Review: Pie Five concept is a winner, but it has its limitations

Pie Five is to pizza what Chipotle is to burritos.

Local Applebee’s franchisee Jim Stevens recently introduced Pie Five, a Dallas-based chain, to the Wichita market. In August, he opened one next to his Applebee’s at Maple and Ridge Road. Then, earlier this month, he opened a second one at NewMarket Square. He’ll have a third Pie Five open at 21st and Rock in January.

The restaurant allows customers to assemble pizzas to their liking by choosing the crust, sauce, cheese and toppings. Just like at Chipotle, diners travel down a line where they can see all the ingredients and point to their selections. By the time they get to the cash register, the pizza is ready. The “five” in the restaurant’s name refers to how long it takes for the pizza to be ready to go. The 9-inch pizzas cost $6.99, regardless of what’s on top.

The concept is good, and the price is right, but customers must top their pizzas carefully to keep them from tasting like they were prepared in five minutes.

▪  On the menu: Customers can choose from four types of crust: pan, thin, whole-grain thin or gluten-free, which costs an extra $2. Sauce choices include Tuscan marinara, spicy marinara, barbecue sauce, Alfredo and more. Cheese choices are a mozzarella and provolone blend, cheddar, Parmesan and ricotta. The prep bar also includes the standard meat and veggie toppings plus fancier options including meatballs, marinated artichoke hearts, caramelized onions and sun-dried tomatoes.

The menu also offers salads served in bowls made of crisp pizza crust plus pizza-slice shaped chocolate chip cookies and brownies for dessert.

Both the pizza and salad menus offer pre-imagined combinations for those who don’t want to think up their own.

▪  Don’t-miss dishes: The build-your-own concept is perfect for pizza fans. No picking off olives or excising onions required. But the five-minute concept has its limitations.

For one, all the crust is thin, regardless of what the menu promises. The only difference between pan and thin I can ascertain is that the pan crust has a folded up lip around the edge. (I have heard some visitors complain that their crust wasn’t fully cooked when they got it, but I’ve never encountered that.)

Also, those who order the “signature” pies listed on the menu board – the Buffalo chicken or pesto Chicken Alfredo, for example – will find their pizzas more skimpily topped than those who build their own and request more and extra toppings. That can be problematic too, though. I saw several pizzas emerge from the oven piled high with vegetables but no visible cheese gluing it together.

On my first visit, I ordered a thin-crust pie topped with Tuscan marinara, mozzarella cheese, ham, roasted tomatoes, pineapple, spinach and fresh basil. The man behind the counter put a light smear of sauce on my pizza, and since the tomato sauce is my favorite part, I asked for more. He obliged, but it still wasn’t enough. The amount of cheese put on the pizza also seemed skimpy, but they gave me a pretty good pile of the veggies. The pizza wasn’t particularly substantial, which appealed to that part of me that wants to eat pizza without feeling guilty about the calorie bomb.

The crust didn’t have much flavor, but my toppings did, and everyone should say “yes” to the offer of “magic dust” – a blend of Parmesan, Romano and Italian seasoning – after the pizza has been cooked. Fresh basil, cilantro and feta cheese also are offered at this point in the process, and all would offer needed flavor-boosts.

The next time I visited Pie Five, I chose from the pizzas listed on the menu board: the Buffalo chicken and the chicken Carbonara. I asked for the former on thin crust and the latter on pan, and it was hard to notice much difference in the crusts. The flavor was fine, but the toppings were scarce. At times, the pizzas were reminiscent of the offerings at pizza buffets like CiCi’s. My husband was still hungry when we left.

We also sampled the whole-grain crust, ordering it topped with meatballs and pepperoni for the kid in our party. The crust tasted like a wheat cracker from the health-food store, and there wasn’t enough sauce and cheese on the pizza to mask it.

We did, however, like the salads we ordered. The chicken Caesar was assembled and tossed in front of us and had plenty of tangy dressing. The Italian salad, topped with pepperoni, provolone, tomatoes, red onions and a balsamic drizzle, also was delicious. They’re available for $6.99 for a large or $2.99 for a side salad.

The brownie we ordered for dessert was moist and chocolatey.

▪  Ambience: The dining room setup and design is almost just like Chipotle’s, right down to the exposed duct work and the dining room separated from the lineup area by a half-wall. But Pie Five has a red-and-black color palette and lots of witty pizza sayings on the wall hangings.

▪  Price range: Definitely affordable. The pizzas and salads are $6.99, no matter how they’re topped. A “bundle” includes a pizza, a side salad or dessert and a drink for $9.99. Six-inch kid-sized one-topping pizzas are $3.49.

▪  Service: The restaurants are amply staffed, and the trip from crust selection to cash register really does take five minutes or less.

This story was originally published October 29, 2014 at 11:46 AM with the headline "Review: Pie Five concept is a winner, but it has its limitations."