I know it has been two long weeks, but everyone can quit their complaining because we have finally eaten some pizza. Like the first day of kindergarten, we were full of nervous excitement. Also like the first day of kindergarten, our parents stood next to us while we waited for the bus and Dan wouldn’t stop crying, but that’s neither here nor there. Based on the recommendation of our good friend Brian, the Quest had its inaugural taste at Kostaki’s Pizzeria, located near the intersection of Chapel Hill and Scott. Fallon and Gilman were both present at the event as well as our new contributor/photographer, Jenni. None of us had ever been to Kostaki’s before, but we all left agreeing it was better than the food served at kindergarten.
The Rating System:
We decided on an eight-category rating system: sauce, crust, cheese, toppings, ambience, presentation, service, and prices. Each person gave a rating of 1 to 5 for each category and the scores were averaged. Jenni is a vegetarian (yeah, I know) so she will not be providing a rating for the toppings category. The individual averages will also be averaged together to calculate the Ultimate Pizza Rating (UPR). Any pizza that earns less than a 1.5 UPR will be brandished with a Kansas City Royals logo and will forever live in shame with the likes of Ross Gload, Joey Gathright, and Jimmy Gobble. Any pizza that earns a UPR of 4.5 or higher will be given the prestigious ranking of “Johnny-5” based on the Academy Award winning (?) films Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2.
The Order:
1 Large Pizza
- ½ Cheese, ½ pepperoni and Italian sausage, pepperjack and mozzarella cheese
1 Large Cheese Bread
2 Boulevard Wheat, 1 Bud Select
Price – $25.20 ($8.40 / person)
Wait Time – 18 minutes
Not quite a Johnny-5 pizzeria but certainly worth the greenbacks. Kostaki's is streets-ahead as far as pizza in Como goes. Great cheese, good prices. The only knocks on this restaurant would be over-priced beer ($2.50 bottles) and poor weather control (It was raining).
Crust - 5
Cheese – 5
Toppings –4
Ambiance –3
Presentation –3
Service – 3
Prices – 5
Average - 4.0
Gilman’s Take:
This was one of the better pizzas I’ve had in Columbia. The pepperjack cheese and sausage were spicy but delicious. The crust was really soft and doughy which made it taste great, but it made for a flimsy pizza that was hard to eat. The price was excellent and left me with enough money to rent Short Circuit 2 again. Unfortunately, this was the closest Kostaki’s would get to the coveted “Johnny-5” ranking. Bonus points for awesome cheese bread and paintings of ex-presidents enjoying a game of poker.
Crust - 4
Cheese – 5
Toppings – 5
Ambiance – 3
Presentation – 3
Service – 4
Prices – 4
Average – 4.0
Jenni’s Take:
Kostaki's? More like Kos-tasty's...or Tast-aki's!! You get the point. Flimsiness aside, this pizza (or dego pie) delighted my tastebuds to the max! "Kostaki's Pizza, eat it with your mouth!"
Sauce - 3
Crust - 2
Cheese – 5
Toppings – n/a
Ambiance – 4
Presentation – 3
Service – 4
Prices – 4
Average – 3.57
Ultimate Pizza Rating – 3.86
So that wraps it up for our first pizza tasting. Although it didn’t quite make it to the Johnny-5 level, Kostaki’s receives a strong vote of approval from the members of the Quest. Keep checking in with us, and we’ll continue to drop some serious pizza knowledge. We've posted the spreadsheet of our UPRs, and we will update it after each visit. For those of you who still haven’t done so, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We want to get a wide audience, so tell your friends about us. That’s all for now. This is Fallon and Gilman’s Como Pizza Quest signing off.
