A new pizza place has opened in University Place, the new public/private student housing on University Avenue on the Downtown Camps. Papa Allen's Pizza features traditional, white, Sicilian and gourmet pizzas, in addition to fried appetizers, wings, salads, calzones, pastas, speciality pastas, burgers, hoagies, wedgies and gyros.

So, really, it's more than a pizza place because they offer a bunch of different items. That's not always the best indication. I'd rather have a restaurant that offers just a few items - but does them all really well, instead of a restaurant that offers a ton but they are all mediocre. But we shall see.


It was lunch time, so I just wanted pizza by the slice. To my surprise, you can only order Sicilian by the slice (not traditional). I was hoping to try one slice of traditional and one of the Sicilian, but that's OK. I got tow slices of Sicilian with mushrooms.

After a bit of waiting, I was served one of my pieces. Tony got both of his - one pepperoni and one sausage. They're large pieces; one would have been enough. At first bite, it seems like the dough is frozen and then baked. The whole thing was a little hard and crunchy. The sauce was far too sweet without much depth. And my mushrooms weren't cooked through, so they were dry in the center.

Not my favorite piece of pizza. Curious about the traditional, though.

Grade: C