Village Pizza — Restaurant in Anacortes

Is being the top-rated pizza restaurant worth leaning on in a town as small as Anacortes? You've beat out one, maybe two other places plus all the regular chains. 4.5 stars on Google isn't even all that hard to get. 4.6, 4.7, that's where the magic really starts to happen.

These are the thoughts going through my head as I'm driving through Anacortes with a wicked pizza craving. Pizza is the first thing that gets hit during periods of shrinkflation because there's so much that goes into a pizza there's so many corners to cut. Shrinkflation has hit Bellingham pizza like a floppy sledgehammer, and I've just stopped ordering out altogether, preferring the products of my trusty oven stone despite all the extra labor and mess.

But it's 4pm on a Wednesday, I'm an hour away from my own kitchen, and I need to get some cheese in me so let's do this.

The first thing that happens to me walking in the front door is I'm immediately struck with how comfortable everything looks. This looks like how a pizza restaurant is supposed to look, in my mind. Booths up one wall, tables in the middle, a counter at the back, and a soda fountain with honest-to-goodness pitchers waiting to be filled. There's no nickle-and-diming you for every sip here. You all paid for a pitcher so fill a pitcher with some ice and fizzy drink and fill it up again if you run dry.

I head up to the counter and rattle off a pretty big order for us. Medium hawaiian pizza, garlic balls, everything salad. Take a number, sit in a booth, and wait. Salad comes out pretty much immediately despite there being plenty of other people around, followed by the garlic balls, then the pizza. The garlic balls and pizza are piping hot when they hit the table, so much so that I'm sat staring at it for far too long while I wait just barely long enough to not burn myself. The medium is 8 slices and larger than expected. There's going to be leftovers. I realize I've ordered food for three people, and all for under forty bucks.

The pizza has good coverage for toppings. The sauce is pretty understated but still there. The cheese is the standard brick cheese you'll find basically at pizzerias anywhere. It's melty, stretchy, and squeaks when you bite it. The crust is a bit bready; the usual conveyor-style pizza ovens don't give you the same kind of spring a stone oven does. It is pizza. It is what you might get if you were kidnapped by aliens and they asked you what you wanted to eat and you said "Pizza." so they fabricated a pizza that was the average of every kind of pizza on earth. There's nothing really stand-out about it. But they also did absolutely nothing wrong. There's nothing you could latch onto to say "This is the reason I wouldn't really go back." It's more like, someone suggests you go to the Village Pizza and you say "Sure, why not?"

So fill up a pitcher of root beer, grab a slice, and don't worry about it. You're getting pizza, so it's going to...

My wife and I have been going to this place for about 6 years or so and have visited both their pizzeria side and their bar side (The Wheelhouse). This is generally the “go-to” spot for a locally owned pizza place in town, with several of their top competitors being chain-operated pizzerias.

With that being said, I have a passion for a locally-owned joint like this. Generally they are spot-on with their product and their service. Their pizza is good, and although it’s not like a real Italian pie, this version is still very tasty. One down side, however, is their cost of product. Being located in Historic Downtown Anacortes can surely attract customers, but I am sure the higher operational costs are reflected in the price of the food.

I would venture to say that their service is always great, but their product is accurate 95% of the time. On several occasions they have forgotten toppings or cut out toppings one would not expect! Recently I ordered a pizza with several toppings, feta cheese being among others, but they somehow thought that meant to take off the rest of the cheese, leaving us with a pizza whose only cheese was feta. That was a first for me, and frankly a little disappointing, but we were hungry and didn’t want to wait another hour (average delivery turnaround time) for another. Little things like that happen from time-to-time, but are generally infrequent.

I give these guys four stars because I feel they are better than an average place with their great service, but fall shy of a fifth star due to inconsistencies in their final product. Either way, this opinion is only that of two patrons. Please give them the chance to prove me wrong....

We have eaten at Village Pizza 3 times. The first time we were very impressed with the pizza, quality ingredients and very good crust. The second time we ate there, the pizza was incorrectly made with ingredients we requested to be excluded. Everyone makes mistakes, it's how they handle it that truly tells how the customer is valued. The owner/manager (not sure) when alerted to this issue was very apologetic and offered to remake us a new pizza immediately. We had to decline due to time, so she gave us a certificate for a free pizza. A few weeks later we were in town again and decided to try another pizza. When presented with the certificate for the free pizza, I could see the light bulb come on... She remembered why she issued it, very impressive considering how far back it was. This really tells how much they do care. Anyway, when presented we ordered the exact same pizzas the same way as before. When we ordered our drinks she refused to let us pay for them.

The pizza was as good or better than the first one we had, and I am extremely impressed with the effort this business went to for a single customer that is not even local. The owner of this business, and the parents of the lady that took care of us should be very proud...the traits displayed here are sadly missing in many businesses and people these days. We will continue to patronize this business as often as we can.

Another meal, another great feast. Village pizza has consistent quality, I actually look forward to getting a chance...