Michael’s Pizza – St. Paul, MN

We’ve driven by Michael’s Pizza a few hundred times going to or from our house and had always wanted to try it. The main reason for that is because Michael’s Pizza is where D.Rough’s parents had their first date. I don’t think this is the exact location, since it was a *few* years ago, but we knew it held some sort of nostalgia reason for eating there.

The inside is dark and probably hasn’t changed much since it opened. It’s got old timey wallpaper, dark wood paneling, and dim lighting. But as soon as we walked in, the staff was chatting us up and interacting (not in a bad way, thankfully). Very personable bunch and sort of a family-run unit. We scanned the menu and decided on the Super Special – if you’re there, you might as well get something that a lot of people order, right? The Super Special has cheese, onions, Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, black and green olives, green peppers, and shrimp. Sound like a lot of toppings? Sure. But it still sounded really appetizing!

The place wasn’t busy, so we grabbed a booth and hung out until the pizza showed up. During that time, the delivery guy came and collected pizzas for the next set to be delivered. This place does killer delivery business, AND we found out they deliver until like 2am most night! Now we can’t wait to capitalize on that!

The pizza was pretty massive. TONS of toppings and cut into squares, like typical Minnesota pizza. I haven’t had shrimp on a pizza before, but it wasn’t bad, honestly. A little odd at first, but then you get used to it. But they didn’t hold back on any of the toppings, which we were happy to see. Great thin crust that stayed crispy. While this isn’t the most mind blowing pizza in the world, it IS really good pizza. I wouldn’t hesitate to go here again and since I drive by it so often, it is extremely likely that will happen. Plus, when you need that 1:30am pizza after a roller derby bout, they may be getting a call from C and D.Rough!

Thanks for the solid pizza, Michael’s!

Michael’s Pizza
441 S. Robert St.
St. Paul, MN 55107
(651) 222-5252

Fireside Pizza - Richfield, MN

We decided to order pizza last night and wanted to try something new so I used google maps to find a pizza place with a good chance of delivering to us. I called Fireside Pizza and was put on hold. I waited 4 minutes and asked Chao if he thought I should hang up and call again. He told me to wait. After 7 minutes he agreed that they might've forgotten about me. I called back and was put on hold again for about 5 minutes. I figured at this point this was just routine for them. I tried to think of it in a positive way. Such as, "Hey! This place must rule if you have to be put on hold for long periods of time to place an order!" Anyway, I finally placed the order and as I was asking how long it would take for delivery she hung up on me. We weren't in a terrible rush so that was fine.

I can't even tell you how long the pizza took because I wasn't paying attention but if I was forced to guess I would say about an hour. Their pizza is thin crust and we ordered it with breakfast bacon, canadian bacon, pepperoni, and italian sausage (we sort of like meat). Their website declared that they make their sausage fresh daily which sounded promising. I also ordered a full order of garlic bread with cheese because I wanted to ensure leftovers since I am home from work for a few days this week with the pneumonia situation. After living in the suburbs of Chicago for three years I have high standards for pizza. When I think of great thin crust pizza I compare to Rosati's as their thin crust is fantastic. This was just average in comparison. The meat was pretty good but the sauce was just okay. The garlic bread with cheese was big slices of bread covered in garlic butter with a thick layer of cheddar and mozzeralla cheese blend on top and that was super good. This place was way better than Ramy's, but in no way as good as Carbone's which is the best pizza we have had up here so far. I would order from Fireside Pizza again if we need a place that delivers to us (which Carbone's does not) and if they had a good special.

Top 5:
1. Good meat
2. Garlic bread with cheese was good
3. We are in their delivery area
4. Didn't take too long for delivery on a holiday
5. Made decent leftovers

Bottom 5:
1. Kind of expensive
2. Sauce could be better
3. Phone orders take a long time
4. Not enough cheese
5. Average pizza as a whole

http://dinewithfiresidepizza.com/