Shakey's Pizza Parlor

So if you are from Southern California you know Shakey's and I don't have to tell you. This is for the people who relocated here and wonder what this place is all about. It's a hard place to describe. It's a chain, so it's clean, big, and somewhat generic in the food department. Comfort food in the form of mainly pizza. Though pizza is pretty comfortable no matter where you go. Everything is by the book and done to perfection, corporate franchise style. For example they weigh every ingredient on the pizza. So every pizza has the exact amount of shredded cheese on top. It of course is so much more than a pizzeria, it has potatoes in every form, wings, and a buffet with a salad bar. It has games for the kids in the form of a Chuck E. Cheese's, but not nearly as impressive. It also has beer and big TVs. So since 1954 it has been specializing in food, family and fun in that order.

Now to the pizza. Like every place else, they have specialty pizzas and regular pizzas in 3 sizes. S, M and L, which is 16 inches. They also have two styles, thin crust and and pan pizza. I got a straight up large cheese pizza, it was $18.

Now those people from the east coast who have a different sense of what pizza is all about, let me warn you this is no east coast or NY style pizza. Of course I'm not convinced this is California style either. People have said this is what Southern California pizza is, along with Round Table and a place called Me and Ed's. Im not sure what it is that makes it California style, other than the fact that these place originated here. This is similar to the other belief that Cali style are rare and interesting topping combinations. Is the fact that the BBQ chicken pizza originated here enough to dub it as a California style, even if I can get that same pizza topping in NY. I am skeptical of these labels, but I digress.

While I waited for the pizza to come out I was offered one of the slices that was sitting on the buffet. The Firehouse. It had spicy sausage and pepperoni with red onions, diced tomatoes and basil. It was pretty good I have to admit. Though I was hungry. Finally I got my cheese pizza.

It supposedly had basil on it but I didn't see any. The crust was unique. It was ultra thin and very crispy, yet moist and somewhere there was a doughy center, I swear - but I couldn't see it. There were bubbles, 3 slices wide. The dough rolled up and down in giant craters through the whole pizza.

So I have the say the crust wasn't what I'm used to but it wasn't too bad. The cheese was, as expected, put on very heavy. It was cheap, generic cheese. The sauce was nicely spiced and sweet, but didn't taste fresh or that amazing really. The pizza tasted cheap even though the price really wasn't. Their specialty pizzas are definitely the way to go, it takes the cheese and sauce out of the equation and leaves you with a filling meal laid out on their crispy crust which is the best part of the pie. Which isn't saying too much.

Shakey's Pizza Parlor

7001 Santa Monica Blvd.

323-463-1104

Price: $$

Overall: