Bookie’s Pizza — Restaurant in Santa Cruz

UPDATE: After a year since my initial review - I returned back to this establishment to try a different option, the Fogline Farm BBQ Chicken Pizza. My experience this time around was much better and as such I must humbly raise the star rating previously given. There is a great selection of beers on tap (Highland Park is a great Pilsner choice) and the crust of the pizza is superb, the perfect crispy consistency. My only complaints are that the hot honey has a focus on spice and overpowers the sweetness of the honey and that the pizza itself still is lacking something - what it lacks I cannot describe. For the price of the food, I would not frequent this often; however, as a place to gather and enjoy a nice selection of draft brews - I can easily recommend.

I got the broccoli and stracciatella pizza along with the tiramisu. I was told that modifications were not allowed on any pizza as the Head Chef was very particular about his creations and only his tastebuds were the correct tastebuds. Well let me tell you, his tastebuds are terrible. He reminds me of Bradley Cooper in the movie Burnt where he thinks he knows it all but just falls completely short and burns out. The pizza was atrocious. The only redeeming quality was the crust which was perfect. The hot honey sauce was terrible I’ve had much better but the sugar did serve to make the pizza taste slightly better. The tiramisu was literally just Brandy soup. It was not tiramisu. Calling it tiramisu is a crime against humanity. Overall I’d score this place 1/100 only because the crust was good. I expect this place to close down after the hype dies out. Not a profitable model charging $29 for a pizza with no customisation options. Lacks...

The pizza is good (a little too salty) but with interesting flavors if you like thick bready crust. If you care about customer service Don’t go there. I ordered four pizzas for a total of $100 plus gave a $20 tip. I did not see on the order for where to specify gluten-free. That was my mistake but I immediately called after placing the order and left a msg (the only option) that they needed to be gluten-free and to please let me know they got the message. They did not acknowledge my request, so I called back with the same information. Still they still return my call, I went to pick up the pizzas - they were not gluten-free. I asked him to make me four pizzas gluten-free. He said he would but I had to pay for them along with paying for the regular pizzas. I have never been so amazed at poor customer service. I took the pizzas and gave them away I will never go there again, nor will members of my family or friends . To the owner: I suggest you consider having a human check your phone messages at least once every half hour. And, learn something about...

The pizza is excellent, but unfortunately there are no substitutions allowed, which is kind of unusual when it’s normative in almost every other pizza place anywhere. They only have one vegan option, and there aren’t many vegan pizzas in town. There are definitely other pizzas there that could easily be made vegan. The pesto chanterelle one would be an excellent vegan option, as an example. Hopefully the chef will open up that food avenue in the future. I don’t think calling ahead of time would satisfy any requests either. As a semi regular customer, I see people ask for simple things all the time, and the bartender just has to shrug and say they can’t, much to the dismayed looks of customers. I get it, all the pizza topping recipes are crafted in ways that all the flavors compliment one another. I still don’t see how substituting the cheese would cause any flavor issues, unless there’s a pretentious ego somewhere in the...