Davenport's Pizza Palace (GoogleMap)
2837 Cahaba Rd
Birmingham, AL 35223
205.879.8603
Davenport's Pizza Palace is located in Mountain Brook, Alabama, a well-heeled, old-money suburb of Birmingham. Davenport's is consistently voted as "Birmingham's Best Pizza" by various local surveys. Chicago Pizza Club: Operation Birmingham went undercover and on the case to find out how Davenport's measured up.
The pizza place itself is a quaint pizzeria, offering thin crusts only. You can see people preparing doughs and pizzas right in the front window. There are arcade-style video games to pass the time while you wait for a table, and the wait staff generously agreed to give us six mugs of beer instead of one pitcher. After a half-hour wait, we were seated in a cozy booth. We were not given new mugs for a different kind of beer we ordered after sitting down. But the waitress did not know it was different, so we won't hold that against her.
We quickly decided on three medium pizzas: Rex's Special with onions, sausage, and green peppers; Meat Lover's with ham, sausage, and pepperoni; and Veggie with black olives, green peppers, and Roma tomatoes.
The pizzas were delivered in a timely fashion and all came out at the same time. The circular pizzas are cut into small squares, and I noticed right away that there was excellent topping distribution -- even though the squares were small, each one (for the most part) had each topping represented.
The toppings on each pizza were fair to good. The sausage was nice and one guest of the CPC noticed fennel. The Roma tomatoes were fresh, and really not bad considering that it is the middle of December. The sauce was tasty, but average. There was not too much nor too little sauce, which was appreciated.
Where Davenport's falls short is the crust. The edge of the pizza had a fair chew, but the inner parts of the pizza fell limp, and some slices were even soggy. The toppings became separated from the crust on nearly every slice I had, because the crust could not bear the weight of the toppings.
Davenport's is close to being a good pizza -- considering the decent toppings, even distribution, and tasty, if not spectacular, sauce. But the dough and the crust keep it from meeting its full potential.
- Review submitted by Amanda
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
[Special Report] Davenport's Pizza Palace
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3 comments:
As noted in the review, the toppings were fair, the sauce was average, and the crust left much to be desired. Davenport's offers a very good time and nice atmosphere, but I really can't get over the crust. The middle pieces were almost soggy and the toppings routinely came separated. If you go, definitely get the sausage. It was the best topping.
I give Davenport's a 5.25.
Davenports?!? Try Tortugas in Bham. It's one of the few edible pies in all the South. Owners are former Edwardo's employees.
Just visited Davenports while in Birmingham. The pizza was very good however the middle was soggy. The only real complaint that we had was the smell coming from the drink preparation area. Being in the restaurant business for many years, I can say that they need to flush their drains both in the floor and on the drink fountains daily with clorox water. This area should be cleaned and sanitized daily and by the smell, obviously it is not being cleaned.
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