Pizza Plaza

As a long term vegan of 15 years. ive eaten lots of vegan pizza. I was super excited when I originally learned about this place, but was sadly disappointed when I tried it. The owner is SUPER sweet… very very friendly… but sadly that didnt translate into his pizza. The toppings available were good, but they always skimped on them. I found that toppings were minimal (VERY minimal) and the crusts were too thin for my tastes. I support all vegan places. and I still ate there a few times anyways… but they definitely would have fared better had they not been so stingy with toppings!

I’m very supportive of vegan eateries, and I have done a fair amount of vegan cooking and baking on my own — I’m no stranger to the possibilies and realities of vegan food. Unfortunately, I have to say that the vegan pizza here was not very good at all. Bad crust, bad sauce. Sigh. Really, making an excellent vegan pizza is not very hard — make an excellent pizza, and take off the cheese. That’s a start. Then, to make it fancy, add on the vegan cheese, I’ve done it myself. voila, vegan pizza, I actually don’t understand how they did such a poor job.
Also, it took about 2 hours to show up.

Hey — the owner is a really nice guy. Just found out today (March 11^th, 2012) that he’s working hard to keep the business open!
This pizza place is a great place for vegans! I love the many options and combinations. And the best part? They deliver!
Give them a try; great stuff.

Sometimes the food at a restaurant is SOOOOOO good you find ways to «forgive and forget» minor flaws in the service, etc. — Pizza Plaza (vegan plaza) is one of those places. It would be impossible to pick which of the vegan pizza combinations is my personal favorite cuz they are all worth having repeatedly.
I wish they could somehow stick around… cuz when it comes to vegan pizza, they are the BEST!!!

Ok so I’d really really really like to give this place a better rating and hope that someday I’ll go back and be able to change it. Nice people and all but I’m really having a hard time calling this pizza. I LOVE pizza and I’m not a snob about it but this is likely the worse pizza I’ve had in a while, it actually made me miss frozen pizza.
I’m all for healthy crusts, organic veggies and cheeses and food prepared with love but its gotta taste good too. The crust isn’t thin or new york style, or deep dish… its kinda just bread. The two pizzas we ordered both had dense crust that was well cooked but was really heavy for the volume and was soft on bottom, almost like it was precooked and then heated with the toppings.
We also ordered some garlic bread, it was a nice idea but I’m still recovering from garlic shock. Raw garlic is cool in small quantities, the single piece of garlic bread I had must have contained at least two cloves and it was spicy and raw. An interesting twist on traditional garlic bread but not good-​interesting unfortunately.
I still have high hopes for this place in the future but a review of recipe quality is probably in order before I can raise my vote on this place.

I understand that there isn’t a lot of love for this place. But as pizza goes, it ain’t bad. I feel the true test of how good a place is, is tastiness of a slice of their cheese. I got a non-​vegan cheese slice, it definitely passed the test. Also, a «slice «of their pizza is the equivalent to two regular slices — bonus.

I was really excited when I found out about this place, but I was totally disappointed.
I ordered a combo pizza and the toppings were soooooooooooooo stingy. I didn’t see any garlic, the sauce was bland, and there was one tiny piece of «sausage» and «salami» per slice of pizza.
It was totally not worth the $ 25 even if they use Teese cheese, which I did enjoy.
With that being said, the guy working there was very friendly, and answered all my questions about my allergies.

I will mention a small negative thing, but i recommend this place.
My experience was all good except one tiny thing. It said on the website if you buy a special pizza you get a free small cheese pizza. Here is the wording from the site under Vegetarian deals «2. A FREE Small cheese pizza when you buy any of our special pizza». So looked on the Special Vegetarian Pizza Menu and picked the Gourmet Garlic Veggie. The pizza came and no free cheese pizza and the guy said you have to ask for that and it costs more. If it costs more how is it free? The wording is not clear on the site and there is definitely no free pizza. It looks like if you pay extra you get a «free» little cheese pizza. Gimme a break.
That being said, the pizza was the best i have had in a long time. It came sooner than they estimated and I am eating leftovers now and it is still as good as when they first delivered it. I hate focusing on the negative aspect in the beginning of this review, but it is an aspect. If i can save one person from mistakenly thinking they might get free mini cheese pizza with their order then having to be so disappointed that they might only be able to eat half of a large pizza then i have done my job.

