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Shakey's Pizza Parlor
Rating Details »
Neighborhood: La Mesa
5500 Grossmont Center Dr
Ste 267
(between Havenhill Rd & La Mesa Blvd)
La Mesa, CA 91942
(619) 463-0700
5500 Grossmont Center Dr
Ste 267
(between Havenhill Rd & La Mesa Blvd)
La Mesa, CA 91942
(619) 463-0700
- Hours:
Mon. 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
15 reviews for Shakey's Pizza Parlor
who remember's straw hat pizza?
am i right that the Shakeys is the same?
I miss straw hat..... i miss the Flintstones game.......the dim lighting.. and the Pizza...I found one in barstow driving to Vegas not to long ago..... but I was afraid to get out of the car..... i thought Texas Chainsaw massacre would repeat in the deserts of barstow......we were the only one's there.. in the middle of the desert........would u go in?
Anyway......Shakey's pizza is sooooo good! Im glad its back!
Sporadic clientele makes this one of the more interesting places. I went to the AYCE buffet, which heads north of $10 if you get a drink also. There was a handful of people there, but the manager was nice and shouted out several times to the cooks to make more pizzas, fried chicken and mojos. God damn those mojos, they are fucking delicious. Their fried chicken is definitely good as well. One of the best I've had in a while.
The only disappointment is the lack in variety of pizza, which was sausage, pepperoni, hawaiian (ham, yuck), and cheese. There was a vegetarian pizza but that went away too fast. They should take cues and offer different varieties of pizza with MORE vegetables.
But A+ service. It was kind of funny to see a little Korean woman chasing you around the buffet and asking you every 5 minutes on how the food is.
Shakey's in San Diego?!
Hmmm.... The last time I saw or ate at Shakey's was in the Philippines, I think!? They sure love their Shakey's!
So today we took a 20 mile ride to La Mesa for my S.O.'s sister's bday celebration. We already had both pizza and chicken on the same day the other day so I wasn't looking forward to going. I actually didn't have high expectations for this place.
Anyhoo, I was hungry when we got there. It was surprisingly empty for a Friday night. We had to wait for the bday girl & other fam so we started with a pitcher of the Shakey's pale ale. Yes, house pale ale! It wasn't bad at all and was good enough to give me a buzz...
Empty stomach... Pizza finally comes! Rustic garlic chicken for adults and pepperoni for the kids. Chicken and mojo potatoes come out right after. MMMM MMM GOOD!
Pros: Pizza is good. Ours was baked perfectly! The crust was soft and just the right kinda chewy! Chicken & mojos were cooked fresh and came piping hot. It was so delicious! A side of waffles would've made it the perfect pair! (I love me some chicken & waffles! =D) Mojos = potatoes that are cut in flat, circular shapes and deep fried = deep fried goodness! Another plus - They serve beer! We paid $11.99 for a pitcher which gave us nearly 6 mugs of ale!
Cons: There are kids running around and screaming, yelling, demanding more tokens in a really small area of old games and token traps. It takes millions of tokens to earn anything significant at the prize cage. One last thing - it's in a shopping mall in La Mesa and you can literally see the food court and pet store from inside the restaurant. I so was wishing for a new puppy!
I usually have too much to say and that's why it was hard to start a yelp in the first place.... Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Overall, Shakey's was A-OK in my book. It brought back memories of times spent hanging out in the PI - eating pizza and chicken with a beloved Aunt. The food tonight was good and I'd definitely come back to eat. My bro says the salad bar is not worth it so I didn't bother trying even though I wanted one!
But, you never know if you don't ever try...
This AIN'T the Shakey's I went to as a kid.
The pizza is a half step above Chuck E Cheese and far far inferior to the Shakey's of old.
The fried chicken is actually pretty decent-otherwise I would have given the review two stars.
The place is filled with noisy video games and kids that bleed your money to feed tokens into the games in a vain attempt to earn yellow prize tickets. One thousand tickets earns a rubber super ball or 25 cent jawbreaker. Does anybody ever win the bicycle from Walmart that goes for a mere 30,000,000 tickets?
They have a so so salad bar.
The highlight of the experience is they serve beer-that's really what the third star is for. But this is not the place you'd go to and get drunk.
