I went for a really long run today. Well maybe not really long, but it was 15K and 1400 calories. And that means I should get some pizza.

Recently my wife received two suggestions for pizza places in KW, neither of which I had heard of before. Both were described as "hole in the wall" but one of them appeared to be a convenience store, which I wasn't quite prepared to roll the dice on. The other spot is "Pizza Bite", which apparently is just 4 minutes away from us. It's really great living in a city like Waterloo where pizza is constantly available everywhere you turn.

Ordering

The ordering process for pizza bite was pretty smooth, with an online ordering PHP website and an offering for delivery service that wasn't through gig work. I ended up doing pick up despite having tired legs, because $5.99 for a delivery 4 minutes away just didn't sit right with me. I ordered one large pizza with pepperoni bacon green olives and pickles. Unfortunately they don't offer sun-dried tomatoes, so I can't do my standardized test, but green olives isn't alright substitute because they're nice and salty. I added the pickles because it's rare that you see pickles offered for a pizza, so I was curious to see how they'd come. I also ordered three garlic dips for the za, and 12 wings for my wife, who wasn't quite feeling pizza.

Pizza with a side of gasoline

When I got there I was surprised that the pizza shop was within an Esso. An Esso gas station, which contains Pizza Bite

That definitely didn't deter me as I hoped this was a diamond in the rough. I went in (to the gas station) and the back half of it was a full Pizza Shop! Unfortunately I had about a 7-minute wait for the pizza after I arrived (despite arriving 30 minutes after the order); fortunately there was lots to look at in the gas station, so I browsed the overpriced chips and motor oil. When my order was ready I was informed they didn't have the diet Dr.Pepper I ordered, but that I could pick something else. In a neat turn of events, the Esso and Pizza Bite share a POS system (or have a handshake agreement, or they don't care), so I was able to swap for anything in the gas station fridge (of the same price, or pay to upgrade).

The gas station fridge which contained the best energy drinks (Ghost) as well as Flying Monkey beers (not pictured)

One downside of this drink switch up was an incorrect bill. During the long wait-time I decided to make sure I knew what the total was going to be. So when they handed me the POS system I knew that they had accidentally included the charge for multiple drinks (my original drink, and my new one), overcharging me for the can that they didn't have available. I corrected them and they remedied the mistake.

I got some gas and headed back with my pizza (I didn't actually get gas I just think it's cool that that was an option).

The Pizza

First impressions as opened the boxes is that everything looked very promising. The first bite had me immediately impressed. It's light on sauce and heavy on cheese, but both have notable flavor. This sauce to cheese ratio is a big hit for me (a cheese lover) but a miss for my wife (a sauce lover). The crust is thin and greasy, but not too greasy. It's the ideal "this is fast food pizza" level of crust grease. The bottom of the pie was coated in a healthy dose cornmeal, which also had surprising flavor depth.

The Pizza Bite Pickle Pie

I purchased three dips for this pizza, and they gave me Belvario creamy garlic dips. As much as it's always nice to get a handmade dip Belvario is an acceptable alternative, especially for stores located within gas stations. Interestingly, I had one of the dips with the first half of the pizza; this is an unheard of ratio for me, as normally I like to eat much more dip. What I'm realizing is that the pizza is tasty enough to stand on its own without additional dip, which is quite the achievement.

Overall I'm very impressed with Pizza Bite, especially given its unassuming location. It amazingly ranks higher than Ginos, and is definitely somewhere we'll be revisiting. The did lose 0.5 points for not having sun dried tomatoes, but even so, scored a healthy 7.6.