Apizza Scholls

3 stars because of the atmosphere. The wait staff is rude and impatient (why work there if you hate busy times?) The pizza is, honestly, good. Not out of this world, oh my god, I can only eat this pizza for the rest of my life great. Aside from the truffle oil pie, the rest was very average. The margherita was horrible. That’s the easiest, simplest and most basic of the pies to make properly, too. So, I guess everyone’s waiting outside because they heard it was worth waiting for? Nostrana does similar pies. Sizzle Pie does as well. There is no way that this place at all compares to famous places on the East Coast like Pepe’s. No effing way.

This is the best pizza I’ve ever had. And I’ve eaten a lot of pizza from many different places. This knocked my precious favorite of years out of the top spot. While I don’t really like the set up — make a reservation if you don’t want to wait. We went right at 5:15 and we’re seated in the bar right away but 45 for a table. Obviously we sat in the bar. It was a easy and pleasant experience but if you don’t like waiting (like me) plan ahead or order take out. It’s freaking worth it.

Definitely revisiting, love the chewiness of the crust and that it was a good middle ground of thin crispy cracker crust and the more traditional thicker crust.
This place does reservations! Alternatively, 4:30PM we were 2^nd in line, 4:45PM there was already a long line forming.
TIP: Do half&half if you’re coming as a group. 8 of us did 3 pizzas, 5 kinds ~$ 12each for 3slices
HIT: (1) Apizza Amore — 4/​5, waitress told us it was the most popular, but could have used more basil. (2) Salami & Green Olives — ⁴⁄₅ would have loved for more green olives
A-​OK: Sausage & Mama — ³⁄₅. middle ground
MISS: Unfortunately, lack of sauce brought these two as a miss for me (1) Tartufo2 The Electric Boogaloo — 2/​5, not enough mushrooms (2) Bacon Bianca — 2/​5, maybe I’m just over this whole bacon thing…

The pizza is GREAT. The wait is LONG.
Sometimes the wait is reaaaaally long. And you’ll say: «why did I come here, stand outside the door in the rain for 30 minutes to get in right as they open for this pretty damn good pizza» well. Because it’s pretty pretty damn good. But maybe you live a fast paced life and you can’t afford to wait 30 minutes or an hour JUST to be seated.
So firstly: if you do have the time and effort, then this place is great. I highly recommend their pizza. I have a lot of friends that say it’s the net pizza they’ve ever had and or at least the best in Portland.
Let me recommend some other pizza places that will probably be less of a wait:
Okay. So the next best in my opinion is Ken Artisan Pizza on 28^th In between stark and burnside.
Then you have Pyro Pizza on Hawthorne and 12^th. This is a food cart. FYI. But surprisingly their pizza is AMAZING. They have the whole clay oven in their cart and it’s wonderful stuff. I highly recommend this place. Although of course it is not a sit down spot. So maybe for another time. But seriously go here.
Then I’d recommend baby doll pizza. Also on 28^th, right on stark. This isn’t a super up scale spot. It’s not like apizza scholls. But if you get a whole pizza fresh it’s VERY good pizza. This is better for to go orders.
The nicest place is Kens Artisan. There may be a wait there too. But certainly shorter than what it would be at apizza scholls.

Absolutely amazing pie!
Showed up on a rainy Tuesday and we were seated immediately! After hearing tales of enormous wait times this was a great surprise.
Buddy and I ordered the classic sausage and mama lil’s pie and we both had a salad. I had the spring greens salad with pear, walnuts, and blue cheese, a pretty classic pairing but it wasn’t anything to write home about. My buddy had the caesar with anchovies, which was very nice!
The pizza was perfection, immaculate leopard spotting on the crust and the perfect balance of crispiness and chew. Great sauce and cheese, which perfect amounts of both. The sausage was fantastic but the Mama Lil’s peppers absolutely stole the show, they really made the pie. Can’t wait to go back and try some of their more outlandish pizzas!
Service was great and prices weren’t too shabby at all. Definitely recommended. I’d still give a slight edge to Ken’s Artisan Pizza though.

