Taste the Pizzabar Experience

A group of us tried to eat here a couple of Saturdays ago. We arrived about ½ hour after the advertised opening time (5pm) and no luck. The door was locked, there was no one around. It looks like this place is CLOSED! If not, shame on them for not having the doors unlocked a full ½ hour after their advertised open time.

The pizza? Great.
Everything else? Well… I went with coworkers for a birthday luncheon. The service was so terrible that almost a full year later, we still talk about it at work. My boss openly complained to our waitress (the only waitstaff working at a place where lunch is obviously a busy time) who was outright rude and turned out to be the manager! Our food took forever, forget getting drink refills, and she overcharged almost all of us. I’ve worked in restaurants and have a special place in my heart for waitstaff, but even I was pretty appalled at how poor the service was.
The pizza though? Pretty darn good. Not good enough to go back… but pretty good.

A low four-​star, as this place isn’t as good as Supino in Eastern Market or Motor City Brewing Works, though its pizza is similar in style to the latter. Price-​wise, it’s on the higher-​end, but the ingredients are fairly high shelf. Lots of options on the menu, including some unusual — but delicious-​sounding — specialty pizzas. The restaurant is located downtown but a bit off the beaten path, between the Michigan Theatre and Book Tower. It’s something different, but unless I’m unmotivated to bike or drive up to Eastern Market, I’d prefer Supino.

UMM, what is going on with this place! We walked in at 8pm on a Thursday and it was absolutely DEAD! i mean we were the only people in there for a good 40 minutes!
I seriously thought they may have been shutting down shop when i walked in because the set up is so weird! and there is no artwork on teh wall, the bar looked pretty sparse as well. not at all what i was expecting.
The food was okay. We got the bianco royale, but I wouldn’t call the pizza amazing by any means… it was pretty average.
I thought the fried pickles were realllly good! and a little spicy!
I agree with the previous post the waitstaff was not entirely attentive… esp. since we were the ONLY people in teh restaurant! Since i also spent about $ 50 for an app, a pizza and two drinks… i’m not sure if i’d choose to spend my money here again…

I showed up around happy hour on a weekday, thinking I’d be getting some cheap booze and cheaper eats. I was half right; $ 3 wells and zero specials on chow. In fact, my date and I ended up spending nearly $ 50, which I believed to be too much for the service/​portions we received.
First off, this place was pretty dead, and I don’t feel the waitstaff was attentive considering the light traffic. I mean hey, my drink is empty, maybe ask if I want another? Do I look like I need to be sober on a Thursday afternoon? Second, they charged us for ingredients that were never added, despite our asking (nothing tough, just asking for one additional topping). I felt like I was paying too much… I would have felt good about paying $ 8 for each pie, but neither felt like a $ 12 pizza.
Otherwise, it’s a lovely bar, nice bathrooms, good drinks, and they have fried pickles available, which is sort of rare and delicious. We tried the cheesecake cupcakes for desert, which were tasty, but small and again, overpriced at $ 6 for two tiny cakes. Just sort of a forgettable and expensive experience. Hardy «mehs» all around; If you want a real happy hour, venture a few blocks over to Roast.

We’ve been to Taste a few times. We’ve had mixed experiences, but the pizza is good. They have a good lunch special, less than $ 8 for a Taste or Caesar salad and a personal size pizza (you can pick from about 5 of their pizzas). I usually get the Bianco, which has the perfect combination of cheeses on it, and I don’t usually like pizza with just cheese. I tried the fancy has browns once, but they were really just cafeteria hash browns with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. Eh. But other than that, I really like the pizza, they have a good crust going on there.
As far as service goes, when you come in there isn’t usually anyone at the host station, so you have to kind of wander in and figure it out yourself. Usually the service is fine, although the staff seem a bit apathetic — basically nothing special.
During weekend evenings they have some kind of after-​work thing so the lounge area is busy with business types. I try to avoid the place at night because they play annoying loud techno music. They always have annoying techno music playing, but it’s usually at a normal level. The place is nicely designed, but feels as though a certain something is missing. I’m thinking it’s artwork. They reallllly need something on those big empty walls.
So basically I like the food a lot, but the place as a whole is missing *something*. They place doesn’t have the personality their quirky menu names would imply. But the pizza keeps me coming back.
PS: Taste needs to seriously consider getting a REAL website. I’m all for the social networking and all, but that’s supposed to be SUPPLEMENTAL to your REAL website.

