| rev:text
| - If you know me you know that I'm all about Grimaldis when it comes to a favorite pizza joint. Ever since that fateful night that I first had my fingers blackened with the coal cooked crust, my taste in pizza has never been the same. I do, on occasion, find myself at other pizza places upon request from other unenlightened friends, which is what has brought me to Balboa Pizza Company on several occasions.
When a friend suggests eating there, I must say that I don't put up a fight or resist in the least, because Balboa does make a fine pizza. It's located in the District so if you go on a weekend evening be prepared to drive around in circles in the parking lot and questioning any fellow passengers as to why exactly the lot is so full. I always assume they're at Lucille's, but just this past Saturday night, it turns out many of them were at Balboa because it was the most crowded I'd ever seen it. Nearly every table and bar seat was occupied, with a large majority of the crowd inexplicably still paying attention to an NFL Playoff blowout. We luckily got a booth, and ordered our usual starter of Crispy Shrimp and Maui Waui fries (if that's a Half Baked movie reference, then :D ) I usually let other people order the pizza type from this point forward, so long as it has some sort of meaty goodness as a topping. This time was the Chicken and Roasted Garlic pizza with jalapenos on the side.
The appetizer came shortly after the first round of alcoholic beverages were nearing depletion, and they were as good as usual. Crispy pieces of fried shrimp mixed in a pail with nicely cooked french fries, and a couple dipping sauces of unknown origin. Lots of little pieces of onion and jalapeno also mixed in for kicks. I wouldn't fathom a visit without ordering this.
The pizza came out while midway through the 2nd round of drinks. As always the crust was soggy towards the middle which made them perfect for folding. I've had several of the pizzas here, and must say that I lean towards the more standard ones that I've tried. The cheesesteak and pulled pork pizzas didn't taste nearly as good as they've sounded when tried on previous visits, but I almost always like a straight up pepperoni with mushroom, chicken and garlic, or other more straightforward ones. One of the few places not in Chinatown where going adventurous ended up backfiring on me.
Service is always great, and they tend to hire wait staff that don't seem to be depressed to be at work which is always a plus. This past visit I even got a great discount for working at CSN, which I didn't even know about and the waiter mentioned it when he saw my debit card. Knocked off $15 or so off the bill, so teachers, take advantage!
So it's not Grimaldis, but in the end it doesn't need to be.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)