Mamma mia! A Seattle favorite has arrived.
Zeeks Pizza recently opened its 13th restaurant in Lynnwood. It’s tucked on busy 196th Street SW on restaurant row, with Red Lobster, IHOP, Jack in the Box and a bunch of other eateries.
I went shortly after 11 a.m. on a rainy Monday. I was the only customer, but there were obviously orders in the works because the seductive aroma of baking pies permeated the air.
At the front counter lined with growler bottles, the hostess helped me decipher the menu for carry-out. I ordered three pizzas to take to work, so I could bribe folks to help write this review. Adding growlers would have helped with the bribery.
While waiting, I wandered around the pizzeria, scoping out the place. I could envision it brimming with people talking and eating at the long wooden table lined with benches or kicked back in the big booths with tall backs and cushioned seats. There were also tables with chairs.
Sports flashed on the two large TVs behind the bar, which can be seen from some tables and booths for diehards dining with the family. Kids can stand at the large glass window to watch the pizza artists tossing dough and making specialties such as “Cherry Bomb” and Canadian bacon topped “John Candy.”
The floors are wood. The walls are wood. Pipes hang from ceiling. Red candles dot the tables. A sign near the bar reads “No minors. No firearms.”
Simple ambience at its finest.
The 15-minute wait went by quickly.
The bill was $92 plus a few bucks for the helpful hostess.
My editor was shocked. Ninety bucks for pizza?!?
Calm down, boss. There’s a reason. According to the website, Zeeks was founded under the simple premise that pizza should be flavorful, not just cheap and fast. As their story goes: “Life is too short for crappy pizza.”
I agree, even though I’ve never met a pizza I didn’t like, even a crappy one.
Pizzas sampled by newsroom workers and Frontier Communications building mates were: Legion of Shroom ($30.99/large), Kitchen Sink ($29.95/large) and Veggie Thai (medium, $19.95 plus $3.50 for gluten-free crust).
Veggie Thai has broccoli, red onions, green peppers, bean sprouts, carrots and cilantro over mozzarella, peanut sauce and an olive oil glaze. Choose 1 to 5 stars: I picked 3.
Kitchen Sink toppings include pepperoni, Italian sausage, chicken, bacon, mushrooms, black olives, green peppers, tomatoes, garlic and oregano over mozzarella and tomato sauce.
Legion of Shroom has shiitake, oyster and white mushrooms, Italian sausage, Asiago cheese, goat cheese, garlic and oregano over mozzarella, porcini and caramelized onion sauce and a truffle oil glaze. It’s available in vegetarian without the sausage.
Shiitake mushrooms on pizza was a first for me. This pizza also ranked first.
Herald features writer Gale Fiege said it best: “The Legion of Shroom was out of this world. The variety of mushrooms, cheeses (especially the goat cheese), little bits of sausage and oils make this a pizza lover’s gourmet delight. Tasty, filling and special. Appropriately named, this pizza is as powerful as the Seahawks Legion of Boom.”
Editorial page editor Jon Bauer was also a fan: “Really like the mushroom pizza, great combination of flavors with the mushrooms, sausage and goat cheese. Like that it didn’t use a tomato sauce, allowing the toppings to show through. Great pizza for fall weather.”
Peri Whitney of Frontier gave it the nod: “Very generous and full of flavor. A must for any ’shroom lover and the little dollops of feta cheese was a perfect complement to the pizza.”
Jim Corwin, a Frontier manager, put it this way: “The pizza was a good balance of crust and tasty toppings. There wasn’t too much sauce overpowering the toppings so the mushrooms and cheese were allowed to bless the palate.”
Jacquelyn Howell of Sound Media is a gluten-free guru: “Most gluten-free pizza crust is really dry and brittle, tasting more like a cracker than bread. But Zeeks gluten-free crust was moist and tasty yet still strong enough not to crumble under heavy toppings. You’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between this and a regular thin crust. At a spice level of 3 out of 5 stars, this pizza was plenty spicy. No need for those extra packets of crushed red pepper.”
Even Herald digital editor Chuck Taylor approved: “I hate mushrooms, so I tried the third option. It’s gluten-free, and quite tasty. Normally when I’m tricked into eating it, I spit out gluten-free food.”
Reporter Amy Nile went for the Kitchen Sink: “The crust is doughy and yummy despite that it was slightly overdone. The pizza was fresh and not greasy.”
As for the drinks, Zeeks has 15 craft beer and cider on tap, including local fare like Big E Ales root beer, Wander Belgian Blonde and Reuben’s Hot Tropic. There are also a number of bottled beers and ciders, including gluten-free Omission IPA from Widmer Brothers.
The wine list has a number of Washington options, including Alexandria Nicole Pinot Gris from Horse Heaven Hills and Red Mountain’s Kiona Sangiovese.
Andrea Brown at 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @reporterbrown.
Zeeks Pizza
4309 196th St. SW, Lynnwood; 425-893-8646; www.zeekspizza.com.
Delivery available.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Alcohol: 15 beers and cider on draft, more by the bottle; wine by the glass or carafe. Application made for liquor license.
Happy Hour: 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, with drink specials, $4 breadsticks and $4 half salads.
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