats!
Vegan Pizza!
And a SELECTION!
Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza!
It'd been yeeeaaarrrsss since I'd had a ham-pineapple pizza, and I found out about this wonderful little hole-in-the-wall through vegan friends. A short while later, and there I am...sitting in the, well, not the NICEST part of town, salivating at the possibilities.
Do I want the garlic chicken pizza? The meat-lovers? The greek goddess?
I always order a large. I take the leftovers home and they are demolished before bedtime. Sooo good.
Played a prank on old roommates. Brought the pizza home and chucked it into the 'fridge. They, knowing I am (was) vegan were a little appalled. What was with all of the cheese and ham? How was I eating that? Had I caved?
I told them I gave up and threw the towel in. I offered up some pizza to celebrate.
Mid-piece, I told them it was vegan.
They didn't believe me.
Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza!
(I can also add Vegan Ice Cream! Vegan Ice Cream! to this because they've started carrying Maggie Mudd's. Vegan Pizza AND Vegan Ice Cream!)
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Pizza Plaza has vegan pizza.
This seems to be a much bigger deal to my city friends that it actually is. Yes, it really is hard to believe that Oakland (a city of such metropolitan depravity! the horror!) actually has decent vegan delights.
I'm no vegan, but if it gets people to come over and play Wii more often, I will tout it as a "must have."
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My wife is returning to her Caribbean roots and turning 12 Tribes Rasta, which means she is also giving her life-long affinity for animal flesh (yes!)
So, given her love for Round Table's Hawaiian pizza, I thought I'd give this place a shot for the vegetarian version (despite their having left a flyer on my apartment door-handle, usually an automatic strike-out).
Two small pizzas + the vegan caesar salad = $45 before tip. Okay, definitely overpriced...but why not, it's a special occasion. The phone guy said 45-60 minutes.
Wellll, over an hour later I call to see what's up & someone else tells me the order was juuust now getting out the oven, and do I still want it. Damn....we're starving so why not.
The deliveryman shows up almost 2 hours after the order placed, and he was a nice guy so I still tipped five bucks.
The pizzas? Loved the veggie-meat toppings, but the crust was the consistency & taste of whole-wheat cardboard. Wife ate everything but the crust. The salad was surprisingly good, for what it was....tho the "chicken" was more like bacon-bits and less like those grilled-strips I was expecting (which can be found at the supermarket).
I like the concept of this place, but the prices are ridiculous (even given the inflated cost of vegan topping options) and the two-hour delivery more than disappointing.
For vegans, I say try it at least once...but don't set your expectations too high.
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Like many noticed, it caters to a niche. Though that's a pretty big one in the area so you'd think it would be better. Really.
So you want vegan pizza?
Build one!
You can buy crusts, ready made, corn from Berkeley Bowl and do beans, guac, etc...rice from Whole Foods, wheat from anywhere, make one for cheap, use a damn pre-made, buy the dough at TJ's (season and knead first)...
Roast a small bag of red onions in olive oil and smash ala Amy's overpriced cheese-free and top with grilled veggies. No fake cheese needed. Or make a simple red sauce, or buy one.
I was never pleased with much fake cheese when I avoided dairy for a while. Then I got over myself and decided most people on earth are just lucky to have food. Though I still *try* to avoid it.
Nice people, but in this world, having to wait over an hour may be pushing customer's good graces.
We went on a lunch break to get a slice. The reason restaurants offer by the slice is that it's fast and convenient. Wrong at Pizza Plaza. It took 45 minutes before we got our slices. Then, the pizza was not that good, expecially when we were so annoyed at how long it took. We were the only people in the place, too. Although we are a vegan/vegetarian couple, we will not go back.
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It ain't Zachary's but who ever claimed it was?
It is what it is. And what it is, is a slight upgrade from Domino's or any other generic college town style of bland pizza but with an amazing assortment of vegan meat toppings including barbecued chicken, sausage, pepperoni, ham, you name it, they got it. My recommendation: a simple vegetarian pepperoni and cheese pizza with roasted garlic. Yum. As a vegetarian of 15 years+, I've never had the pleasure of living anywhere before by a pizza place that will deliver whatever fake meat concoction pizza I desire, and for that I am truly thankful for Pizza Plaza.
Still, it must be said that as another review mentioned, you must steer clear of their garlic cheese bread. Neither garlicky nor cheesy, just disappointing. Also, their small garden salad for $5 is a complete rip-off; a handful of lettuce and tiny diced tomatoes & bell peppers, though the balsamic dressing is good.
As far as the delivery service goes, there is no additional charge but don't believe the 45 minutes they will quote you. You can expect a decent wait of at least an hour, sometimes longer. It should be noted though that the delivery guy that has come three times in a row now is quite friendly and normal and always apologetic, so I give him a big tip anyways.
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I'm in Richmond and outside of their delivery area...however, the guy said he would swing by after work if I could wait. They also substituted a few ingredients for me, so customer service here appears to be top-notch.
Unfortunetly, the pizza just didn't do it for me. The crust was sort of dry, if it's thin, I like it crispy and if it's not I like it kind of doughy. This tasted like a frozen crust. The sauce was too thick and it was a little bit burned. The selection of toppings and stuff is great, but the pizza is a bit of a miss. Especially because it's pretty pricey. In a pinch I'd probably order from them again, maybe to try the vegan stuff, because the selection is still way better then any local places.
Update - I just walked past the place and wanted to try a slice (as they boast "Pizza By the Slice" in their front window) of vegan pizza and was told they didn't have any pizza by the slice, so that was kind of lame.
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so sad to write another bad review. i love that this is a totally vegan/vegetarian pizza place but come on! that doesn't mean we don't have taste buds or know what pizza is supposed to taste like. the toppings were very minimal and flavorless for real. the pesto was horrible! crust not good at all. i really wanted to like it. i even gave it two chances. oh well. hopefully they will see these reviews and change whatever it is that is making such a bad name for vegan pizza. because i know it can be so much better than this!
I was so psyched to find out about this place. Like total high-five excited. But oh the fall was so great.
Alright as a disclaimer, I am from New York and usually I haven't the foggiest idea what you west coasters call pizza. This though almost took the pie for worst cake ever.
I also really want to support them for being awesome and vegan and stuff.
But seriously way way way over priced. The crust was so so but the sauce tasted really bad. The cheese was really burnt and the sauce was bad. Why can't anyone in this state get sauce right? It is not that hard people!
Ugh. The "garlic cheese" bread had very little of neither and was also almost burned and hard as a rock.
I'd rather have Mr. Pizza Man thin crust over this. It would still taste bad but at least I wouldn't be bleeding out the wallet when it was all over.
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I'ma gone print out all these reviews and give them to the owners because I can't help but think they'd want the feedback. And who knows, maybe they've already read it because I just ate there today and some of the reviews here seem out of date.
I got a personal pizza. I think it was about $6 and change, which seemed about right. I've been making Hawaiian pizzas at home for yonks because where the hell you gonna get a vegan one in the outside world? (That's Canadian bacon/pineapple fer you tenderfoots).
And theirs blew mine outta the water. I thought I'd eat like half and then finish it later, and before I knew it the whole thing was stuffed down my craw, not counting the healthy bites stolen by my cats, who were crazy for it as soon as they smelled it, go figure!
Tons of topping, tasted way better bacon than what I've been able to find, and I loved that the crust wasn't super salty. I'm such a happy camper I ended up talking my friend into going tomorrow night before a show just so I can get more. She's just turning vegan and can't believe you can still eat regular food without some animal stuff in it.
The decor reminds me of an English takeaway, which has charms for me, though it's not what most would call fancy. The woman helping me out was friendly and wanted to be sure the pizza would make it home with me on my bike ok. It came out in about 15 min, and the whole wheat crust was nice- not dry, not undercooked. It was on the thin side for me - but then I could eat a couple Bobolis as crust and not be unhappy - I likes me the bread.
I would give this place 3 stars, but since it makes life happy for us vegans and because the owner is so nice, I am giving it 4 stars. I enjoyed my pizza, but I doubt I would make the drive again from the city just for a slice. The crust just wasn't my cup of tea. Mine was crispy and crunchy. I think my slice was over cooked b/c the sauce had dried up as well. That said, the cheese was good - but I think I would order double cheese if I go back b/c it was pretty sparse. I was intrigued by the faux chicken dishes on the menu, but didn't have the appetite to try any out.
On a positive note, the owner is scouting out locations in San Francisco to open a second location. When the one in the city opens, I can see myself ordering for delivery.
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I try to honest as much as I can, let me be honest here, I really was disappointed in this place.
Many glowing reviews. Total excitement, peoples minds have been blown!
first off, the pizza is pretty tasty, the sauce was one of the better pizza sauces I have tried. the crust was actually pretty good, it had flavor, it was not just plain and bland., the soy cheese was not gross like some I have bought. ..BTW---I had the large Vegan Plaza Specialty pizza. All told a whopping $26 before delivery tip!
Ok, I actually called the Place after my meal. I spoke to the owner, I assume, the problem is, for $26 the Pizza is small, In fact, I went back gto their web page to see what size we bought, it looked like a Small, but I found out their large is 16inches on the Vegan Side.
then came the toppings or lack thereof. I called politely to inquire if my pizza was normal, I honestly thought the maker got distracted mid-preparation and threw in a 25% topped pizza in the oven. ...I thought to myself, perhaps the driver was nibbling my pizza toppings on the way here. ..No, the person I spoke to recalled he was the one who made the pizza. I asked if like 3 slices of olives, and 2-3 small pieces of sun dried tomotoe was the norm. I counted about 4-5 small triangles, and I mean small of pepperoni. I asked my roomate if she asked for "super light cheese', Nope....the person whom I spoke to, didn't seem sympathetic and questioned why I called so long after it was ordered. I told him i got the pizza 50 mins ago, I was eating it.
Anyways, I took photos of the remainder of the pizza just to keep as a reminder. this place opens a lot of questions in my mind....are they going for that "california, minimalist sprig of spinich' type pizza or our they trying to mimic, but in the Vegan world, what everybody has been looking for, a killer traditional pizza like you can get at thousands of other delivery joints, but for non-meat/dairy eaters?......based on the anemic looking thing I dropped $26 on, I'm not really sure.
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Let me preface this by saying that I am a midwestern girl who dreams of having a diet like a twelve year old boy...I luv me the junk food. I also have been a vegetarian since i moved to sunny california( 9 years) and i wouldn't trade it for the damn world.
you would think that this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Oh God, how i wanted to love you pizza plaza... ..And you had Vegetarian Hawaiian Pizza!!! Pineapple and Fakey Ham!!!! Yee freakin' Haw!
Dissapointment totally sucks...it might take a while to heal this wound....
5 stars for being a vegetarian and vegan pizza joint (bff Forever?)
minus 1 star for having a crust that tastes like wheat board(o.k maybe not forever)
minus 1 star for putting 2 pieces of tiny slivers of pineapple on each piece - yes, i counted (friends? more like aquaintance)
minus 1 star for making a pizza so lifeless, I actually had pizza in my fridge and I could'nt even eat it- that has NEVER happened (who? sorry, never heard of 'em)
plus 1 star for being a vegan vegetarian joint - snaps for not harming any little folks in fur coats....
Dammit I want to love you- why do you make it so hard!? Maybe you had a off night.....O.k one more chance...
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After hearing so much about Pizza Plaza I was a little disappointed by the atmosphere, but I was so excited about having a vegan pizza it was quickly overlooked.
We ordered a vegetarian cheese pizza and a vegan pizza with pepperoni and olives as well as an order of garlic bread.
When we got our dinner home we ripped open the boxes (smelled great on the drive home) and found less than attractive pizzas and burnt garlic bread.
The vegan pizza lacked cheese and both pizzas were over-sauced. The vegetarian pizza had "green things" on it according to my kid and my husband was unimpressed after all the talking I had done and the twenty minute drive to get this dinner.
I love the idea of having a pizza place where I can order more than the salad bar but I don't think I will be making the drive again.
I tend to be more critical of a place that receives a high proportion of glowing reviews. They do get an automatic three stars based on the fact that they offer vegan pizzas (plural), alone (with actual toppings). But even then, the pizza isn't as mind blowing as I would've exptected (sorry, laura!).
The amount of menu options is astounding. If having vegan pizza wasn't enough, they have regular (milk of cow) vegetarian pizza. And cheese bread, twisted or regular, with or without "chicken" or "beef", lasagna, salad, and desserts. It took fellow v-t0wner and veg head, Christopher J, and I some time to decide on our order. Out of the two pizzas that we tried, the Meatza, consisting of vegan pepperoni, ham, and salami, was the favorite. The Chickfu, with vegan chicken, tofu, and veggies, just seemed undercooked. I've shied away from vegan cheese since I continually hear of how horrible it tastes, but Follow Your Heart creates a great mock cheese that's surprisingly similar to the regular kind. Still, the amount of cheese was lacking. And it would be better if the toppings were in huge chunks, rather than sliced into such tiny pieces.
Without looking at the menu--the uncreative restaurant name, stereotypical stoner manning the register/delivery boy in a small, grimy storefront--you wouldn't be able to distinguish Pizza Plaza as being different from any other pizza parlor. But people continue to flock here. Even with a Pizza Hut in its shadow, it looks to be doing just fine.
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I really appreciate that they will make any sort of vegan pizza you want. And they will bring it to your house so you don't have to stop watching What Not To Wear on a Friday night. This is an unbeatable combination.
The choice of toppings is staggering.
My only complaint is that the pizza they deliver needs to be baked again once it arrives so that the crust crisps and stiffens a little. Update: This hasn't happened with recent deliveries, so I think the crust is on its way to being perfected.
Their delivery people don't freak me out or act really shady. Also, they are extremely accurate about their delivery time.
I beg your pardon. Apparently my head has been buried in the sand so I was not able to alert you, dear reader, to the urgency of the matter of Pizza Plaza. While I've been lamenting the lack of delicious vegan pizza in the Bay Area (with the exception of Lanesplitter's), this place has been serving up delicious vegan pies for 9 months??!!! And not just regular pizza without the cheese for the same price as a chock-full of cheese pizza, either. It is full on Follow Your Heart brand vegan cheese, which is so delicious it makes baby Jesus cry AND a vegan angel gets its wings whenever this stuff is put on a pizza, because it MELTS and tastes roughly like CHEESE, unlike every other vegan "cheese" on the market.
They have some amazing sounding options like:
Greek Goddess: Spinach, Vegan Pepperoni, Eggplants Sun Dried Tomatoes & Vegan Parmesan Cheese.
Chickfu: Zucchini, Onions, Baked Tofu, Vegan Chicken, Sun Dried Tomatoes & Green Onions.
Vegan Pesto Veggie: Spinach, Mushrooms, Black Olives, Red Onion, Artichoke Hearts, Fresh Tomatoes.
http://www.veganplaza....
The pesto pizza is amazing. Now that I've tried it, I don't know if I can go back to anything else. Another time we went for a basic veggie pizza with some fake salami and sausage, aptly named "Combo." The toppings were fresh, the cheese was just the right amount, the sauce was good (but there could have been more), and the crust was crispy, light, and tasty. The only thing I could complain about is they overdid it on the garlic. But other than that: perfection!
They have a few tables for dine-in, and they also have delivery. They play music in the background at just the right volume to be pleasant but you can still have conversation. They may have been playing Handel's Hallelujah Chorus when the pizza came out. Or maybe that was just in my head. The ambiance is not that great with the drop ceiling and florescent lighting, but it's a pizzeria, so it fits.
Apparently a handful of pizzerias in the Bay Area have caught onto the fact that vegans are desperate enough for a pizza experience that we will pay the same amount for a pizza without the most expensive ingredient: cheese. So some shifty entrepreneurs in some trendy neighborhoods have started adding "vegan pizza" to their menu, which really just means we are going to give you a dry ass nasty pizza while raping your wallet. $40 nastiness: NO THANKS. For now, I will gladly cross the Bay Bridge to get my hands on this stuff.
They also make vegetarian pizzas with dairy cheese. And their prices are very reasonable compared with the average pizzeria. If you don't mind your pies without the meat, check this place out!
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This pizza is crap. I think they messed up our veggie pizza and put soy cheese on it. Blech.
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i really appreciate several things about this place.
To start, they are warm, very friendly people on the phone and in person! They make vegan pizza and are vegetarian only! And they deliver to the hood in west oakland where i live and work.
The crust is good, not great. Lanesplitters crust is better but they do not deliver to my area.