I grew up on and eat a lot of pizza. This place boasts that they are closer to the original Italian pizza schools then any other. Ive never been to Italy but when I go, I know now not to be afraid to gorge on pizza there if it tastes like this.
The apizza amore was the best pizza my husband and i ever had (yes, Chicago and NY included) and surprisingly made me appreciate the anatomy of a pizza in a different way! (That crevice where the pizza meets the crust? Heaven!) The pizza was not too greasy but cheesy and melted beautifully. The sauce was not some wet or sloppy base, it merged with and kept everything together so nicely. The basil and pork shoulder balanced each other in great harmony. The pie crust was thin but not too crispy and so had the consistency of fresh pizza dough. The crust ends are usually my least fave but these were toasty and i could easily make a meal of that. We sat in a cozy nook beside the kitchen and witnessed several guests come on back to thank the chef for the best pizza ever.
The service was very helpful and friendly. The atmosphere was warm, casual and inviting. Great fun place for a dinner date. Lots of good, chill music (Creedence clear water, Elliott Smith, Neil Young to give an idea). The wait was long but worth it and you can enjoy a drink in anticipation of the… best. pizza. ever. Seriously… We took half of ours home (and we don’t get full easily, it was large!) And it passed the breakfast pizza test wonderfully.

dat dough doe. mmmmm
crispy and chewy deliciousness.
i usually eat up until the crust (yes, im one of those #dontjudge — but i find myself eating every slice till the last bite.
trust me and get the Amore. its heavenly.
this place is definitely a win for me and it hits the spot every time i come here.

I’d give Apizza Scholls a million stars if Unilocal would let me!
The BF and I were in Portland last year and met a local who recommended us this pizza joint. God Bless his soul because he led us to our FAVORITE pizza place! That is a very big statement!
They were closed for NYE and New Year’s Day but we made sure to go to Apizza Scholls before we left Portland! We were leaving before dinner time so we decided to stop here for lunch. We found out that the lunch menu is smaller and a tad different from their dinner menu. Some of their lunch pizzas are not on the dinner menu and vice versa. The lunch pizzas are only available in 11″ pizzas and cannot be split half/​half. Guess we have to order two pizzas now instead of one? But I’m not complaining! :P
We ordered a Tartufo part 2, the Electric Boogaloo & P.B.&J. My favorite is the tartufo but honestly, I cannot wait to try their whole menu lol! I would come back to Portland just to eat their pizza and then go back home!
Love love love you Apizza Scholls!

«This is how you do it»
The place was crowded on
this cold Portland night, but
the pie was muy calente.
First up was the Caesar Salad
with Anchovies. Wonderfully
done, the dressing was fresh
and the execution was spot on.
Pizza Tonight;
Margharita on one half and
the other half was NY White
It’s pretty cool they let you do this
perfect for me because I get bored
with only one type of pie.
both are very very good.
* NY WHITE PIE
Ricotta and roasted Garlic,
The ricotta was amazingly fresh
not complicated, just simply perfect
a very confident white collar pie.
*MARGHARITA w/​hot Capicollo
I love this pie, I personally don’t order
meat on my pizza but I really did
enjoy the added layer of savory/​spicy
on this one. The FRESH Mozzarella
tho, fugeddaboudit, it made all the
difference in the world. The star of
this show was the BASIL !! ya ya
I know «dude it just basil» it’s the
way they hand tear it and put it on
the pie after it comes out of the pizza
oven. Not only it is fragrant but taste
amazing, this is a direct result of the
process. Other pizza places julienne
the basil and by doing takes the
aroma out. Apizza is sage in their
approach and makes a pretty
impressive pie.
My take away;
~This is the best thin crust
pizza in Portland.
~Make reservations unless
you like waiting forever.
~Buon Appetito !!

So this is not a bad review to do for my last one of 2015. What can one really say about a pizza place that was so anticipated? There are almost 950 reviews at this current time. I’m sure there are folks from the east coast, like myself, west coasters and even folks from Chicago (although, if you can’t fold it and need a fork and knife to eat it, it’s not truly a pizza, just saying) who have written some stellar opinions on Apizza Scholls. There are celebrity chefs who have raved about this place! So what am I going to tell you that you don’t already know???
I’m critical of pizza and yes, some of the pizza in Stumptown that people think is fantastic is just ho hum to me. But if you look above and see that there’s five stars here, you know this must have been an experience.
My buddy, and fellow Unilocaler, Vinnie B. made us a reservation almost two weeks ago. The reservation thing is on the newer side for Apizza and we were glad that we could get it. In spite of the cold, when we got inside to sit down you could smell some wonderful things going on in here. The folks here have been at this since 2004, and through trial and error have created something pretty special in an east coast type of Neapolitan pizza. The reason for the Apizza? Also an east coast thing. From their website, customers thought their pizza reminded them of the apizza shops in New Haven, CT. That’s what they call them in southern New England. So it stuck. Nice bit of information there.
As for this pizza that I’d heard about for over two years of living here? It lives up to the bill. Just the crust alone shows the kind of care they put into these 18″ pies. Fresh basil, fresh mozz, fresh ricotta, a truly simple and beautiful sauce and if you let it cool down just a little bit… everything congeals together for an amazing taste in your mouth. The reference that I used for Vinnie was comparing this pizza to when you eat cold Chinese food hours later in that it tastes better cold. The pizza comes out piping hot and my first slice needed some red pepper flake to bring out the tastes, but once I got to the second slice it had cooled down enough that the flavors really came out.
We did a split pie, half Amore (margarita with Olympia Provisions Cappy) and half New York white (ricotta and garlic). We also started our meal off with a rather impressive Ceaser salad with anchovies.
The Ceaser was one of the best I’ve had around here. Huge leaves of romaine, shaved Romano, a tangy dressing and fillets of anchovies. Simple. I highly suggest one starts their meal out with it.
The Amore side had freshly cut basil that made the pizza. The mozzarella was mild and the sauce was spot on. The Cappicola needed to be saltier for my liking, but as I mentioned earlier that once I had my second slice of it, I really enjoyed it. The New York side had the creamy ricotta that was balanced well with the garlic, although I wanted more garlic. I grew up eating fresh garlic pizzas in New Jersey. We never got just a cheese pizza, it always had loads of garlic on it.
This along with PREAM are two of the best pizza joints that I’ve had thus far in Portland and after I’ve been ruined by these places anything else is going to be really tough to want to try.
The staff was friendly and I am not waiting two years to get in here again. Who wants to come with me to Apizza Scholls? It’s most definitely worth the hype.
Cheers.

