Smug's Pizza — Restaurant in Arcata

This place has the best pizza! It is known for cheap pizza by the slice, but the pizza itself is actually my favorite in Humboldt. I love their crust. It's perfectly delicious! Not too hard or too soft. The toppings they use and the sauces are very high quality. They also sell cookies made in house and drinks in bottles or cans. It's more of a grab-and-go place, not a sit-down restaurant, so keep that in mind when you call in an order. It's well worth it to buy a whole pie and they are perfectly willing to make each quarter of the pizza different. We like to order the a variety of toppings and let the pizza chefs get creative. We've been regulars at the Eureka location for years. The last time I went to the Arcata location, I was very impressed with the food and the service. The McKinleyville one is quite...

I love this place and have been going for years. Their fresh slices are undoubtedly the best in Humboldt county. I prefer this location to Eureka's, and the McKinleyville location is under different ownership than Arcata/Eureka. They push the sauce/cheese to the end of the pie and roll the crust over, then brush it with garlic olive oil. My favorite combination is spinach, tomato, garlic and red onion. There are always slices available for quick pick-up, and they will make you any two fresh custom slices you want in about 5-10 minutes. The staff is friendly and it seems like they enjoy working here. The young man (I think his name is Daniel?) with the septum piercing who often wears a baseball cap is my favorite. In addition to being the best pizza in the area, it's also the cheapest. Only $5...

I don't know what the source of popularity is for this place. The staff was super nice but it's literally a hole in the wall where you can only walk in and leave, so take this into account you're not even paying for seating let alone atmosphere with the price of the slice. A single slice is smaller than any other pizza place that offers slices in town. Most places charging by the slice are offering huge New York style pieces. Smugs is smaller and while it would be great for a frozen pizza made fresh in the oven at home it's hardly the quality of restaurant by-the-slice pizza in Arcata. I'm only left to assume people go to Smugs out of childhood habit...