Alright! a good and neutral rating. here's how i arrived at this:
five stars for having a vegan pizza that delivers (i have expounded at length about how fucking awesome that is). i only got a cheese pizza, and that may or may not have affected the awesomeness of this pizza.
minus a cumulative two stars for having the wrong prices listed on their website, not apologizing for it even when i pointed out that it's false advertisement, and for not offering to somehow make it up for me, which, if your not going to honor your listed prices, you should at least offer a discount to customers who complain, or some cheesy bread or something, especially since it's something you can be cited for by the gov. (2) for not being super awesome. i thought i was pretty good,for vegan pizza but nothing to write home about... definitely will reorder in a pinch but i won't be jonesin' for it. (3) i asked for extra sauce on mine and cheese on my friend's, and neither seemed extra-y at all though i was charged for extra toppings.
i bought a pizza for my ex boyfriend for is sick and convalescing at my place but he hasn't eaten it because he's actually sick to his stomach (good to know... before i bought it.) if he does I'll report.
in conclusion, i think this would be an awesome place (four or five stars) if you're a vegan who wants tons of toppings or like a very complicated pizza. if you just like cheese or something simple, maybe go to lanesplitters (see my review about lanesplitters and how it totally changes the face of veganism).
UPDATE: in the interest of fairness (since i am, afterall, the self styled arbiter of All Things Vegan Pizza) i ordered up a vegan cheese pizza with roasted garlic and olives, since it's clear that this place's strength is in their excellent TOPPED pizzas. Perhaps even still this is not a fair test since i should have gotten fake meats and all that but hey! I am not into the fake meats! And oh my goodness my socks, they have been blown right the hell off! Further, this is the first pizza that tastes just as good the second day via microwave technology.
Anyway, my judgment is this: if you are a toppings pizza person, you will like this place. And actually, on hindsight, the regular pizza wasn't all that bad either, i was just being pissy because of my initial phoning in issue, which wasn't all that bad. they really should deal with that website though.
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Having heard very mixed reviews of Vegan cheese (even from Vegans), I was a bit trepidatious about trying soy cheese on my pizza, especially since I am a plain cheese pizza sort of person. (Terribly boring, I know.)
No concern needed; it was delicious! Good cheese, great sauce, crisp crust. I wouldn't have known it was Vegan, and it's hard to give higher praise than that.
They have a delicious-looking array of Vegan ice cream, but I was too full to try any. (Being too full for dessert seems to be a recurring theme in my Vegan restaurant reviews.) Next time!
what a letdown. i was so excited, we walked past lanesplitters for this.
expensive, dry, mediocre.
i wanted to love it and i appreciate the variety of vegan pizza toppings, but come onnnnnnn.
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"Woody Harrelson" works the counter, and his presense eclipses the space your own internal critic normally perches. Over slices of a complex fake chicken creation, and a mutually intrepid multiple faux meat onslaught with the always splendid Marsha Z., the noticeable intruder was pleasant, inquisitive and a goddamn dead ringer (exaggeration). It would have been awkward otherwise (him asking me questions randomly, like the fastest route to a delivery spot in a town i made known i do not frequent often), with a mere three tables to choose from. Staring would have appeared unmistakably frisky, because we all know sans meat in the diet, the rest of the animal in us retreats to bolster our sexual appetite and fetish magnitude, ain't I accurate? ( all can attest to that. SHOO'!)
Eating imitation food, regardless of the unrefined ranking, makes me think "plastics all up in my mandibles". I'm waxin' ill wit' my home fries Sandra Bullock in "Demolition Man" and I perceive a lack of danger and prudish caution that is all too real in my animal free existance. I want to be Dennis Leary or Sly Stall all up in this bitch and these assholes wont let me. But then I realize how unrestrained they are in their brutish idiocy and unavailable comprehension of their all encompassing harm to all forms of life, in any reality, and that possesed me to chew even slower to bask.
This place, honestly, is a blaring diamond in the rough by unanimous default. Vegan Lasagna, soon Ice cream, a dodechehedron of hulking fists in ways of selection for toppings, yada yada......yoda? ( i would eat wookie or ewok carcass, on pizza, especially the latter. Veal replacement? I'm now sensing guilt erosion. Ah, the calming breeze of the mendocino redwoods, I mean endor, and some goopy teddy bear ration all over my oval eat pad. See how easy it is to alter my entire credo when something is adventerous and exotic? No cure for cancer indeed.)
