Date
1/21/09
Location
About 10 miles south of Charlottesville along 29
3586 Monacan Trail, North Garden
What I ate
16" pizza, whole wheat crust, with green peppers, caramelized onions, and artichokes
Who went
Anjie, Suzie, Matt, Nora, Miles, and Patrick
Website
http://www.doctorhoshumblepie.com/
Thoughts
It's about as hole-in-the-wall as a pizza place can get and it wasn't my discovery, but I've been a big fan for a while now. This review is partly based on tonight's trip and partly on the other times I've gone; I think it gives a more useful picture.
Dr. Ho's is foremost a pizza place. They have some standard pizza-place specials but a few interesting ones you won't find most places. You have a lot of flexibility if you want to design your own pizza (we did this time) and they use great ingredients. I can't speak to the quality of the meats other than the chicken (great, especially the BBQ), but I typically hear sounds that indicate happiness from the people eating pizzas with bacon or pepperoni on them. The veggies usually stand up against the sauce and cheese.
The service isn't the friendliest, but it's usually efficient. The tables are a little on the small side; this is made more evident when your pizza arrives. That said, drinks are refilled quickly and the pizza arrives piping hot. In fact, you probably want to wait a little bit before eating your first bite.
The place is quite small and made even smaller once or twice a week when they bring in live music. As cool as the music can be, there's no separation between it and the diners, and it takes away some seats often leading to a wait to sit down. They only have two "large" tables, so don't bring a party there. The tables seat 4 easily and can be combined with some flexibility. The place is run by a bunch of hippies, but I mean that in a nice way. The mood is very laid-back.
Recap
Pros - The pizza is delicious. The menu is surprisingly varied (look past just pizza sometime) and I really like the atmosphere.
Cons - I didn't feel quite full afterwards. Also, cramming a band into the already-small space makes things quite cramped and conversation difficult.
Overall - It's still my favorite pizza place around here. I'll probably try to avoid nights when there's music, but it's always fun.
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1 comment:
I was pretty impressed. I did like the make-your-own pizza options, because it seemed like they did it much better than most other pizza joints in the area. I also thought the service was great. It wasn't rude, and it was prompt. I don't need to be fawned over, I just need someone to get me a drink and take my order.
The bacon was delicious, but a pizza lover will tell you it's not the toppings, it's the sauce. They make a pretty good pizza here. Cramped? a bit. I felt like when two of us were early and holding down the tables for the rest of the group we were getting dirty looks from the people waiting for seats. But I enjoyed the music despite the space it took.
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