Five Points Pizza West — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

I've been on a quest to find the best pizza in Nashville, so once a week I go into a place that serves pizza and simply order a cheese pizza. My thinking is if they can make a BOMB cheese pizza then they have a good pizza. 5 Points? Or Tourist Trap Pizza?

The name of this place is 5 Points Pizza. In East Nashville it's a neighborhood staple. It made a name for itself by being the cool late night spot that serves slices out of a walk-up window. After a night of drinking I can see the appeal.

5 Points Pizza has a lot of things that are cool. Their beer selection has local and regional beers, and they have some pretty interesting signature pizzas.

Walking in I was stopped by the host. I told her that I was looking to place a pickup order which she quickly replied that I'd have to walk outside and over to the window to place my order. I ordered my cheese pizza and waited. Might've taken maybe 12 mins. $17.00 price point.

The pizza itself was evenly coated with cheese and seasonings. Evenly distributed sauce. Precisely stretched dough. Cooked to perfection. No blemishes, and no character.  It was like if I asked a robot to make a cheese pizza and gave it certain parameters like 3 ounce of sauce, 8 ounces of cheese, and 16 ounce dough ball stretched to ⅙ of an inch.

The pizza tasted good. You could definitely taste all of the ingredients in every bite. The pizza had a slight crunch to it, but I'm sure that's just from it being perfectly cooked on the bottom.

All in all 5 Points has good pizza. Not the best in Nashville in my opinion if you're just looking for cheese pizza. My biggest problem is that they're "too perfect". Go figure right? When I think of their pizza I picture something that's ordinary....

Best salad in town. At $7 you think it's on the expensive side. It is, but it's worth it. Salads are made to order and never prepared before you order it. I have been here at least 15 times and I always get a salad and pizza. Every single time, the salad is awesome.

If you get there at lunch time (11-2), you can get a great deal on a slice and a salad for $9 ... now you cannot complain about the price of the salad.

The pizzas are pricey, but they are true New York style pizzas and very good if you get a whole pie the way you like it (or split a whole pie). The pizzas come in 3 sizes, but you can only order the 14" or the 18". The 20" pie cannot be ordered, that's the one they make for slices (8 slices per pie).

The slices are good, but not as good as the pie. The difference is that the slices are made before hand and cooked to a point where they are almost ready, but not quite. Then when you order it, they stick your slice back in the oven and finish it off to the ready point.

Another nice thing about Five Points Pizza West is the ambiance and the servers. All of the servers are hip. By that, I mean cool. They are friendly and very real people, not phony like workers in some restaurants. The atmosphere is funky with the music (but never overwhelms table side conversation), jazzy art on the wall, clean booths and tables for 2, 4, or 6 people, a bar front which seats about 12 or so and a "to go" area for people picking up pizzas.

Even though it is less than a year old, as a Nashville local who was born and raised here, and lived here for over 40 years, I would highly recommend coming to 5...

TLDR: Pizza was great, service was quick, and atmosphere was just okay.

We weren't super hungry but I wanted to try the place given the reviews. Started by splitting a greek salad and some garlic knots. Salad was...a salad. Nothing special. The garlic knots were amazing though: just the right amount of crispy on the outside while being light and fluffy on the inside. Marinara sauce was tangy and delicious. Now onto the pain course, the pizza. The wife was lame and just got a slice of cheese, which was tasty, with a crispy crust and just thin enough. I ended up getting the Zeus stromboli because I like having a bite of crust in every bite and it did not disappoint. Crust was crunchy, cheese was melty, sauce was tangy, and the toppings melded in there well. We will definitely be back to an actual full pizza once we move to Nashville.

Only con was the atmosphere. It's pretty small in there, has a bar along the side and separate areas if you want counter service vs full dining service. It just felt...meh in there, as in very commercialized, which seems odd since I assumed it was a local spot based on reviews I'd read. Maybe the east side one is the original and it's different. Loses a star, but food is enough to bring us back to one of...