The pizza on Hilltop is what I remember from Brooklyn Park creamy cheese and good crisp crust.

I would suggest the reviewer give the Hilltop location another try as 9 times out of 10 I have had good pizza.

I have been to the other locations in Blaine and others, but nothing brings it home like the original in Columbia Heights. Growing up my brother and I would play the Ms Pac Man machine. Occassionally another regular would come in and play the old game as well. Just your everyday average local pizza joint. Of course now it is twice as large with a bar, but some of the original paneling and fixtures are still around.

I actually drive out of my way to go to Tasty’s. I live about an hour and a half south of Tasty’s and will drive that distance just for a nice square piece of pizza. I keep my dentist in Fridley simply because I like another excuse to get up close to Tasty’s.

If you have not had Tasty’s – try it! You just might like it.

I’ve lived in the Twin Cities for over 20 years (after living between Philadelphia and NY for 30 years), and I still don’t understand cutting the pizza into little squares. When I showed it to a New Yorker friend, he thought it was a sacrilege.

Here’s an example of pizza love and fanaticism in expatriates from good pizza lands:
http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

Many people rave about Beek’s Pizza and Broadway Pizza, but I’d rather get a high-end frozen pizza and pay less.

One very good and interesting frozen “pizza” is at Trader Joe’s for $4 or $5. It’s actually called a French “tartlet,” with a very thin crust, and ham and gruyere cheese on top. If you bake it just enough, and keep an eye on the oven, it won’t turn into a big cracker. VERY tasty.

If you want New York style pizza, with the thin but springy crust ( NOT like a cracker), and cut into pie wedges as God intended for pizza, Broder’s at 50th and Penn is a “best buy” with no compromise in quality. I haven’t tried Brianno’s in Eagan, but their authentic subs lead me to believe that their pizza is worth trying. Punch is excellent, but they can be a bit snooty and their prices are high. Slice of NY (on Nicollet) is good.

A new contender is Minnehaha Pizza, in the new strip mall right by the Cub Foods at Minnehaha Mall on east Lake St. (across the street from Rainbow Foods.) They know how to make NY pizza, despite there being no Italians working there.

I have no clue where to get “live” Chicago pizza. I asked a friend from Chicage, and he suggested getting a frozen Home Run Inn Pizza, which has about 5000 calories per slice, even when meatless. Once in a while Aldi’s will have a special order of frozen Uno pizzas, and they’re OK.

I almost forgot to mention another kind of pizza you can get back east, and that’s the very thick, square Sicilian pizza. I like them, too, but there’s no hope of finding one until I go back there to visit.

Another thing that saddens me is what passes for sub sandwich bread around here. Even though it’s far from Italian, I love the sandwiches you can get at some Vietnamese restaurants and delis. Now, THAT’S the kind of fresh crusty bread they should be using in subs, not that mushy, Wonder-bread, two-day-old stuff.

After saying all that, I have to admit that the restaurant food in the Twin Cities has improved tremendously in the last 20 years. At least half of that is thanks to Asian immigrants. It’s a lot harder to find a decent European restaurant with moderate prices that it is to find an Indian one. It’s not even too hard to find good Afghan food. (Check out Crescent Moon on Central Ave. NE. Their version of pizza is pretty nice! Plus they have a lot of other very tasty stuff.)

In other words, it’s sorta cultish!

How about a review of the Flameburger hashbrowns next, or the lunch beffet at either of the two Marina’s?

I have had Village Pizza… as well as Randy’s and Pizza Factory in North Saint Paul. They’re all decent but all somewhat similar to Tasty Pizza. If I had to pick a favorite, I’d say Randy’s Premiere Pizza in NSP. Pizza Factory always has cops in it for some reason too. You’ll be safe there. The service at Village can get slow at times as well. All and all though, Village Pizza isn’t bad. Call beforehand and find out their hours though – if I remember correctly they’re closed at some weird times.

2565 7th Ave E, St Paul, MN
651-777-5440

You have to realize that the reason we really north northeasterners talk about it is because our delivery options are abysmal. We have pizza hut, tasty, pizzaman, and that’s pretty much it. Snap will deliver to us if we tell them they’ve done it before, but that was an accident, since we are one block over from their delivery area.

As someone who used to live downtown and uptown, it’s heartbreaking to lose luce, leaning tower, etc, and just have Tasty

In the SW metro you don’t have a lot of choices…I generally try to pick Detellos in EP as their thin crust is usually much more satisfying.

That place has been there since I was little, though I don’t know if it was always the same name. They used to have little jukebox things on the tables.

This is the kind of pizza meant by the old joke: “Pizza is a lot like sex. Even when it’s bad, it’s pretty good!”