Project Pie

Project Pie, a fast casual custom built pizza eatery, recently opened in San Diego. Being a huge pizza fan, I’ve definitely been wanting to try it out.

We stopped in for lunch this weekend, meeting up with Jinxi and S of Jinxi Eats.

The set-up is very similar to Chipotle, with pies being built from scratch after you order. You can either choose one of the pre-designed pies or build your own. Either way, pizzas are quickly built right in front of you with fresh ingredients. Wait time is minimal as the pizza only takes about two minutes to cook.

The operation is set up quite efficiently, with different employees being assigned specific tasks in the assembly line. By the time we got our drinks and grabbed a seat, our names were being called out.

Faced with so many different ingredient choices, I opted to try a pre-designed pie rather than end up with a pie with every ingredient offered. Even with a pre-designed one, you can change things around and at the last minute, I added some meatballs as they looked quite delicious.

# 2 Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, Crumbled Meatballs, Mozzarella, Signature Sauce, Garlic

As you may have guessed, this was DH’s choice. All meat and no veggies. I was actually pleasantly surprised that all the meat did not make the pizza too salty and I actually quite enjoyed this one. It might have been my favorite of the four.

The pizza crust is rolled super thin which is why it can cook in minutes. The crust is quite crunchy, but without tasting like a cracker. It reminded me of NY-style pizza, though not quite there yet in terms of flavor development.

#3 Tomato, Artichoke, Feta, Pesto, Red Onion, Mozzarella (White Pizza), added crumbled meatballs

I chose a sauceless white pie to compare and I love pesto on my pizza. As we were going down the assembly line, I was tempted to add all sorts of ingredients and ended up adding the meatballs to my pie, which luckily went quite well with everything else on my pie.

Other than the fact that the pesto oil kept dripping down my fingers while I ate this, I really liked this pie.

Custom Pie

Jinxi was the only one in our group adventurous enough to build hers from scratch. Her pie included caramelized onions, red peppers, mushrooms and I can’t quite remember what else. It was a nice blend of ingredients and I enjoyed hers as well. Since each pie was sliced into four slices and we had four in our party, we ended up passing our pies around so that everyone got to sample one of each.

#6 Grilled chicken, red onion, cilantro, mozzarella, Gorgonzola, BBQ sauce

This was S’s choice and was the only one I wasn’t as keen on. I felt like the Gorgonzola cheese was a little overpowering.

Overall, we were happy with the pizza pies. I thought the prices were reasonable and I love how fast and efficient the place runs. I also was pleasantly pleased at how good the pizzas tasted. I was a little wary about a fast casual establishment being able to churn out good tasting pizzas, but I would definitely eat here again.

Other notes:

• The soda machines serve sodas made with cane sugar.
• They also have a Nutella banana dessert pizza.
• It’s located in a lot that actually has a handful of parking spaces, so the parking isn’t so bad.
• It’s also directly across from Bread & Cie so you can stop by after for some pastries or bread.

For another post on Project Pie, check out CC’s post here.

During our meetup, Jinxi also gave me a post birthday gift. The bag was full of food goodies including cadbury eggs, Trader Joe’s speculoos spread, mochi wontons from Japan, and almond thin cookies.

The mochi were so cool. The skin is rolled very thin, like wonton wrappers, but it still maintains the chewy texture.

I actually haven’t tried TJ’s cookie butter because I always buy Biscoff. I had a fun time comparing the two, which I accomplished by grabbing two spoons and spending my evening eating out of both jars. That’s the only way to fully experience and compare right?

Project Pie
3888 Fourth Ave
San Diego, CA 92103