Restaurant Review: Beach Pizza

Every once in a while you stumble across restaurant food that epitomizes the phrases “hits the spot” in every sense of the word.  When it comes to pizza, this phrase and in the Largo Mall will be forever tied in my eyes. 

From the outside, there’s nothing too special about Beach Pizza. A few animated paintings on the wall and a cartoon-y beach theme throughout the shop make it a fitting joint to take the kids after the movies (which is right next door) or just pick up a pie on the ride home from work.

The pizza, quite unexpectedly though, is a drool-worthy work of culinary art not soon to be forgotten. You know the pizza commercials where a woman’s dainty hand ever so gently lifts a slice from the pie much to unwillingness of the thick ropes of cheese dropping off the slice?  That’s Beach Pizza.

Molten mozzarella, edge-crunchy pepperoni and a miraculously pillow-y crust combine to make a hearty, messy pizza slice well worth every penny.

Their specialty steak and cheese pie is a largely eccentric, thinking out of the box kind of effort, but it works.  Regular red sauce is replaced with something they call Romano ranch dressing then topped with mozzarella, provolone, steak, green peppers, onions, and mushrooms baked to a melted menagerie then topped with spinach, banana peppers and diced tomato.

The steak and cheese boasts dizzying combo of toppings to say the least, but the romano ranch and boatloads of melty cheese work as a good meeting ground for all of them.  This is the pizza for late, hungry nights where an altered mind can’t decide and just wants like everything on their pizza. 

Sides like requisite garlic knots were doused in butter and work as little cheesy, aromatic clouds of goodness that are hard not to just devour on the ride from Beach Pizza to home base.  Antipasto salad also fared pretty darn tasty with loads of sliced ham, salami, and provolone atop a modest bed of greens.  Bonus points for a creamy Italian dressing that neither overshadowing nor hid behind the rest of the salad.; flavorful, but modest.

Overall, Beach Pizza knows their way around a big, heavenly pie.  No orange-tinted, meagerly thin slices here.  Just hearty, flavorful pizza, that in every sense of the word, hits the spot.