Restaurant Review: Howie's Artisan Pizza

Howie's Artisan Pizza - dinner on August 16, 2013

I had never heard of Howie's Artisan Pizza before but the night I met my cousin and Vanilla King for dinner at Mayfield Bakery & Cafe, we passed by Howie's on our way to the Palo Alto Cream as Howie's was located in the same Town & Country Village just outside the Stanford campus.  They had a menu posted on the outside of the restaurant so we ventured a look.  Despite already being full from dinner and trying to save room for ice cream sandwiches for dessert, the menu looked mouth watering and we resolved to come back and try out Howie's.

Garlicky Prawns appetizer

I ended up trying it out first because when I met Lisa, one of my oldest friends from high school, for dinner last month, I suggested Howie's. Lisa was up for it and we have compatible eating tastes so it was easy to agree on Garlicky Prawns for the appetizer and we split the Baked Potato Pizza.  I don't have a picture of the inside of the restaurant because we never went in.  Howie's has outdoor seating and it was nice summer night with perfect weather so it was an easy choice to make to be seated outside.

Baked Potato Pizza

The Garlicky Prawns were delicious. As someone partial to shrimp, I really enjoyed them. It comes with garlic bread which can also be ordered as a separate appetizer but I'd go with the two-fer and get the prawns instead so you can have both.  The Baked Potato Pizza had scalloped potatoes, grueyere cheese and bacon.  It was also tasty although our choice of toppings was probably a bit more carbo-loading than I needed.  Potatoes aren't a typical pizza topping for me so I thought it would be interesting to try. Uh, tasted just like sliced potatoes on a pizza :). The crust was also good.  It wasn't as thick as Premier Pizza's but still a decent thickness with a crisp edge if you don't want to gorge on too much bread. Think of it almost like a perfect blend of flatbread and deep dish pizza.  It's got the crunch of flatbread pizza at the edges but also the satisfying chewiness of deep dish in the middle.

Price-wise, Howie's is inline with specialty, mom-and-pop places with good pizza so I didn't mind paying it. I'm always of the mindset that I'd rather pay a few extra bucks for good food made well than get the mass-produced cheap stuff which isn't very good or is only "okay". From their website, Howie's looks like they've been in business since late 2009 and, 4 years later, they appear to still be thriving by the crowd there on the Friday night we went.  It's also very family friendly (lots of kids in action) if you wanted to bring your family out for a good pizza night.