I’m a fan. Why? Because it’s a good place to get a tasty vegan pizza from friendly people. That’s why. And it’s 10 minutes from my house :)
What’s keeping them back from the full 5 stars, in my opinion, are these things:
1. Décor/​inside could use a makeover. Not much, I mean I like the 80s feel to the place, but it needs just a little more pizazz.
2. It was fuh-​fuh-​freezing inside when we ate there (and the door was open, hence making it even colder!). More heating please!
3. There is inside seating but I think maybe they don’t usually have people eat-​in, because they ran out of cups for our party of 6 (4 adults and two kids). This one isn’t a biggie to me, though.
4. While the service was reasonably friendly, it wasn’t super outgoing either, and I tend to prefer being made to feel extra comfortable and right at home.
These things being said, I loved the pizza (the chyken rustica one was the bommbbbb), I liked that they had decently «volumed» (meaning not blaring/​blasting but still loud enough to enjoy as background music) tunes on overhead, and wait there’s one more… Oh yeah, they have VEGAN pizza!!!
Their prices were whats to be expected from a vegan pizzeria. Like $ 18 for a medium. Rather pricey (if I could have things my way it’d be more like $ 15 max) but I know its specialty shht we’re talking about here.
Last but not least: PROPs to these guys for surviving ONE BLOCK from Pizza Hut on the same street (and even same side of the street mind you!). I’m definitely a fan and will return soon.
^. ^

Very vegan friendly pizza place, kinda hidden… kinda off the beaten path, but well worth stopping by! They have a whole wheat crust, an extensive list of veggies & numerous artificial meat toppings to choose from!
Like some of the other reviews said, its not the BEST pizza, but its nice to have another vegan restaurant option, the owner is very nice & friendly too!

From the outside, I was hoping Pizza Plaza would be a hidden gem, but it was not to be. The people running the place were really nice and friendly. They were helpful and prompt. I just don’t think making vegan pizza is their calling in life.
The crust was mediocre, the tomato sauce was thin and bland, most of the toppings tasted like they came out of a can. The fake cheese was sprinkled in occasional dollops and didn’t taste like much.
It’s okay if the meal costs $ 30 if the food is good and restaurant has a nice interior. It’s also okay to pay $ 10 for a mediocre but filling pizza in a dilapidated kitschy restaurant. But $ 30 for a mediocre pizza in an unpleasant environment? Not okay. There is better vegan pizza to be had for a lower price.

I hate to give a bad review to a place where I can actually get vegan pizza… but Pizza Plaza was a real disappointment.
We ordered a pepperoni pizza. It was OK. The crust was just OK, the sauce was OK, not really enough toppings or cheez to make me happy.
The worst part was the service though. We got it delivered (and yes, I know I should probably be thankful that I could even get a vegan pizza delivered, but whatevs). It took over an hour and a half for the delivery guy to show up… with the WRONG PIZZA. No discount or anything for the long delayed pizza (I think they gave ours to someone else and had to actually make a new one). So after two hours, a good deal of expense (I think it was over $ 20 for a large) considering the quality… I was pretty pissed. Much much much better options in the Bay Area for pizza. I might give it another chance were I to dine in, but definitely never again would I get delivery.

A bit expensive, but pretty damn delicious and make your pizza very quick. I do eat meat, but I don’t miss meat when I eat here.
I might also be partial to liking it because it is right around the corner.

The concept of an all vegetarian/​vegan pizza place is A-​Ok with me.
I just wish that their pizzas tasted a bit better. Lanesplitters does the vegan pizza better than Pizza Plaza, so even though I live really close to Pizza Plaza (and have for 10 months now) I have yet to trek over there for their pizza.
I did have a pizza delivered to my work (in West Oakland ghetto area where there are no places to buy decent food — especially if you are a picky/​health minded eater) during the summer though which was pretty awesome. (Lanespliters either wasn’t offering delivery at that time or wasn’t offering it to where I was — otherwise I would have gone with them.) Sadly though, the vegan cheese (not really a fan of most vegan cheeses) on my pizza wasn’t very good, and the entire pizza was really thin and just overall a bit lacking in the taste department. It was still nice to have a vegan pizza delivered to me when I otherwise might have starved since the other restaurants I was considering for lunch that day didn’t deliver.
If you go to sit down in their location the staff is really nice and they usually have (mediocre but still there) vegan desserts in the form of chocolate cake. They may have some other vegan desserts as well (I seem to recall eating a donut there in 2007), but I haven’t been to the sit down location in a long time.
Anyway, okay food, but you can do better.

NEVER AGAIN.
guy taking order says i’ll have my pizza in 45 minutes to an hour.
an hour and 10 minutes later i call. ‘guy’s on his way’
wait.
hour and a half later i call. ‘guy just left, he will be there in 10 minutes.‘
15 minutes later i’m in a fight with the guy on the phone. placed the order at 7:50pm. it’s been waaaaaaaaaay longer than 45 minutes. now we’re nearing 2 hours.
‘what kind of discount do you want?’ asks the guy ‘i want it half off’ i say. he says he can’t do that.
eff you and eff your pizza. i’m giving you a star cause i can’t give you negative stars.

