Abbot's Pizza Company

Last night I took a drive to the West Side, Venice. My friend was having a party and the plan was to grab some food beforehand from Abbot's Pizza Company on Abbot Kinney Blvd. When we walked up, there was a line out the door and down the street, this place was poppin'. I thought it must be good pizza with all the traffic.

The line was taking forever just to order and we were in a rush so I walked up to the guy with the blue bandana and just ordered a large cheese from him instead, no waiting. He took care of us.

Actually we got half cheese, half mushroom; my good friend Kelly was with me and she had a craving for mushrooms. Even though I knew it was going to stink up my side of the pizza, I went with it. We got the large pizza, which I think was 16 inches for about 14$ pretty cheap. 45 minutes later after waiting to order and then waiting for the pizza, we finally got to eat. It looked great, darkened crispy crust, browned Mozzarella and a dark red sauce.

Now as you may or may not know, the big deal everyone makes with this place is the dough, it is bagel dough. Now I don't really know what the difference is and I can't say I could tell it was bagel dough. It did seem a little crunchier and heartier, like a bagel would be I guess. The main thing, I think, is that you can get sesame seeds or poppy seeds on the crust, which makes it a lot more bagel like. Getting past the idea of bagels, the crust was extremely crispy, blackened on the bottom, with a little charred taste. The outer edge was tough and thick and crispy. It was very thin and had a softer inside. The cheese was fine, while the sauce was a thicker pasty sauce. I really liked the flavor and the extreme crisp of the crust. However, to get it so crispy they just cooked it longer, which I think resulted in drying it out a little. The sauce being a little thicker also didn't help bring moisture to the bread.

The pizza over all was above average, certainly, but why there is a line around the block seems a little ridiculous. Maybe it's the only pizza in town. Maybe its just so hyped up with the whole bagel idea everyone wants to go there, I don't know. If you do eat there, definitely order in advance and try to avoid the over crowded place with delivery.

Abbot's Pizza Company

- 1407 Abbot Kinney Blvd. Venice, 90291

- 1811 Pico Blvd. Santa Monica 90405

Price: $

Overall: