We stopped by on the way back to Houston for dinner because we've always wanted to try out Blaze and it was perfect timing. We're used to MOD Pizza so you'll be hearing me mentioning them in this review.
I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo of the menu and prices but Blaze is VERY similar to MOD. Both have industrial but hip vibes. Both make custom pizzas with thin crust being the default (and an option for a thicker crust for an additional cost). Both have homemade lemonades in addition to soda and homey desserts. Both offer vegan cheese and finishing sauces. Both also list their ingredients online which is GREAT. We can't have the pizza sauces at either pizza place.
Differences: Blaze has different pricing tiers for a "simple pie" (just cheese and sauce) then cheese and 1 topping and then 2 toppings. The one at the top is build your own and it's around $10.50. They also have a few ingredients that MOD doesn't have like broccoli, roasted red bell peppers, black olives, Kalamata olives, and banana peppers. Only 2 lemonade (regular, blood orange).
For some background: my family follows an allium free diet. That is we also do not consume anything with onions, garlic, leeks, chives, and shallots in addition to meat, seafood, insects, etc. In addition to that, my youngest has multiple food allergies (wheat, eggs, peanuts, most tree nuts, avocado, pineapple, kiwi). Blaze got on our radar because our youngest can have their gluten free crust (they have a cauliflower crust but that contains eggs). It's a struggle finding him food he can have but also like, but we're willing to try.
I sort of do like their pricing tiers depending on the number of toppings. My husband and I tend to pile things on. My youngest favors a good cheese pie. My eldest likes corn (which is not offered at Blaze) and spinach on hers. It's nice to pay a little less to get less, though the price for the BYO pizzas are a little higher than MOD. It evens out when you calculate the additional cost of the GF crust.
Taste! You usually can't go very wrong with pizzas you designed yourself so it's mostly the service, taste, and crust. And my youngest's opinion on the crust. He is very picky with his GF breads. A point to Blaze for having a crust that is slightly chewier than MOD's! He took 5 small bites and picked at the cheese once before calling it finished. I really liked the crisp on the bottom of my pie. The edges aren't doughy and are also crisp. Toppings are, of course, perfection. We LOVED the blood orange lemonade. It was more sweet than tart so more like juice. My youngest guzzled a cup and didn't puke due to the acidity. LOL.
The place seemed somewhat clean. I didn't spot anyone wiping down tables but I did go to the bathroom once so maybe I missed it. Our table seemed okay. When I mentioned food allergies, they didn't seem to take any extra precautions. I'm not sure if it's because they don't encounter it much or it was only a cheese pizza so it went straight into the oven. They didn't offer any finishing sauces (not like we could have any). They don't seem as very helpful or friendly? More to the point, though they were great at teamwork to get the pizzas moving when there was a delay (8 pizzas and 1 person became 4 people).
Oh. Some points to MOD: I can have their fig balsamic finishing sauce and it takes my pizza to the next solar system. Not that the ones here were bad (the pineapple on mine gave me some moisture), but I love sauce. Also, the staff at MOD (I've been to 3-4 locations) tends to be more knowledgeable about diets and food allergies and try more to connect.
Overall: great first experience! We'll keep an eye out for a Blaze closer to us. The only downside is they aren't as convenient as MOD. And no sauces. I'll need to go to more locations to get a better idea. read more