Pizzaioli Pizza Maker – Chanhassen, MN

TheDoctor gave me a call around the lunch hour to see if I was available. Fortunately, I was. He was feeling pizza and I had seen this place near where we’ve been to lunch before. I wanted to check out Pizzaioli Pizza Maker eventually, so now was as good a time as ever. Especially when he told me they have a lunch buffet. I’m not a huge pizza buffet guy, but for some reason it sounded good, since I was starving.

We went up to the counter and paid the man for our buffet, which includes a drink. It’s all really cheap ($7.47). So far, so good. We found a booth and headed to the buffet. There were four or five different pizzas staying warm under some buffet heat lamps, a salad bar area, and a small rotating cabinet that housed cheese bread and breadsticks in it. I loaded up plate number one.

The first go around was decent. No complaints and for the price, I could put up with just about anything. The only downside I really saw was the marinara sauce for dipping the cheesy bread into was a little watery. The flavor was still good, but it just never seemed like you could get enough sauce on the bite before it spilled off onto the plate. Fortunately, the cheesy bread was excellent and made up for it. The different slices of pizza really made my afternoon. Lots of different meats to choose from and some combinations of things. I got two meat-lover-looking slices, and a Hawaiian slice. The cheezaretti is basically cheese pizza without sauce, so it’s really quite good. The pizza was actually pretty decent. Maybe not my go-to place for pizza, but it is heaps better than CiCi’s Pizza Buffet.

The varieties of pizza were a bit more prevalent in the second trip. I got some jalapeno-ham something or other and a BBQ chicken slice, along with a standard pepperoni slice. All three were pretty good, despite the jalapeno and the BBQ chicken slices both having lots of onions on them. The breadstick with the cheese sprinkled on top was decent as well.

While it’s not going to be my first choice for pizza in the Eden Prairie/Chanhassen area, I know I can eat here and be reasonably full and reasonably happy.

Top 5 things about Pizzaioli Pizza Maker
1. Cheezaretti
2. Meat Lovers
3. REALLY cheap lunch
4. Pepperoni
5. Hawaiian

Bottom 5 things
1. Watery marinara for the dipping sauce
2. Onion in the BBQ Chicken slice
3. Onion in the Jalapeño-Ham slice
4. I didn’t see a single person utilizing the salad bar, which means they could use more space for pizza
5. When the cheese melts back together on the slices, it’s difficult to cut with the serving knife

www.mypizzaioli.com