Wowee Zowee Pizza

One thing that we never expect from any pizza is classical beauty: While Neapolitans may sport lush green basil leaves, uneven balls of bright white cheese, and smears of rich red sauce, the leopard spots of char and ragged edges of crust are more the stuff of culinary dreams than conventional art. On the other hand, it’s rare for any of our pizza articles to look so utterly plain that the pictures don’t speak a thousand words, but that’s the case at Tustin’s Wowee Zowee Pizza, where the three types of pizza we ordered all looked and tasted pretty similar – and in the okay to good rather than great zone.

Wowee Zowee’s two major claims to fame are its 96-hour cold fermented, 80% hydration pizza dough and incredibly friendly service. The former manifests as an 18-inch, thin crusted “East Coast by way of the Pacific Northwest” style of pizza – offered whole or in oversized slices – that is practically halfway between NYC and Neapolitan styles, lacking entirely in the former’s grease and substantially in the latter’s soft, under-garnished lightness. Each piece is crispy enough to hold its shape when lifted up, with a bit of the Neapolitan’s char and much of the NYC-style’s flavor and ingredient options.

The abbreviated menu offers guests around a dozen whole pie options, including several focused on cheese, pepperoni, and/or sausage, two tomato and cheese pizza variants, specialty pies with ingredients such as Korean sweet potato, fennel, mushrooms, jalapenos, or pineapples, and seasonal pies with surprises including berries, sopressa, and pickles. One particularly eye-catching recipe is “inspired by a PNW classic food offering, the Seattle dog:” kielbasa, mustard, sauerkraut, and grilled onion cream cheese in addition to mozzarella, parmesan, and roasted garlic red sauce. In concept, it’s exciting that this is a thing that exists locally, but we wouldn’t spend $35 to order it.

That’s part of the challenge with Wowee Zowee’s menu: Since the really unique options tend to be sold only as whole pizzas, you need to commit to spending $28 to $35 and eating eight large slices, compared with the $7 to $9 price for two-piece (1/4-pizza-sized) “big slices.” Two types of salad are also available, each in two different sizes, and a small collection of soft drinks are offered from a fridge in the small dining room.