Avalanche Pizza - Slice House — Restaurant in Athens

I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of Avalanche, and that is why I have avoided this place. I don't care about their college humor edginess, I'm not going to wear their hat around town, and I don't want any one of their twenty specialty pizzas if they can't make a basic pep pizza that isn't to my tastes doughy and bland. Pizza is pizza, and pizza is usually tasty, so take my critique with that in mind, and before this turns into an avalanche of Avalanche criticism, let's talk about Slice House.

They sell by the slice, and the slices are ready to go. It should be a quick in and out, and that is perfect for a lunch break. They are also in a cool building in a location near the the river and the bike path. Last, but most important, their pizza seems to be a little different and tastes better than Avalanche's. Granted, I've only been here once, and I lucked into some freshly baked pizza, but I expect this will be a great place to add to my lunch...

I’ve given this place probably 20 visits since it opened. Hoping each time that maybe there is just some kinks to work out and it will improve. It hasn’t. The pizza is 9 out of 10 times positively ancient when it comes out the warmer, so hard to chew that my jaw pops while chewing. They also skimp on toppings and think it’s appropriate to serve hastily and badly prepared slices full of bubbles and lacking cheese (see photo). I’ve twice bought sandwiches where in the display they looked like they were full of meat but only had the tiniest strip of meat along the edge you could see. They charge 5 dollars for a slice, albeit a big one. But that’s a lot of money for a NY style slice so the quality and freshness needs to match. I really WANTED to like this place but I’ll no longer be going, it took me too long to...

I wanted to like this pizza, I really did. But it just wasn’t in the stars. That’s why I gave it 3, to be fair. I wanted to try the (I’m assuming) original store but opted for the slice out of convenience. Just disappointed because of all of the claims of being “best in the country“ and the “awards” they’ve won. It was just “ok”, but I bet if it had been hot and fresh it would’ve been better. We were here from out of town and are on a quest for the best pizza we can find. This wasn’t it by far. I also got the caprese salad and was a little disappointed with the salad dressing choices. I guess I just expected...