My Friend Derek’s — Restaurant in Seattle

This is a pizza place I've been looking forward to for a while, so I was pretty excited to check it out. I had a few slices each of the White Lotus and Plain Cheese pizzas, along with a slice of the Vodka Pepp

I think I'm ready to call this the best pizza I've had in Seattle. The quality of the food was extremely high - you could tell the amount of care that went into each of these pizzas. We had to wait 45 minutes for a table, and another 40 minutes to get our pizzas, but it felt worth it in the end.

I have to start with the dough - because it was simply unreal. Each of the pizzas I had differed a bit in density, but the dough was unreal every time. It was so soft, so fluffy, and just delectable to bite through It's super thick, which gives a fantastic mouthfeel as you dive into the layers of each slice. I haven't had dough be this thick yet this easy to enjoy before. This was all-time good in that regard

As I mentioned, the pizzas differed a bit in thickness. The Vodka Pepp was on the thicker side, and this was still good, but probably my least favorite of the three that I had. Compared to your average pizza though - it still blows it out of the water. I'm still debating which of the white lotus or the plain cheese was better - it's such a hard decision because both were really good. it's tough because i naturally prefer white sauce on pizza, and the toppings in here (mushroom and onion) were fresh, cooked beautifully, and added a ton of extra flavor to the dish. However, with the cheese, despite literally no toppings at all and the fact that I'm normally not a huge fan of tomato sauce, I was blown away by these slices. The tomato sauce was super rich, but what was truly mind-blowing was the texture on this specific pizza. It was so much softer than any of the other ones, and felt like biting through a doughnut in terms of how easy it is to eat. It hardly felt like eating a pizza If I had to pick, I'd choose the white sauce though, because of how amazing the alfredo sauce was on it

The cheese was melted perfectly on every slice, forming a crust at the top that had fantastic browning. This place also nails the perfect amount of cheese to dough ratio. I also thought the salt levels were pretty perfect - definitely not under-salted in the slightest

My one issue with the pizza is the corner pieces. The edges are charred a bit too much - to the point where they're basically black. This makes them super chewy to eat, and I did not enjoy when I got to the crust on these pieces. The best part of a Detroit-style pizza should be the crust on the outer edges, but this part was way overcooked for me. Also the edges had a ton of oil

For about $25 per pizza, and receiving some pretty large pizzas, I think it's well worth the price. I don't think one pizza is big enough to feed two people, but i would guess that 4/5 slices will make one person full. Also need to note that the drinks are ridiculously cheap here. like due to it being half off, a beer was just $1.50 (!?)

Overall, I think this pizza is the best in the city, and I can see why they seem to sell out almost...

Upon arriving, the first interesting thing I found out about Derek's is their affinity for Taylor Swift music. It was a noteworthy curated playlist. Probably changes from day to day operations but it definitely set the tone for this outing.

Continuing on, after me and my party got seated. My group of 4 decided to order one of every pizza available, so 4 pizzas in total not including the build your own. Which in hindsight was kind of a good strategy because we each got to try 1 slice from each pizza as well as decide which two slices we wanted to take home. Since we didn't know how many slices each pizza was cut into. We assumed it was going to be 4 slices minimum, but luckily each was cut into 6 pieces.We also ordered the Fish-y Caesar salad

Fish-y Caesar: kale, anchovy, gold fish crackers, grated cheese This is what I hope Caesar salads taste like when I order them. Big fan of the anchovies on top, the use of kale that kept its structure. Dressing not overly saturating with a bold enough flavor profile. Mind you, I like anchovies so if it's not your thing just push them to the side, but honestly not intrusively fishy/salty to me.

PIZZAS (Detroit style) ranked from top to bottom in regards to my preferences.

Vodka Pepp: vodka sauce, pepp, red onion, ricotta -I usually gauge a pizza spot based on either their pepperoni pizza, or their margherita pizza. I can say that their vodka pepp passed with flying colors. It was a good ratio of toppings and didn't get monotonous. Btw, I ordered one to go. Talk about self love. Am I right?

White Lotus: mushroos, leeks, and more -great vegetarian option. Tons of Umami and depth to the cream sauce on top. I commented that you could take everything they put on this pizza and turn it into a pasta. It would be amazing.

Hot fella: braised pork, ají verde, red onion, pineapple -You know I enjoyed this pizza, but a part of it was a little lackluster. Maybe it was because I expecting so much flavor from this due to all the ingredients in it. It just didn't punch me in the face. It was cool though because our server asked us for criticism and prefaced that something is missing that they can't put their finger on it. Please don't let myopinion sway you from trying it though.

Derek's Fav: pepp, castelvetranos -you know I also enjoyed this and maybe I ranked it at the bottom because it just had a tough act to follow in comparing it to the vodka pepp. All in all Its a solid pizza and if you like olives, you'd like it even more.

Sorry for this extensively long review, but I promise I'm almost done. To wrap up. The experience was great and I don't regret any of the orders. A tip, get there early because the crowd shows up in no time and there is no guarantee they won't sell out later on the day. Lastly, they may quote you an ETA of when the food will be ready, but based off my experience today. The food always came earlier than expected. Anyways happy dining...

MFD is the best Detroit-style pizza in town.

The toppings: all of the ingredients are top quality and delicious. For me the castelvetrano olives are the best, but the meats and veggies are all delicious.

The sauce: Just right. Enough spices to be interesting but not so fiery that you mind. Creamy texture.

The crust: Among the best I've had. Of brands actually from Detroit, at least on par with (IMO better than) Shield's. Buddy's has a special place in my heart and I might give them the crust edge but it's close. Well, close for now, because:

The people: Derek himself is awesome. Very welcoming, very friendly, and full of energy. Derek clearly cares about pizza and is constantly looking at new ingredients and recipes to learn from and tweak.

Other menu items: absolutely worth trying. Derek's coffee beans make a lovely cup, the jalapeno cheesy bread is the best cheese bread I've found, and others are solid too.

Yes, you have to watch for calendar slots to open up and book in advance, but it's very much worth it - and it's days in advance, not weeks or months like certain other chains. Great things are worth the wait.

I cannot recommend My Friend Derek's strongly enough. I love Detroit-style pizza, I've tried most of the other great Detroit-style pizzas around (including the ones in West Seattle, Woodinville, and Lynnwood, among others) and MFD is the pizza I keep...