Week 12: Palio's Pizza Cafe

Long before this pizza adventure began, our family has been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day by eating pizza.  An odd tradition some might say, but a family tradition nonetheless.  This year was the 12th consecutive year that I have enjoyed a cold beer and a slice of pizza on St. Paddy’s Day.  Another family side note before I get into the details of this week’s pizza: when we first moved to DFW 6 years ago, the first place we had pizza was Palio’s Pizza Cafe in Coppell, TX.  Known for their thin crust and unique topping combinations, we thought we’d try the opposite end of the pizza spectrum compared to last week’s Chicago pizza feast.

There are roughly 20 Palio’s Pizza Cafe’s throughout the DFW area.  While I can’t speak for all of them, the 3 that I have been to are essentially the same.  Fortunately, one of the locations is walking distance from our house.  Based on last week’s lesson of calling ahead, we made our selection from the menu ahead of time and placed a phone order before we got into the car.  Palio’s is a BYOB restaurant, and I was prepared with two Stella’s in my pocket!  When we arrived, the place was empty, which was fine with us because our pizza was ready and hot out of the oven. There was a slight misunderstanding with our order, and our two pizza’s were in boxes ready for take out.  No big deal, we just used the empty table next to us to hold the boxes, and we dug right in!

Alright.  Simlply put, Palio’s offers a good quality pizza.  The toppings are unique and its  the only place I’ve been to that has cashews and dried cranberries on their pizza.  But I will say it is also the THINNEST pizza you will find.  You could literally slide the cheese pizza into a manila envelope and send it across the country via US Post for 44 cents.  It was an extremely tasty pizza, but we were able to devour an extra large specialty pizza and a small cheese with room to spare.  On our x-large we got half “Cade & Blake” which was served on a pesto sauce with artichoke hearts, roasted chicken, tomatoes and mushrooms.  The other half was a “Nutty Chicken” which included roasted cashews, chicken, mushrooms, spinach, and parmesan.  One side was as good as the other.  The ingredients were fresh and delicious, and the crust, while very thin, was sprinkled with a special blend of herbs and spices.  The kids enjoyed the simplicity of the cheese pizza, and to give you an idea of the size, our 3 year old finished 4 full slices and wanted more.

Palio’s has never let us down.  In the last 6 years we have been in the area, we have routinely enjoyed picking up a couple extra large specialty pizzas with a “Manager’s Special Coupon.”  Compared to the other “chain” pizza restaurants in the area, we have always been pleased with the results.  Two things that you can be sure of at Palio’s you will never have leftovers, and neither will your wallet.  The price of the pizza is on the high side, $18 for an x-large.  

The Final Report: 7 out of 10

   

We got a late start on the pizza review this week.  All of our favorites have been done.  Time to start getting creative in our restaurant selection.  Please let us know if there is somewhere we need to try!