Pizza Plus

The lunch buffet is a good value, especially because they include wings. The place just seems too run down though and kind of economically depressed.

The four stars is based on the lunch buffet they offer.  It's strictly a Monday-Friday deal, 11 a.m.-1:30.  Outside of the lunch buffet, I've had a couple of the combo deals (pizza, wings, chicken fingers, fried vegetables, celery, carrot sticks, etc.) and found them to be a bit overpriced for what was offered.  This isn't spectacular pizza, but at $6.99 for adults on the lunch buffet, it's a pretty darn good deal.  Comparing it to the lunch buffet they used to offer at Godfather's, Pizza Plus is much better, both quality wise and in terms of selection.

I took the youngster with me on the last trip, and was pleased that children under 11 were only $3.99, including a drink!   Drinks are not included in the adult price, so the total bill for the two of us, including tax, was about $13.50.  Still quite reasonable.

One slight disappointment as far as the beverages (on the ayce): it's strictly a soda machine or coffee, there's no iced tea.  I did notice iced tea was on the "to go" menu, so they must have it in bottles or cans.  Beer is available on tap and in bottles as well.

I started out with a plate of salad.  It's a small salad bar with all your basic ingredients, nothing fancy but it gets the job done.  The most important part of the salad bar, to me, would be the bleu cheese dressing to dip the chicken wings in.

The wings, dear Yelp reader, are the big reason to hit the lunch buffet, and IMO the primary reason to visit Pizza Plus at all.  The pizza's OK, nothing to write home about, but the wings are big, juicy, and, as a friend of mine observed, saucier than a lot of local wings.  I'd say they're the best chicken wings in the Reno area.  The buffet only includes mild and medium wings, so I always ask for a side of the nitro sauce, which is the ultra-spicy chili sauce.  I like to double-dip my wings in bleu cheese dressing and the chili sauce, and since I have my own individual sauces on the side, double-dipping is not a sin, in fact it's encouraged!!  Pizza Plus also has a side room that they rent out for parties--I once attended a birthday party there thrown by a Mexican family, who had ordered wings that were actually COOKED in the nitro sauce.  They warned me that they were spicy, and I scoffed "no problem, I use the nitro sauce all the time."  Seconds later I was wiping the sweat off my brow and reaching for my beer as tears started to well up in my eyes, much to the amusement of my friends...

The pizza in the buffet, while not the best ever, gets definite points for variety.  On the last visit, they had 3-4 different kinds out at all times, including sausage & veggie combo, pepperoni/olive, pepperoni/jalapeno, ham/pineapple, etc.  Besides pizza and wings, the buffet also includes steak fries and BBQ chicken.  Steak fries are pretty good, depending on how long they've been under the heat lamp.  BBQ chicken were those boneless chunks of pressed chicken coated in a sweet BBQ sauce, I think some places call them "boneless buffalo wings."  Not bad, they looked a little dry but were actually pretty juicy inside.  It's just hard for me to justify eating them, though, when you've got the real hot wings sitting right there...

For an inexpensive buffet, this is a great deal.   I noticed that when certain items were getting low, and looking dry and worse for wear under the heat lamps, the staff would remove them and replace with a fresh batch.  If you don't mind paying a little more, the specialty pizzas are pretty good, but not up to the level of a place like Blue Moon or the Blind Onion.  They offer traditional red sauce, along with "our signature garlic ranch," which I have as yet to try.  A fairly recent addition is the "Super Monster Mondo" pizza, which is costly ($29.99 for plain cheese or one topping, $39.99 for four toppings or more).  It may be worth it, however, because it's a 24" pizza and (from the photos at least) looks like it's piled high with handfuls of toppings.  There's even a "Super Monster Mondo Challenge," where you and a friend have 60 minutes to finish off a 24" Super Monster Mondo "fully loaded."  If you finish, Pizza Plus picks up the tab...I'm not sure what "fully loaded" means in terms of what/how many toppings are included, but I'm sure I'd have to be "fully loaded" to try that dare.  I'll stick with the lunch buffet for now...

There are some arcade games, vending machines with stickers and toys, etc., so this place is definitely geared towards families.  It's been packed with people every time I've gone in, and there are usually a few kids running around and loudly terrorizing the place, so if you're seeking a quiet lunch you should probably look elsewhere.  I've also noticed that the one on Oddie (in the Kmart shopping center) usually has less business, and can sometimes be a little on the grimy side.  Nothing really horrible, it just seems like the Prater location is better maintained.  And don't forget the wings...they're a definite "plus" if you ask me!!

We've gotten pizzas from this place a few times.  My girlfriend is a big fan.  They also serve sides like salads and wings.

We have not been to their restaurant location (except driving by).  We have only ordered their food via delivery.

I'll make it extremely simple.  This place has amazing, high end pizza that's worth it's fairly high price.

While their crust isn't as good as The Pizza Factory (throughout Northern Nevada and California on 395) and their sauce isn't as good as Nu Yalk Pizza (Reno), this place crafts extremely good pizzas.  If you want something simple like pepperoni or Hawaiian, I'll bet they do it well, but it's sort of a waste.  Pizza Hut or many other mass producers of pizza would probably only be slightly worse and you'd save a bundle.

If you're getting some kind of complicated 5, 6, 7 topping combination pizza, this is your place.

We've gotten pizzas that have artichokes, sausage, pepperoni, jalapenos, garlic and more and they turned out amazingly good.  It's as if they specifically crafted their combination options with the overall composition in mind, not merely tossing on a bunch of toppings.  Crust and sauce are solid and do not detract from the pizza, though they don't stand out.

Their pizzas are a little bit less oily than say Pizza Hut, but not so healthy that they don't have the indulgent richness that makes pizza so good.

You get a card from them upon which they write your total.  After twelve entries, you get whatever the average value is of your purchases.  So if you get pizza there often, you get a 7 percent discount or so.

Delivery times are fairly average and service is about average with occasional missed sides, but everything else done properly.

This place isn't killer during a recession so I hope they survive.  If you have the money or want a splurge, it's well worth it.