Got a chance to try shakey's a while back and this place really is a good place to bring the family, or the little league team for everyone to celebrate. Its Chuck E. Cheese meets KFC under 1 roof. Do not let the 3 stars fool you, because chains really have to be something special to earn above 3 stars. The food is decent, nothing stand out, but nothing bad either. I enjoyed a combo with pizza, mojo potatos and chicken... So that means I pretty much had Shakey's Holy Trinity. This place is big and can house a couple little league teams at the same time, and so its perfect to go in large groups, but not necessarily of childern. They serve beer here, and so this place can easily bring in a large group of adults. The atmosphere can be laid back when there aren't little kids there but can be very energetic and noisey when they are. The service was good. If you don't want to enjoy your beers and have little kids near you then Shakey's isn't for you. If you live close enough, and wanna try some place out of your typical restaurant selection then check this place out.
I didn't know that these places were still around. Of course, it was in the time warp that is Grossmont Center. The last Shakey's I saw was in 1993 in Manila PI.
This place is kid friendly in the sense that if your kid was in here, the arcade and the sound of other kids would drown out the cries and yelling...and nobody else seemed to mind the sound of a dozen screaming children emanating from the game zone.
If I were a five year old celebrating a birthday party, this may be a six star review! Alas, I am thirty five and this is no place for me to consider going to without ankle biters in tow.
The pizza was decent, the mojo fries were potatoey and the chicken...well, I wouldn't have eaten it with your mouth.
My 20 month old found the arcade area completely over-stimulating. The lights and noises jarring his sense of serenity. He was a wild eyed boy for the next few hours after spending an hour at Shakey's.
With all the birthday parties here going on here on a Saturday afternoon, I would not recommend this place during that time frame if you just wanted a pie.
First, let it be known that although I am a food snob, I love love love Shakey's! My uncle used to own a few in Wisconsin when I was a kid. To this day, I have never tasted pizza sauce as good as Shakey's. Never. Ever. The mojo potatoes are so very tasty. I don' t know what to say about Shakey's that I haven't already said in my review of the Milwaukee Shakey's (R.I.P.). I may have been spoiled by the fact that the one in Milwaukee was small and quiet, without video games or screaming kids. I'm removing one star for the screaming brats and slightly underseasoned mojos, but damn, that was a good meal. California: don't take your Shakey's for granted. You are lucky to have them and one day they might disappear, so enjoy them while you can. Snif snif.
Buffet only: If you are able to make sure you're getting fresh pizza and fried chicken that hasn't been sitting under the lights for a long time; if you only pick the thin mojos; if you are able to avoid the sorry other alternatives such as spaghetti and bad barbecue chicken, then this place is 3.5 stars on food and 5 stars on value. I've been there on days when I had just spectacular fried chicken and very good pizza.
But as some commenters have pointed out, when this place is busy, it's a madhouse sometimes because of all the kids. On the other hand, if you go after 1 p.m., it empties out quickly and getting the good, fresh food is much difficult.
Odd problem: Sometime they serve fried chicken wings that have literally a half-tablespoon of actual meat covered by tons of breading. It's not really even food, or at least the food you expect in a chain restaurant. No quality control.
A few things:
I don't recommend coming here any time other than for the buffet, at least in terms of the hit you'll take on the pocketbook. You'll drop over $20 for a medium pepperoni pie, 4 pieces of chicken and some mojo potatoes. If you're like me (uh, fat) then you can easily put that away for $6 or $7 (depending upon whether the SD Reader site has a coupon available when you go).
I don't recommend any part of the buffet other than PIZZA and FRIED CHICKEN. Not the salad, not the powdered mashed potatoes with the yellow, wrinkly-skinned gravy, not the sysco vegetable mix floating in cloudy water, not the leathery yet greasy ersatz Mexican food, not the watery mac-n-cheez with the desiccated (sp?) crust, not even the aforementioned mojos. Read my words carefully:ONLY THE PIZZA AND FRIED CHICKEN. I love this restaurant, but I wouldn't eat any of that nasty non-pizza/fried chicken food they serve with GG Allin's mouth.
The pizza is hit or miss, too. I really can't recommend eating any of the pizza other than the OG pepperoni, preferably on the thin crust. That is absolutely delicious. Winey, sugary red sauce, crispy crust with burnt bubbles towards the back, truly exceptional. It's like the anti-CPK. I like that.
The fried chicken! Holy crap, it is PERFECT. Tons of it, sizzling hot, perfectly crispy. I would bet it's got MSG in the batter due to the overwhelming umami it invokes in my tastebuds, but it doesn't have it sprinkled on the outside like that place in Nasty City with the crack chicken, you know the one. It's even better in my opinion. I love me some fried chicken, and Shakey's is among the best ANYWHERE.
