Naked Pizza

Naked Pizza is a chain with restaurants all over the US.  Recently a location opened in Brighton (and there is another in Brookline).  I’ve never heard of it before I passed it on my way home from work one day, but they now have another loyal customer.  After convincing my coworkers to order it for lunch one day, I’m sure they will be receiving business from us again.

Naked pizza’s whole cache is that you should “think before you bite” and only put healthy foods in your body, but that doesn’t mean those foods can’t be delicious.  It’s the epitome of healthy food that doesn’t taste like diet food.  They have plenty of options no matter what your diet is: gluten free, vegetarian, etc.  So anyone that gives it a shot I’m sure will be able to find something that they want to order.

Food

You begin the ordering process by picking a size: 10, 12 or 14 inch personal pies.  I got the 10 inch, but the next time I would get the 12 inch because I was still a little hungry when I was finished.  Then you pick a crust: the original, skinny or gluten-free.  I went with the skinny which was just as delicious as the original, just with fewer calories.  Your next option is tomato sauce, white sauce or barbecue sauce.  I had the tomato sauce and thought it was excellent.  After that you can either choose your toppings individually or go with one of their pre-selected pizzas.

I had bell peppers, spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms.  I was a little disappointed upon seeing it, because it was a variety of red, yellow and green peppers because I thought it was just going to be green peppers.  However it was delicious and the variety of peppers added some depth and range to the flavor of the pizza.

My coworker had the pre-selected “Mediterranean” pizza (artichoke, sun-dried tomato, red onion, black olive and feta cheese).  She liked it so much that she ate half of it before I got the chance to take a picture of her pizza!  I didn’t get a chance to try it, for fear of her biting my hand for getting in between her and her pizza, but she definitely recommended it.

Complaints

It would be the perfect place to go out to for lunch to get a break in the day, except that there isn’t much seating in the actual location.  This is frustrating if you want to sit there and eat your pizza while it’s hot (and most tasty).  Your options are unfortunately limited to delivery or pick up unless it happens to be empty in there and you score one of the few seats available to patrons.

It’s actually pretty important that you eat it when it’s hot because of the cheese.  While lower fat cheeses may be healthier for you, they don’t taste very good when cold.  So if you get Naked Pizza, try to eat it right away if you want to have it when it tastes best.

My third complaint is that the vegetable choices are surprisingly limited.  While it’s great they have unique choices like jalapenos, black beans and sundried tomatoes.  I was disappointed to see they didn’t have some of my usual toppings, like broccoli, sautéed onion, or eggplant.  If they can just increase the vegetable options I would have given is another “0.5 fork” higher ranking.

Rating:

 2.5 out of 4 forks

Overall I was really happy with my experience at Naked Pizza.  It’s great to have healthy options that are different than the usual salad bar choices.  I would definitely return to try other types of pizza, as long as I planned ahead to take it back to my apartment since I knew I wouldn’t likely be eating there.  While it might not be as delicious as other take out or delivery places, it’s definitely better for my waist-line, which is well worth it!