My friends and I came into Apizza Scholls on a Monday night and were taken without a reservation. We were in Portland for the weekend and decided to go to a restaurant close to our Airbnb on our last night. We entered the restaurant at the main dining room, but were asked to walk around to the room just next door. We had a large seasonal salad to start, which included mixed greens, arugula, apples, blue cheese, and pecans, with a shallot sherry vinaigrette. Our pizza was a half and half Sausage & Mama and Tartufo2 The Electric Boogaloo (mozzarella, ricotta, mushrooms, pecorino romano/​parmigiano-​reggiano blend, with truffle oil and sea salt. The pizza was the perfect size for our group of 4 and we were beyond satisfied after 2 slices each. We happened to notice the SF Giants memorabilia and found out that the owners, like us, are from the Bay Area, which was a pleasant surprise.
So much yum! Give them a try!

I came here Monday November 30^th for my birthday dinner. Made a reservation on OpenTable at 5:15 for three people. Probably wasn’t necessary, as it wasn’t super crowded, but I never know with this place. Anyway, on to the important parts…
We brought in our own bottle of wine — corkage fee is only $ 10 — woo! The meal started off with their Cesar Salad — it was good… A little heavy on the salt though, perhaps next time I’ll try their other seasonal salad. The large version was a perfect size for three people to share. The three of us split the Apizza Amore. Let me just say — WOW! The cheese, basil, capicola, and the crust! Oh my goodness, all went perfectly together. i definitely recommend this pizza for everyone to try. As you may or may not know, their pizza’s are 18″ and cut into 8 slices. We each had two — leaving two leftover slices, score!
This place has delicious pizza and a very friendly staff. Apizza Scholls is doing everything right!

What can I say about the most popular pizza place in Portland that hasn’t already been chewed up and re-​verbalized? I think the one thing that impressed me the most was the guy who put us on the list. We got two drinks that went on our tab while we waited — huge plus. And when he called our name it wasn’t at the top of his lungs. He looked at us, let us know the table was ready, asked if the table was okay and got our waitress respectfully.
Sure there’s a wait. Yeah the rule about the beers not going outside is a bit odd.
Pizza was great… God, I love anchovies. Antipasti plate was great. Black Currant Cider was great. Service at the bar was fun. But it was a bit noisy and for someone without kids, having to dine with a plethora of munchkins *(as my grandparents would call us) can be overwhelming. We left our leftovers on accident but they were returned to us upon our prompt return to the restaurant.
I think overall it was most excellent for pizza night.

Third time coming here and I have noticed quality has gone down just a tad bit. But I still believe.
As usual the place was packed with about a 40 minute wait so we got some beer to subside our appetites, although the pizza smells wafting by did not help at all.
There was lack of sauce and cheesing on our half bacon Bianca and half pizza amore. Bottom was more burnt that usual but like the hungry savages we were we ate it all. The pizzas here are thin but filling (but the again we did have 2 beers beforehand).
It’s a good deal to get half and half of whatever since they only charge you for the more expensive pizza.

Pretty delicious! Only minus one star because who has a 1 hour wait within 10 minutes of opening? This place apparently. Pizza itself isn’t orgasmic, but I’d say really freaking good (that or I was extremely hungry by then, and most pizzas would have tasted fantastic). Husband enjoyed his cheese and sausage, while my half had the marinara and arugula (the vegan option). I like that they will split a pie in two so you can share one pie with two different tastes. The blackcurrant cider was also super tasty!
Crust of the pizza is thin and chewy, so definitely a plus for those of us who are not thick crust/​deep dish pizza fans!