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VEGAN FUCKIN DELIVERY!
i'm so happy about pizza plaza & i tell all of my vegan friends in berkeley about them. most vegan pizzas either use some homemade nasty "tofu ricotta" (nobody puts ricotta on pizza), but pizza plaza uses the best soy cheese available: follow your heart mozzarella. score!
the pizza is really tasty, affordable, they have two-player MS. PAC MAN, & the delivery is timely too, for when you wanna be lazy.
love. it.
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Vegan pizza!!
Enough said.
(well, almost...)
This place rocks. If I lived in one of the creepy broken-down houses across the street from Pizza Plaza, I would probably eat there for every meal. They have vegan "cheese" that doesn't taste like rubber and, moreover, actually tastes quite a bit like real cheese. It even melts. They also have like 47 different wacky toppings, including sweet potatoes, several kinds of beans, sundried tomatoes, peas, avocado, and vegan "meats" like pepperoni and sausage. The crust is really good too. It's thin and crispy but not TOO thin, and looks like it might be whole wheat but I'm not sure. The owners/workers are very nice and friendly. My first time there, I ordered some weird half-and-half with tons of weird topping combinations, and they accommodated my order perfectly. They also knew about the ingredients in their food, unlike some veg restaurants where the workers have no clue.
I have 2 minor complaints but they didn't bother me enough to affect my review. First, there wasn't quite enough cheese on my pizza, especially toward the edges. Next time I'll order extra cheese and I think that'd make it perfect. Second, it's a bit pricey, especially if you get a lot of toppings. Understandable, given how fresh everything seemed and how many toppings they must have to keep stocked, but still, I had to refrain from ordering everything I wanted so as not to go bankrupt. I wish they'd lower the extra topping prices just a bit.
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All that should be said about the fact that this place offeres (GOOD) vegan pizza has been stated.
Even more props for the nice delivery guy (who seems like the owner?) that I've made race just about everywhere at any given time for pizzas for the last year. Whether it's my Berkeley apartment after 10 or at noon in the midst of finals week to a classroom in Dwinelle (well, actually, I had to race out to meet him at Bancroft and Telegraph, but he was standing in front of Subway with a confused smile and a hot pizza nonetheless!), Pizza Plaza has jumped the often intimidating "vegan" hurdle to enable my bad college-aged eating habits. And how I love them for it.
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Dude. This place BLOWS MY MIND. The fact that you can get a vegan Hawaiian pizza makes me so giddy, i could just lose control of my bowels and crap all over this seat right here. Even though that would be disgusting and embarrassing...the things we do for love. I want to tattoo, "pizza plaza" on my forehead. Fuck that, I want to carve it into my chest with a butter knife (A BUTTER KNIFE! extra pain so i can feel alive!) ala Marky Mark in that movie where he seems like the perfect boyfriend and then he goes all crazy on the chick when she tries to leave him and ends up cutting her name into his chest, "NICOLE 4 EVA". remember that movie??? fucking awesome! anyway, instead of, "Nicole 4 Eva", I would obviously get, "Pizza Plaza 4 Eva."
Thug* life, baby.
*Thug = Pizza. Obviously.
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Delicious.
All Vegan pizzas with a few cow-cheese pizza choices also.
They've got a CRAZY list of toppings, and the pizza we had was delicious. Lots of flavor, right proportions, etc.
The service is VERY polite and very helpful.
Its a small place, but I've never seen anyone else in there, so not sure if seating ever becomes a problem.
Vegan pizzas are great, although for a dairy-eater, you might be disappointed by expecting the same thing. (Too often meat eaters get down on how "bad" vegan food tastes just because it tastes "different", not actually "bad")
Wished I lived closer to take advantage of delivery.
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I've driven past this place hundreds of times. Then one day I notice a sign in the window that says "Vegan Pizza" and I slammed on my breaks narrowly avoiding an accident and race in.
As soon as I glance up at the menu an uncontrollable squeal of giddiness escapes me. Vegan everything! Garlic Bread, Cheese Sticks, Lasagna, Cheesecake...
