• Pizza Rock (Sacramento, California)

M’s friend wants to start a pizza blog.  I was fully supportive and will link to it…as soon as it is started.  In the meantime, M and I were happy to take recommendations for pizza restaurants in Sacramento.  Two options were given.  Pizza Rock was described as the slightly more expensive one but with better pizzas and a strange interior (a car and a rock theme).  When I asked, “what type of pizza do they have, Napoli style or Chicago style” the response was, “oh, they have all types”.

This was not an overstatement.  The menu was divided into different sections based on the origins of the pizza: Napoletana, classic Italian, classic American, Sicilian and Romana. I had to quiz the overly polite waitress on the differences between them which became even more confusing when she explained that we could choose to have a thick or thin base if we preferred.

In the end, M (who is not a fan of sweet flavours in savoury courses) resigned to trying the Honey Pie pizza, from the Napoletana section of the menu.

It was delicious.  The base was thin but soft and well cooked with the bottom slightly blackened from the traditional oven.  I had been drawn to this pizza because the flavours sounded so different to any pizza I had tried before.  Deep fried batter with honey sat on top, this was complimented with sweet ingredients including Piave cheese, caramelised onions and capsicum. Spring onions cut through the sweetness, chili gave it an extra kick and mozzarella held it all together.  It was such a different take on a traditional pizza, but I enjoyed it so much and could not stop commenting about it to M on the bus ride back to her house.


We sat outside and enjoyed people watching and the overly attentive service.  The customer service in the US is so outstanding.  It is too good.  I feel intimidated by it.  Plus, I have no idea how to tip and find the whole experience of tipping stressful.  The waitress kept saying: “sorry to keep you waiting” (when we sat down, before taking our orders, when giving us the bill). I just wanted to yell at her “we only asked two minutes ago, we weren’t waiting stop saying that!” In Australia customer service means being friendly.  In the US it somehow means going to every length to help the customer.  Again I tell you, I feel intimidated by the service and stressed about tipping correctly – I never know how much to tip or when

I really enjoyed the pizza here and would definitely recommend it.  There were several vegetarian options on the menu, but only a couple were more interesting than the standard Margherita.  Saying that the Margherita is internationally award-winning (as they are eager to tell you), so would no doubt be worth trying too.

Pizza Rock
1020 K Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 737 5777

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