So yeah, that's right, I gave a place 5 stars for having transcendent fried chicken and excellent thin crust pepperoni pizza. If you love fried chicken you should be on your way there right now. If you don't, well la dee da for you.
Was hoping to find awesome fried chicken since my coworker raved about their fried chicken. Came for lunch on a Thursday afternoon. There were like 5 people inside, not including the staff members. I guess economic times hit them hard since it looked like the owners ( husband + wife) were running the joint with 1 cook and 1 busser. It looked pretty runned down for being a fairly new place. The buffet was not impressive. It had fried/baked chicken, mash potatoes, veggies, pizza , potato wedges, and a few other items. The baked chicken though was VERY good and the pizza was decent. I pretty much stuck to those items and mash potatoes. I for sure wont be coming back to this place.
Where to begin? How about the beginning.
The lines were really long. Our counter servers assured us that this was an especially busy night, and not to be deterred. We eventually ordered a family combo (1 medium pizza, 4 pieces of chicken, and 8 mojo potatoes.) And of course, a pitcher of beer.
The total of our bill was $30.35, not including game-play money. (The Shakey's Pale Ale, in a relatively full/large pitcher, was only $9.19.)
The food came out pretty fast. The utensils, napkins, and condiments are self-serve. And now about the food:
-Pizza is good, as long as it's hot. Once the cheese starts to harden, forget it.
-The chicken is on the bone, but can be switched out for strip-form. It was way over-salted, so make sure you taste before seasonging it yourself.
-Mojo potatoes are the reason we went there (BF said they were excellent, and he was right.) They're fried potato discs, a lot like french fries, but with more flavor and round. Watch out for temperature and your palate will thank you.
Overall, the food was good, but not life-changing... unless the change you're looking for is a greasier, saltier, more caloric diet.
About the games... this is a wonderful place to bring children. I was impressed with the youngsters that we encountered. Both of the ones we got within a ten foot radius of were super polite, and one kid (about 12 or so) was actually witty! So rare, these days.
The game options are less thrilling than Chuck-E-Cheese, but you can't beat the price comparison. They have skee-ball, air-hockey, basketball, whack-a-mole (not moles, but you get the point), Dance Dance Revolution. Within a mere 30 minutes I was swimming in tickets, and thinking very seriously about what I would redeem them for.
We walked out about 9:00 with a real metal harmonica, a kazoo, a Chinese finger-trap, and some out-of-this-world glittery temporary tattoos (I got a unicorn!)
I've subtracted points for two things. The first being the spatter of condiments and greasy fingerprints on the wall next to our table (matte burnt sienna is a bad paint choice for place that's drizzled with children eating pizza and fried chicken.) The second is that the game area was small and cramped. They have the space to open it up more, so they should utilize it.
And now I'm off to sing the song I made up on the way "Shakey's Pizza, Shakey's Pizza, mojo potatoes and lotsa games!" My boyfriend outlawed my singing of this song... I hope he doesn't read this.
We love the PIZZA and FRIED CHICKEN! Just dab some of that hot sauce on the chicken and you are good to go. Now only if they served waffles with them.... mmmm!
I'm giving this review solely on the pizza buffet because I've never eaten at Shakey's before, but I was pretty unimpressed here. First off, their flagship item, the freaking pizza, tasted stale, but I liked the pepperonis. The buffet line was reminiscent of something out of Tom Goes to the Mayor. Lots of greasy, salty, sloppy options, but they had some excellent fried chicken and it tasted like it came from Jollibee. For 7 bucks though, it's not a bad deal, but I don't think I should do the buffet here again. It's supposed to be family friendly as well, but I went in the afternoon so there were no kids, therefore no families, so I helped myself to wasting 2 bucks on the Deal or No Deal machine and threw some hoops. Not a bad option for some cheap lunchtime grub, but one visit here may have you heading back for the food court or some other venue...BJ's maybe? *shrug*
This place brings back memories from my childhood when my Mom would take my brother, sisters and me to grub out during the lunch time pizza buffet meal deal. The crust on their pizza is Very soft, tasty and is uniqe to Shakeys. Trust me I've tried to find a comprable place in san diego to no avail. The weird part about this location is that its at a mall. This seems weird to me because all the ones i've ever been to have not been like this. Oh well, I deducted one star for messing with my childhood memories. Eat up.
A great Southern Cal tradition, Shakey's has gone buffet style. For about 7-8 dollars, you can have all you can eat pizza, salad, chicken, potatoes and more. Sometimes, you can find discount coupons for even better deal here. I've come to this location a few times for lunch, and have always thought it was a great deal.