Came here for dinner on a weekday night with the fam. We might have been starving, but this pizza is OFF THE HOOK.
Their style is rustic/​cabin-​y with a twinge of SF pride! WHOOT. They have a Mad Bum sign and their servers wear flannel/​jeans to give the place a low-​key feel. Our service was top-​notch from the moment we walked in. It’s super cute because they have a pub/​bar side and another room for sit-​down eating like that of a restaurant!
We had their local beers and shared a large pizza half half. I love that you can do half of one topping and half of another – life’s better that way! I’d highly suggest their truffle oil pizza. God I love me some expensive mushroom oil. My family also enjoyed the hawaiian style pizza. The pizzas take a bit longer to make because their quality is AMAZING. We waited probably 15 minutes for the pizza, but the aftermath is worth it. Their crust under the cheese is on the thin side, but it’s got a slight crunch and definitely went through the pizza oven. They are generous with the portion sizes and toppings… LOVE you guys. I almost cried eating their pizza… yup, it’s that good.

Service here was great and bumps it up to 4 stars, the verdict is still out on the pizza for now I would give it a 3.5 overall rating for the pizzas. I have read several reviews and write ups about this pizza spot so I had to try it while in the area but I was not overly impressed.
There was a ½ hour wait and we put our name on the list. With only 9 dough balls left when we put our name in, they reserved two of them for our party of 4 which was really nice, so we were basically guaranteed that we would have pizza by the time we were seated. Once they run out, they run out so don’t come too late (we were there around 8:30 pm on a Saturday night).
We ordered the Caesar and it was fresh and delicious, ever so lightly dressed with whole romaine leaves and shaved parmesan.
We tried several of their pizza styles by ordering ½ and ½ on each pizza: We tried
The tartufo, sausage, margherita, margherita with Coppa, The pizzas are huge and thin crust.
My suggestion, eat the pizza while its hot. Pizzas came to the table before we could finish our salad, and I was busy conversing and eating my salad, so by the time I dug in the pizza was already almost room temperature, barely warm. My one negative complaint here was the crust and pizza itself was so darn salty and frankly the crust was burned in several places and was almost too dry in the outer crust and almost too soggy underneath the toppings. The outer crust tasted almost like an artisan airy sourdough in texture.
There is no question they use high quality ingredients here which I really appreciate, but I like to taste the ingredients without an overload of sodium. If I lived in the area, there are other places I would like to visit before returning. It was not the among the best pizza I’ve ever had, but it was good.
With 2 pizzas, drinks, tax and tip we were out the door for under $ 90, too pricey for something I didn’t love, but I will say, cold leftovers hit the spot the next day.

Possibly the best pizza ever.
Made an early reservation because it was the only thing available.
Started with the antipasti which was pretty good. The sun dried tomatoes stood out to me.
We then had half the tartufo and half pepperoni. Both were indescribably amazing. The crust is by far the best I’ve ever had. The pizzas are gigantic.
Unfortunately we weren’t even that hungry so we each ate only two slices and then had to head to the airport.
Service was very friendly and I’m pretty sure my water cup was filled every 2 minutes which was great.
Totally worth the hype!

This place is busy but not at all chaotic. Wait time is not bad but definitely make reservations if you can.
For 3, we shared a large caesar and one pizza (diablo blanco and hawaiian half and half). Definitely enough food. The caesar salad was super garlicky and the croutons were awesome. The pizza was good but I’m not sure it deserves all that hype. (Granted, I do consider Neapolitan pies to be the best in the world) It is New York style pizza so the crust is thin and can get rather oily. I prefer the diablo blanco to the hawaiian (I prefer any filling to hawaiian tbh) and the pies here are intense in flavor and very spicy at times. If I had a choice I would have come during lunch where they make individual sized pizzas only. Service is prompt albeit the wait for a table.

Saw this place on No Reservations and wanted to give it a try. This was probably the best pizza I’ve ever had! We had a pizza with Canadian bacon, mushrooms and onions. The flavor was unbeatable! l
The big deal about this place is the handmade crust, and there is no exaggeration, it is incredible. They go easy on the sauce so all the flavors can be tasted. There are rules here about how you order your pizza, so don’t get your panties in a twist if they tell you you can’t order a pizza a certain way. The Caesar salad was amazing and the dressing is handmade. Plus, they have a vintage video game arcade in the back so you can have some fun while you wait for your pizza. This place does not disappoint, so come check it out.