So, Sam and I just moved from South Texas to the Dallas area and we're in our new place for the first night. Tonight was our first time having a meal at home and we went for tried and true pizza. Zalat Pizza is a place we've seen that has been recommended a couple times, and we've seen it has an interesting menu and good ratings, so we went for it. Pretty good! I like the variety of their menu. It's a good mix between traditional and zany, though I think the crust and cheese are a little flimsy compared to the good ingredients they use.
Pizza #1: Sweet Revenge
"Bacon onion jam with infinity swirls of house-made hot honey, mozzarella, salami, crushed red pepper, fresh basil, and a little extra basil on the side. This is likely the best pizza you have ever had in your life."
This is definitely one of the most interesting flavors of pizza I've ever had. If I had to describe the main flavor, it reminds me of Jack Links Sweet & Hot Beef Jerky. The bacon jam is really good, but the basil also gives it a nice green taste. I don't think you'd like it if you don't like the idea of pizza with sweet meat flavors, but I think it was definitely a cool thing to try and I'd definitely go for it again. Bonus points. They just gave us all the basil in a little cup to spread as we pleased, which is great if you don't want that flavor in the mix.
Pizza #2: The OG
"All-beef pepperoni, salami, cracked black pepper, and pickled giardiniera."
For the second pizza, we went with more traditional Italian flavors. Full disclosure, I love the restaurant Potbelly's and am a freak for good giardiniera. This delivered. Good pickled spice and vegetable mix without any sweetness, but a nice zing to it. Worth noting too that Zalat's pepperoni and salami seem like proper deli cold cuts compared to the generic pepperoni a lot of places use. It comes through in the taste too.
First impressions
Overall, I was very impressed with Zalat's for our first Dallas at-home meal. They have a lot of weird things on their menu including a Nashville hot chicken pizza and even an elote sweet corn pizza with a lemon pepper reduction. They also have a lot of traditional options with just really good looking ingredients like your typical meat lovers, supreme, or pepperoni.
The crust and cheese is only okay (it only comes in one style), which would normally be a deal breaker for me, but this is one of the few occasions where the ingredients on top more than make up for it. Thankfully they make a Sriracha ranch dressing to dip the crust in, so that's nice too. It's a bit pricey too, but I think that might be fair considering it's not a super franchise and they use such good quality toppings. The marinara sauce is also nice, robust and zesty. All in all, good pies and I'm excited to explore them more.
