Restaurant Review: Extreme Pizza
By Laurie Allred
Oct. 16, 2011 11:53 p.m.
Hummus, shredded pork, smoked bacon and jalapenos. Those aren’t typical ingredients in any ordinary pizza. But Extreme Pizza, the new pizza restaurant on Glendon Avenue, isn’t just any typical pizza parlor.
Nestled between the Palazzo apartments and Trader Joe’s, this Westwood hidden treasure opened just this past summer, selling a wide array of “extreme” pizzas. While customers have the option of customizing their own pizza, their signature dishes range from vegetarian options, called “Veggin’ Out” pizzas, to pizzas that would satisfy the craziest of meat-eaters, titled “Carnivore” pizzas.
The menu, however, is quite overwhelming. More than 20 options of signature pizzas, calzones, sandwiches, salads and desserts scatter the large menu displayed at the front of the restaurant. Each pizza has an average of about five ingredients, so it is difficult to order.
The owner alleviates this indecisiveness and helps customers order, offering the most popular pizzas. All of the pizzas also come in different sizes, from an individual size that costs about $8 to a huge 18-inch that costs $27. Luckily, students with a valid Bruin Card receive a 15 percent discount, making the final bill a little less intimidating.
One of the restaurant’s newer pizzas, for example, a “Carnivore” pizza called the “Aveiro,” is topped with Portuguese linguica, smoked bacon, pepperoncini, roasted red peppers, tomato sauce, mozzarella and fresh cilantro.
The first bite transports the consumer to somewhere in the Mediterranean. The sauce is largely satisfying, the vegetables are extremely fresh and the meat isn’t too overpowering, creating a great balance of flavor.
Another favorite on the menu, called “Peace in the Middle East,” consists of homemade hummus, vine ripe tomatoes, black olives, caramelized onions, feta, fresh basil, pepperoncini and mozzarella.
The pizza may be vegetarian, but the large amounts of ingredients still makes for a satisfying meal. In addition, there are only minimal amounts of grease on the pizza, so no napkin dabbing is necessary (as opposed to the large amounts of dabbing required when eating pizza from Pizza Hut or Domino’s).
The crust is chewy yet crunchy, which makes eating the pizza even easier because toppings aren’t falling all over the place. Another added bonus: The portions are large enough that a medium 12-inch suggested for two people is enough to satisfy three.
Extreme Pizza’s desserts also deserve recognition. Another quick glimpse of the menu brings one’s attention to one dessert in particular: Pow Pows! (with an exclamation point). The dessert consists of four baked pieces of dough twisted and drizzled with a hazelnut sauce, powdered with sugar and layered with more chocolate sauce. The dough is similar to their pizza crust, chewy yet slightly crunchy on the outside. The chocolate and hazelnut drizzles intensify each bite.
The easygoing atmosphere of Extreme Pizza makes the restaurant a good place to hang out with friends. Snowboards, skateboards and skis line the walls, and a giant television screen will please sports fans.
This pizza joint offers big portions, fresh ingredients and great pizza, as well as great service that makes the Westwood hangout one that is well worth a visit.
