Round Table Pizza, Oakland

Sorry, foodie fans, but I'm back in school! Yep, that means my standards for food just got tossed out the window. Actually, I kid. I really like Round Table. Sorry if you just lost all respect for me after reading the last few sentences but I really suggest you give it a try sometime. It's a lot better than most locally owned pizza places I've been to recently, especially if you order correctly. They also deliver to my house, have quick service, and I'm more than satisfied every time.

Humor me by reading my (what I think) is a slightly entertaining story about how I came to love Round Table Pizza so much...

I remember the first time I ever tried Round Table Pizza. On December 17, 2004, I was a Junior at Cal and procrastinating by surfing the internet (pre-food blogging days, obviously) instead of reading Moby Dick for the 8th time. Bored, I went to one of my usual interweb playgrounds, http://ESPN.com and came upon the blasphemous news that Billy Beane had traded my husband (what?), Tim Hudson, to Atlanta.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I compensated for my devastating loss by eating everything in sight. My dear 90-pound roommate Mia had ordered an 8-slice Italian Garlic Supreme and left it sitting out earlier that day after only eating only two dainty slices. Peering into the hallway to see if she was around and would notice, I cut a half slice for myself and quietly chewed. I'd never really had chain-restaurant pizza while growing up, so I was amazed to find that the toppings were actually fresh and that the pizza was truly tasty.

The garlic cream sauce was nice and potent, and the crust had that perfect balance between chewy and crunchy. That tiny half-slice turned into a whole slice as I tried to fill the void in my heart.

Next thing I knew I had eaten the entire pizza. So embarrassing, right? Well it gets worse. I got a call from Mia saying that she and her boyfriend were coming back to our apartment soon. I panicked. Not only is eating an entire pizza embarrassing in general, but to have it not be my pizza to begin with and to have eaten it over a baseball player being traded moves past the point of mortification.

I ended up ordering a new pizza, hiding two slices, and pretending like nothing had happened. No joke.

I'm not one to usually advocate for chains, but the Italian Garlic Supreme really is delicious. The delivery guy at the location on Grand Avenue is also adorably awkward. I expect we'll be seeing a lot of each other this semester as comfort food is definitely in order whilst MCAT studying (Hey Paw Paw, did you read that?! COMFORT FOOD.).

Round Tables are everywhere, just look 'em up online: http://www.roundtablepizza.com.