The ugly truth in the world of vegan cheeses: They just. Don’t. Melt right.
Don’t blame that on Pizza Plaza, they do a mighty fine job with what’s available. This is in addition to a great list of toppings, from veggies galore to an assortment of fake meats. Endless combinations. The owning family is very friendly and the delivery is extremely convenient.
I point out the state of vegan cheese because some tend to assume that it should be pretty close to dairy cheese on a pizza, and then they think it’s the restaurant’s bad when it seems not so close at all.
Maybe a long time from now, in a year or two or something, we’ll all be living like the Jetsons with our hover crafts, robot house keepers, and perfectly melting vegan cheeses. Until then, if you want to venture into the world of vegan cheese pizza, then I recommend Pizza Plaza over all the competitors. They’re supreme at using the vegan cheese available, and until those vegan cheese scientists step it up then I’ll keep ordering from here.

Maybe I’m the only vegan who hates that «melty» vegan cheese… I don’t know… Oh, wait — my boyfriend doesn’t like it either. Well, nevertheless, I am of a rare breed of vegans who doesn’t like eating faux meat to excess or non-​dairy cheese (unless it’s made with cashews and doesn’t «melt»)… But please, oh please, make it known that the vegan pizzas on the menu come with vegan cheese! Because if I knew, I would have made sure to order without it!
Yeah, I like pizza with no cheese. It’s good. It’s like flatbread with good stuff on top. It’s yummy. And I like vegetables (the main reason why I’m vegan — hah).
Anyway, back to the review… I found out about this place on Unilocal.I’d never realized there was a vegan/​vegetarian pizza place in Oakland, so I was pleasantly surprised. My boyfriend and I found ourselves in the east bay and decided to check this place out.
I’m glad to see that the selection of toppings here is massive… And they have vegan ice cream, too! =) My boyfriend and I just ordered a large pizza with like 9 toppings to share… The crust was okay, and the toppings were good, but I just wish it didn’t have the vegan cheese on it, that’s all. I’m sure if I ever go back there, I’ll make sure to ask for NO CHEESE.
Otherwise, this place is cool. There need to be more vegan friendly places like this.

Four years of my life were spent as a vegan. I admit it, dear readers. I am a reformed hippie who still often enjoys vegan treats. There’s something about a vegan pizza that really pleases me, and I’m not sure what. Maybe it’s the thought that I’m so blatantly spitting in the face of other esteemed pizza establishments (ie Zachary’s) to eat this soy concoction.
Sadly, there’s nothing very scandalous about Pizza Plaza. When I first arrived in Oakland as a fresh-​faced 20-​year-​old vegan girl, I was delighted to find out that they delivered. Things like that just don’t happen in Florida.
But now, 4 years later, I kind of see the error of my ways. There isn’t exactly a wealth of vegan pizza options nearby, but you don’t HAVE to order from Pizza Plaza. Sure, sometimes it’ll be good. But usually it will be kind of lackluster. The soy cheese is generally sparse, and the crust really leaves a lot to be desired. The only pizza from the vegan side of the menu that I’ve found to be consistently «meh» as opposed to «WHAT THE FUCK WAS I THINKING?» is the Vegan Greek Goddess.
The vegetarian side of the menu fares a bit better for my taste buds, though pisses off my stomach greatly as I’m pretty lactose intolerant. The Hambasha is pretty good, but seriously… AVOID the Ava Lova. It’s weird.
What I’m really trying to say is… If you’re a vegan and want pizza… Go to Milano. Or make your own. Sometimes the best vegan treats are the ones that you make yourselves, you fucking hippies.

I really wanted to like the pizza, I really did. I have not eaten a take out pizza in a long time since going dairy free. But unfortunately, my taste buds were disappointed. I had the Chickfu pizza and it needed flavor, lots of flavor. The pizza itself was dry, it needed more sauce. Even the soy cheese couldn’t save it.
Maybe I will give this place another chance when I feel like not making my own pizza.

Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza!
THEY HAVE IT!
Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza!
With fake meats! Meat-​lovers! Fake cheeses! Fake cheeses and fake meats!
Vegan Pizza!
And a SELECTION!
Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza!
It’d been yeeeaaarrrsss since I’d had a ham-​pineapple pizza, and I found out about this wonderful little hole-​in-​the-​wall through vegan friends. A short while later, and there I am… sitting in the, well, not the NICEST part of town, salivating at the possibilities.
Do I want the garlic chicken pizza? The meat-​lovers? The greek goddess?
I always order a large. I take the leftovers home and they are demolished before bedtime. Sooo good.
Played a prank on old roommates. Brought the pizza home and chucked it into the ‘fridge. They, knowing I am (was) vegan were a little appalled. What was with all of the cheese and ham? How was I eating that? Had I caved?
I told them I gave up and threw the towel in. I offered up some pizza to celebrate.
Mid-​piece, I told them it was vegan.
They didn’t believe me.
Vegan Pizza! Vegan Pizza!
(I can also add Vegan Ice Cream! Vegan Ice Cream! to this because they’ve started carrying Maggie Mudd’s. Vegan Pizza AND Vegan Ice Cream!)