Adventure #31: Rockin Tomato Pizza Company

[8/27/2013 edit: the location we reviewed has closed, but a south Austin location is still open]
This is important > If you go to Rockin Tomato, you need to get the Garlic Bread Twists. They are delicious, well seasoned, generously portioned, and the twisty shape itself is the perfect food to just sit there and snack on. Ian proclaims this to be the best bread appetizer he's had so far while adventuring. I proclaim this to be one of the only pizza-related foods that is allowed to go anywhere near ranch dressing.




Before talking about the pizza, I would like to mention that I really enjoyed the atmosphere at Rockin Tomato*. There was live music (and they were actually entertaining), you order at the counter, and it seems like a great, laid back place to grab a beer and a pizza.

We had a hard time deciding what we wanted. None of the specialties grabbed our attention. I suppose that after 30 of these we're starting to get a sense of what we do and don't like and what might actually be a good idea versus what's on the menu to please the masses (a "supreme" style pizza, a "all the meats" style pizza, a "Hawaiian" pizza, etc). After a lot of deliberation we decided to break a rule, take advantage of a special price on 3 topping pizzas, and choose our own combo. We went with bacon, red onions, and meatballs.


Here's the breakdown from the bottom up:

• Crust - fairly typical and not necessarily the best, it reminds us a lot of Mr Gatti's crust, fairly tastless, no edges but not quite a thin crust, jazzed up along the outer edge with some garlic butter and herbs to make more palatable
• Sauce - subtle when isolated, but was very good when meshing with the cheese
• Cheese - this was good, and also pretty standard, they didn't try to do anything special here
• Toppings - all of them were good. Ian liked the size of the red onion chunks. I thought the meatballs, while not being seasoned enough for my tastes, added a good texture to their bites. The bacon was no-surprises bacony.

Overall, this is a solid no-surprises pizza. I would go there again, especially if I was trying to please a diverse group who may be more resistant to adventurous pizza.

-Karin

*The other location in South Austin has a separate website but an almost identical menu.