Pizza Max

Based on the previous entries by sister, the US is by far much better at pizza than the UK. I've had two pizzas since my last entry in January - first up is Pizza Max in Olney.

I really try to stay away from the chain pizza restaurants, but I didn't want to cook dinner one evening, and this was the closest pizza shop around. Unlike my sister, who has 8 or 10 pizza places to choose from in her small little town, this part of the UK just doesn't seem to have many pizza shops. Or - if there are, they're not advertised very well (which is a good possibility - it seems most places have absolutely no web presence!). Anyway, I've got to drive at least 20 minutes to find a pizza shop.

The first challenge was to find the shop - it's hidden back off the side of a small walkway between buildings. Once found, the second challenge was ordering. Having been to several pizza shops now, I've learned that you can't just go in and order a pizza with ham, mushroom and onion. There are "set" combinations, usually named and numbered. You have to find the combination that's closest to what you want, and then "add" whatever it is missing. In this case, I told the guy what I wanted and he found the closest match on the menu, and then suggested I add the onion as an extra topping. Crazy, huh?

As for the pizza itself, the pluses were: it looked good and it was fairly cheap. The minus - taste. The crust had no flavour and I would put money down that it's not made on site. I've had better pizza crusts from frozen pies I get at the grocery. I'd like to comment on the sauce, but there wasn't enough on it to really give me an idea of how it tasted. It appears as though they put some sauce on the dough, and then scrape it all off - and all you're left with is the little bit that has found it's way into the nooks and crannies. As for the cheese, not high quality and little flavour.

Pizza Max is a take-away shop only; it was interesting to sit and people watch whilst I waited on my pizza. At one point, a group of 4 boys came in - probably around 16 - 18 years old. They all had on their ear-flap hats and were carrying around their open cans of Carlsberg (with the rest of the beer in a plastic bag). They sat and drank until their pizzas were ready. You sure wouldn't find that happening in the US.

The Pizza:
















The rating: