Recently we have heard great things about Blaze Pizza from various friends and family and actually were invited to try it a while back. Finally we had a chance to stop by the location on Balboa Ave., right across the street from 85c and Chicken Charlie’s. 
There is a ton of seating both inside and out. 
In 2012Â we heard about this fast style of pizza where you could add your own toppings and they’d bake it for you. The first place we tried it was at 800 degrees in Westwood. We were hooked. Good price point, endless toppings, and it came out fast. Flash forward to 2015 and there are numerous chains out there like Pieology, Project Pie, and Pizza Rev all vying for your business. 
Almost all of these new pizza places work the same way. Choose your sauce and toppings and wait a few minutes for a piping hot personalized pizza to come your way. The first time we tried it we went a little crazy on toppings and said “give me everything!” This turned out to not be the best decision because it was just too many things going on. On this day, we weren’t noobs anymore. 
Since everything costs the same if you decide to customize a pizza, pretty much anything is game. For the first pizza we decided to try two of their pre-selected options on one pie. On the left you have the Art Lover and on the right is the Green Stripe. What makes the Art Lover different is there is no sauce on the bottom of the pizza. Instead they put a few dollops of marinara sauce on the top after they put mozzarella, ricotta, artichokes, and garlic on top. I didn’t think I’d like it because I want my sauce where it normally goes and I thought it wouldn’t be enough since I like extra sauce. But it actually was pretty good and exceeded my expectations. Next time I’d add more artichokes. For the Green Stripe it came with chicken, pesto, red peppers, garlic, mozzarella, and arugula. The pesto was nice and I didn’t miss the marinara too much. But if I had to choose I’d pick the Art Lover for its simplicity and yummy marinara. 
Let me try to remember what we put on our second pizza. I went a little crazier on this one since we decided to customize it ourselves and not choose one of their pre-selected pizzas. I think there are olives, basil, mushrooms, pepperoni, Italian sausage, artichokes, on top of mozzarella and spicy marina/marinara sauce. The spicy marinara wasn’t that spicy and since the toppings were the same for the whole pizza it actually was hard to tell which was what. Overall, I really enjoyed this as well. There were borderline too many toppings but they kind of restrain themselves from putting too much and ask you a few times if that is an okay amount, which I really appreciated.
One thing I noticed was the crust for each pie being cooked slightly differently, probably because of the weight of the toppings or the part of the oven our pizza’s cooked in. Luckily I got the more done pizza and Anh got the other one since she doesn’t like charred things. I didn’t notice too much of a difference as both were fairly crispy and they tasted great. Compared to some of the other places I really liked the cleanliness and wide open seating area, as well as the fresh ingredients. I went to a Pizza Rev up in LA and they straight up dropped a sharpie they used to write orders into the marinara sauce. What was their solution? Remove the sharpie and some marinara sauce in the general area and continue serving customers. Keep in mind, this was a sharpie that didn’t have the cap on and that they were using with their bare hands. No bueno. Blaze seemed like a completely different operation. They were courteous, professional, and the pizza tasted better! What’s your favorite quick service personal pizza place to go to?
Blaze Pizza
5604 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111
www.blazepizza.com
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