CRAVING PIZZA — Restaurant in San Jose

I was across the street and saw this new place just opened up and i was curious to try it. I looked on their website and found something weird, most if not all of the pictures on the website look as if they were generated by AI. I take a bit of issue with this, from the other reviews on google i saw that the pizzas looked pretty good, i don't understand the choice to generate these images. Wanting to come at this review in good faith, i went to go get a pizza. Again, i was confused why the use of AI would be so pervasive cause the pizza i got looked fine, with slightly better lighting and a slightly better camera this would be good to use for marketing. On to the food itself, I’ll start with the positives. I will commend them for this being pretty cheap for a pizza. I bought a small pizza takeout deal for about 12 bucks, and i feel like what i got was worth that price. Also when i picked up the staff was friendly. The store was fully empty besides the staff, but i assume that comes from it being pretty early into the stores existence (as of writing its still in its soft opening phase) and relatively early in the day (i got my pizza around 1:30 pm). I like the choice to have sesame seeds on the crust, its a unique choice and i think it tastes pretty good. The cheese is pretty good, i think theres a good amount on the pizza. The ranch it came with was also pretty tasty. Slightly more negative, the sauce didn't really have much of a flavor, the crust was also pretty bland. On top of that, my pizza was a little doughy, i think it might have been slightly undercooked. Overall, i think this pizza is fine. The price is good, and the food is pretty much worth it. I cant speak to this place being Halal because that just isn’t anything i know about but its nice to see that this restaurant has that accessibility. I think theres a couple issues with the food itself but I’m mainly concerned with the abundance of AI generated photos making potentially false promises. I didn’t test that to its fullest extent, the Taco Pizza and Nutella pizzas were very suspect to me and id be interested to find out more another time. I would probably come back again, because i think this place has potential to be good but as it stands its just...

Sammy the owner was an amazing host! He immediately ushered us in and cleared a table for our group of four. I guess business was picking up and luckily we scored a table right as another party had been walking out the door. There are also outdoor seating options too for those who like vitamin D with thier pizza! Though it seems that majority of the crowds were phoning in thier pizza orders and taking their pizzas on the go.

The digital menu showcased 18 different styles of pizza to choose from and if that wasn't enough, you can customize your own toppings too! There are tons a sides that we didn't even try but the menu had everything from mozzarella sticks to chicken wings. They also have two options for kids too, a simple cheese pizza or for those who are indecisive, a half cheese-half pepperoni option!

We ordered three small pizzas: butter chicken, bacon and meat, and plain cheese. Pizzas came out piping hot and the entire table complimented the toasted sesame seeds sprinkled on the pizza crust. It adds a nutty savory flavor to the crust! Sammy, the owner, mentioned this is one of his signature touches! Great job...

I ordered online for pick up and got a text when my pizzas were ready. I got a honey garlic chicken pizza and a tandoori chicken pizza. The crust on both was great- fluffy, crisp, the perfect amount of chew, and not soggy at all. And the sesame seeds on the crust were a really nice touch!

The honey garlic chicken pizza was a really nice balance of sweet and savory. I personally would have liked more garlic flavor to shine through, but I LOVE garlic when it’s really strong (probably more than the average person). I liked the sauce that came on the side; it had a little bit of a kick.

The tandoori chicken pizza had the perfect ratio of toppings. It’s very easy to have red onion overpower other toppings but this was spot on. The chicken was seasoned well and was lovely to get a piece in a bite. I really enjoyed this pizza and I think it would be even better if the red sauce was more plentiful or had a stronger flavor like the chicken pieces did.

Will definitely be back when I’m Craving...