Drooling on the counter I order my pizza. A whole large pizza just for me.
I ate it everyday for almost a week.
I didn't get tired of it.
And I didn't want to share.
You wouldn't believe how giddy it makes me that I can get great vegan pizza with in walking distance of my place.
The best part is that they carry a lot of unusual ingredients so if you are adventurous you can experiment (try vegbacon-sweet potato-fresh basil.)
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Awesome pizza! they use follow-your heart "cheese" the best cheese as any vegan knows, and have a huge selection of fake meats. It's pricey for pizza, but generally vegans have to pay the price so it's nothing new. The couple that runs this place are super-nice, always smiling, waving etc. Be clear you want vegan cheese as I have been sent on my way with real cheese, not checking before I left. Limited seating and bland take-out ambiance make me want to eat this stuff at home, but the HUGE map of the east bay could keep me there for hours.
Freaking Amazing Pizza!! I love this place. The food is great and the folks who own it are beyond nice. You gotta go there.
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My vegan pizza was great! They use Follow Your Heart cheese, which melts like real cheese (though gets kinda weird after it gets cold again), and they'll put anything you want on it! I got spinach and corn, and it was fabulous. The pieces are huge- I ordered one and it was more like 3 slices of regular-sized pizza, so even though it seems kinda expensive it's totally worth it. There are so many vegan options that I kinda have to fall in love with the place.
However, my nonvegan companion said that their regular pizza was some of the worst he'd ever had. He got 2 (read:6) slices and only ate half of one (read 1 and a half). So minus one star for apparently gross nonvegan pizza.
Does anyone remember when this place was quite obviously a crack-den? I know there's a new owner now and supposedly it's great, but I just remember shit like walking in there once, and it didn't smell at all like pizza or ANYTHING was cooking. . . I ordered a slice and they looked surprised and then annoyed. Took 'em forever to make it and it was okay, not great. Then there was the time I watched this dude try to go in there in the middle of the day (their open sign was on and everything) and the door was locked! There were always shady characters hanging out in front, too.
Granted this was a coupla years ago. Maybe I should try it again with this new owner guy. Past shadiness notwithstanding, the 2 stars is for the forgettable slice I had that one time.
VEGAN PIZZZA!!! fAr CUt KEn gIG gAZe VAn ZIP dDu Es... WTF!!? this place has got me so stoked that I'm speakin' in tongues!
If you're into veg: vegan, lacto, ovo, sXe, ALF, 7thDay, Hindu, Buddhist, anyveg, wannaveg or even a curious card carrying member of the National Cattleman's Beef Association --- get your ass down here. Good crust, veg meats, tofu, melty vegan cheese and a brain mashing list of fresh veggie toppings. My favs are the Chickfu and the Vegan Pesto Veggie. Haven't tried the lasagna, breads, ice cream or desserts. They also have cow cheese pizza for the less adventurous.
This place is tiny with a simple generic Oakland storefront facing streetside. Drive too fast and you'll pass on by. The owner, another person and the delivery/greeter dude, were cool.
As much as I'm a RANTING FOOL about this place, my girlfriend did find a couple of hairs in her slices and thought the pizza was a little weak. I liked the pie a lot but there's always room for improvement. Se la vie... so I'll have to give it less stars than I would have really liked. You guys at Pizza Plaza have an awesome veg/vegan pizza - just watch the QC dudes. A few more tweaks, and it'll even be better than ROCK AND ROLL!!
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Amazing, amazing, amazing...
vegan pizzeria with vegan German chocolate cake
friggin amazing, go there often!
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OK, I can see how this would be nirvana for vegans. As a vegetarian myself, I can really appreciate the joy in finding a place that will scratch that meatish itch that you secretly crave. Fake meat chinese food did it for me.
BUT, as a vegetarian who can select from any regular pizzeria for my fix, I gotta say....this pizza is pretty lame.
We ordered a half-cheese, half "sausage" and "pepperoni." Regular cowish cheese. The price was OK. The fake meat was super-boring: you could hardly tell it was there. The pizza itself was thoroughly uninspiring: thin crust but not crispy, too much sauce, not enough flavor in the cheese and crust, etc. And AVOID the garlic bread - bleah! dry, more unindentifiable herbs than garlic, and boring-as-hell bre