REVIEW #2
Tonight we visited Pandora’s Pizza located at 828 N. Coast Hwy, Leucadia. Low and behold, my FB announcement worked because friends showed up making us a party of 11.
Walking up to the restaurant, I noticed two very cool lounge areas for large parties to sit, chill and eat pie with friends. Of course these were already taken by the time we arrived. The rest of the out door seating was fine, just average tables, but none of which would seat a large group comfortably. After inspecting the situation of the two lounges, I realized one of them had only a party of three using it, and their plates were dirty and empty. They must be ready to leave! But to my horror, the hoarding creatures sitting there weren’t regular humans, they were….dum..dum.,.DUMMMM……TEENAGERS! Self-centered, phone-staring, too-cool-to-be-bothered, teenagers. I not so subtly had my friends and I hang a little too close and wait for them to notice that it was time to vacate. I coughed, I spoke loudly “I THINK WE WILL BE GETTING THIS LOUNGE VERY SOON GUYS!” I even gave them The Evil Eye. Just when I was about to break out in the 80’s Oingo Boingo song “Goodbye-Goodbye” (click on the link below, it’s a great song, just not when sung by me), they hauled their useless carcasses up and left. SCORE! The lounge was tres cool, and perfect for our party of 11!
The menu includes a variety of delicious sounding salads and specialty pizzas named after Greek Gods that are laden with unusual ingredients like pear, figs, candied pecans, goat cheese and Sriracha sauce among others. If you buy a large, you can split it having two different Gods on the same pizza which we chose to do. We ordered half Prometheus and half Vulcan. The salad came first filled with fresh greens, mixed berries, feta cheese with a light dressing. It was a hit! Now when it comes to pizza, I hold everything in comparison to the Holy Grail of pizzas which, for me, is at Buona Forchetta. Since I am only blogging about dining on the 101 in Encinitas, and Buona Forchetta is located at 3001 Beech St. (South Park) San Diego, I can’t tell you about the amazing homemade authentic pizzas they make using recipes of their ancestors from Italy. It wouldn’t be right to mention their pizza “Marisa” with their luscious pesto, fresh, crisp, grape tomatoes and pine nuts toasted to perfection. So good, that you have to rethink if it is even worth eating any other pizza for the rest of your life. So I will stick to Pandora’s, which was in fact, very good.
As a bacon-loving-Jew, the Prometheus had an excellent combo of gourmet ingredients that worked well together, crispy bacon, of course, being the high-light. The sriracha cream on top was just the right amount of spicy. The Vulcan side of our pizza held her own to the Prometheus half with yummy things like candied pecans and an arugula salad on top. How can pizza be bad for you with all of those leafy greens just sitting there, waiting to make you healthy? Our friends loved the pizzas they ordered as well.
Bottom Line: Pandora’s Pizza is a superb place to come for great salads and unique, tasty pizza. Come prepared for battle to get one of the lounges, because that is the place you want to hang. And if you do make it down to Buona Forchetta, say hello to Sofia for me (their handmade pizza oven with clay that comes straight from the Sorrento region in Italy. Yes, she’s named Sofia.)
Good-bye, Good-Bye by Oingo Boingo
Dining on the 101 