Many of you know how much I love food. I especially love to eat out because it doesn't require that I clean up afterwards. So we decided to try out the newest restaurant in town last night for my first review of 2009. I had hoped to make a whole blog out of eating but there are not that many new places in town to review. I do however plan on trying out some of the favorites in town and reviewing those too.
Pirate Island Pizza is located off of Sunset by the Stadium 8 Theaters. First impressions when we walked in brought back memories of our most recent trip to Disneyland. The heavy wooden double doors open into a cavern large enough to hold the hoards of waiting families. There was a talking pirate skull over the hostess station along with a parrot buddy for him to converse with. This, while in theory sounds like a fun idea, in practice was just annoying.The skull seemed to drone on and on about nothing and became quite irritating after a while. Since our visit fell on a holiday we were told the wait would be about half an hour. We spent the first ten minutes browsing the gift shop conveniently located near the waiting area. They offered all kinds of Pirate paraphernalia for all ages. My favorite were the yoga pants that had "booty" printed on the bum and the P I P logo. The rest of our waiting time was happily spent in the arcade area which also boasts a pirate ship play yard for the wee ones. Ryan loved climbing up and then sliding down. This made the wait much more tolerable with a hungry baby. We were finally seated in the Tiki Dining Room where we were left for a long while again before being visited by our server, who was appropriately dressed in striped tights a tattered vest and a parrot on her shoulder. We decided to try the pizza since that is their staple dish. We ordered a Chicken Ranch Pizza and I also had the all you can eat salad bar. The pizza came out surprisingly quick for as busy as they were and was absolutely delicious. It had a nice thin crust but could have used a little more sauce because it was dry in spots. I had to try the pizza sauce they put on a regular pie as well and was happy with the strong tomato flavor that wasn't overwhelmed by too many spices. The salad bar while lacking in size made up in freshness and care. There was an employee there the whole time cleaning and refilling all the tubs. I like the care that was taken in chopping as well because there was no need to further cut anything I had put on my salad. Overall I would say that while the service is only slightly better then being served by real pirates the food was great and I cant wait to go back.......with out the kids, all three of them woke up with nightmares last night!
