What comes to mind when you hear the words “Korean pizza” – bulgogi for sure, but condensed milk? You’ll find them both at Mr. Pizza, Korea’s top pizza chain, which recently opened in the Westfield Century City Mall. Offering some truly unusual (if not downright bizarre) pizza combinations, this isn’t your typical food court Sbarro.

The screens above list the names of pizzas, as well as pasta and salads, but fail to give descriptions of what the ingredients might be.  If you don’t like surprises, you’re best off looking at the website first to see what the various options are.

Selections range from your traditional classic thin crust pizza (cheese, pepperoni and margherita) to their premium pizza with stuffed crust options (sweet potato, broccoli, mocha bun, to name a few) and names like Lovely Piece and Sweet Piece.  Some pizzas sound like they were created by someone who was stoned – like the Lovely Piece (sweet chili sauce, bell pepper, rib eye steak, cajun shrimp, cream cheese, blue cheese, hash brown, Emmental cheese and sweet potato mousse crust) or the Sweet Piece (condensed milk sauce, corn, pineapple, sweet potato, bacon bits, almond flakes, streusel, cranberry, hash Brown, Emmental cheese and sweet potato mousse crust). Can’t decide between the two? Get the Romantic Combo – 1/2 Lovely and 1/2 Sweet).

Once you’ve placed your order, you get a buzzer to indicate when your food is ready. Be prepared to wait as each pizza is made to order. Ordering a slice of pizza isn’t even an option. If you’ve got kids, they might enjoy watching the pizzas getting made, especially seeing the dough getting tossed in the air.

Mr. Pizza has a lunch combo – for $9.99, you get a small pizza (or pasta dish), soup of the day, salad and a fountain drink. The pizza choices are limited to the more traditional flavors, which was fine by me since I am not going to take foolish risks with my pizza.

The soup of the day was a vegetable soup which was decent. It tasted and looked like it had fresh vegetables.

Mr. Pizza dressed up the salad with fruit like apples, pineapple and mandarin oranges. The dressing was a little too sweet for me, especially when combined with the fruit. I appreciate the effort of going above and beyond offering just plain baby greens.

My husband got the vegetarian pizza (tomato sauce, mushroom, onion, corn, bell pepper, olives and mozzarella). It was pretty straightforward. No surprises here.

I chose the Potato Pizza. I wasn’t sure what would be on it other than tomato sauce, cheese, potatoes and bacon. When it arrived, I found it topped with some of the fattiest slices of bacon I’ve ever seen. From there, it was anybody’s guess as to what else might be on the pizza. Is that a layer of onions? Yes! A random piece of corn from my husband’s pizza? No, the corn is suppose to be there. Maybe because the guy making the pizza was new, my pizza did not have ground beef or mayo squirted on top (which are ingredients listed on the website), not that I’m complaining.

I have to admit that I am somewhat curious as to what some of the more “exotic” pizzas taste like, but not enough to order one. If you’re more adventuresome, give Mr. Pizza a try. It’s most likely a vast improvement over Sbarro, though it might just be safer to eat at the Panda Express.

As of 2016, this location is now closed.

Location – 10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles 90025. Other locations in Koreatown, Downtown LA, Little Tokyo. As of September 2017, only the Koreatown location is open under the name Koreatown Pizza Company.
Website – http://www.mrpizzausa.com
Kid-Friendly – Yes
Kid’s Menu – No
Pesco-Vegetarian Friendly – Yes
Vegan/Vegetarian Friendly – Yes
Gluten-Free Options – Yes