tater tots
margarita pizza

I love, love, love pizza, but I do not love, love, love Taste. My bf and I came here on a Saturday night and the place was dead. There was one other full table in the whole place. That’s not a great sign, but I don’t hold a grudge.
Our waitress took quite awhile to acknowledge our existence, and was nice, but frequently disappeared throughout our visit. I am always thirsty, so that was a little frustrating.
I was pretty into the menu, there were a lot of options that sounded great. We decided to start with the fried pickles, a recent love interest of mine. They were good, but definitely not the best I’ve ever had. Something about them seemed a little thrown together with little care. We each ordered a personal pizza as well. I got a cheese pizza that was covered in some of my favorite cheeses. Unfortunately, one of the cheeses was smoked, which I usually love, but it was too strong on this pizza. That smoked cheese was the only thing I could taste. My bf ordered a Cajun chicken pizza and thought it was just so-​so. It’s seemed to be missing the flavor a bit.
For dessert we had the key lime cheesecake cupcakes. These were pretty tasty, but soooo cold that you could tell they were recently defrosted.
The waitstaff could be a little friendlier and more attentive and I think the prices are a little high. I enjoy my meal at Crust more and the prices are much better there too. I would probably not run back here, but I would be open to giving them another shot someday. I realize that they’re still pretty new and getting their stuff together.

I came here during the detroit electronic music festival after perusing Unilocal to find somewhere near our hotel. I thought the mushroom pizza was quite delicious. They aren’t huge pizzas — the $ 12 pizza was enough for 2 people — but I still thought that was a good deal. They have both vegetarian and meaty options along with a full bar. I liked the modern décor and our server was friendly.

Great selection of (obviously) pizzas. Excellent service, complete with a visit from the sommelier. Tasty food. Was roughly what we expected for the price.

after deciding my girlfriend and i were not dressed sassy enough for cliff bell’s, we ended up at taste.
for those that don’t know, here in detroit it’s final four weekend and taste being a relatively new restuarant, don’t think they anticipated being slammed by michigan state fans crowdin’ around their televisions [and not moving]. my galpal and i arrived at quarter to seven, entered the door and walked up the stairs. we were greeted and told the wait would be an hour. .after a look, i asked if we could go to the bar to wait until we could be seated. she assured us it was fine and we waited ten minutes for a drink. it seemed that there were three to five bartenders, with the bar a decent size, just seemed odd to be overlooked that long. the guy that helped us was really nice and apologetic though and a beer’s a beer. we watch a little of the game and she runs into a friend — meanwhile thirty minutes go by, i ask the hostess where we stand. .we are only six away from getting a seat [WHAT] but like i said, people were not leaving.
i spot a taller table next to the bar with no chairs and ask if we can order food there, she says appetizers and we walk over. the same bartender that had been helping us quickly came over and took an order for their fried «wanys» pickles. the menu is pretty extensive [did i mention they have salads and panini’s?] so i didn’t know where to start. i finally setlled on making my own pizza with san marzano tomato red sauce, mozz, basil, roasted shrimp and artichoke hearts. from the time after we got our wanys, we only waited twenty more minutes. EVERYTHING was delicious, even the strawberry mojito, but all the servers looked like they hated their lives. i do think the place isn’t layed out very well and they don’t seem to have a «if we get really busy» back-​up plan. all of the servers and there were like ten of them had to share and get change from the ONE computer they had. the drinks, toppings and pickles all tasted very fresh and that’s what matters — i’ll be back, probably on a weekday, hah.

I went here for the first time in early March 2009.
Taste Pizza Bar is located in an upstairs space in a building on Times Square, behind the Times Square People Mover Station and very near the new Rosa Parks Bus Depot scheduled to open later in 2009. It has lots of exposed brick, and offers a hip vibe. The place looks small at first but you’ll notice it’s pretty large with a sizeable «private room» in the back.
There are about 18 different pizza choices, appetizers, sandwiches and salads. Each pizza has a quirky name like, the «Papparazzi».
The pizza I ordered was good and the service was good as well. I was a little disappointed that they «ran out of strawberries» so the «Strawberry Mojito» We wanted to order was unavailable. The waitress did offer alternatives. That was nice considering many waitstaff just say, «We’re out.» and offer no other suggestions.
I would definitely go again. Please try it for yourself and support downtown Detroit businesses.

I came here with some other Detroit Synergy Supper Clubbers last night and was pleasantly surprised. The location of Taste is a little odd — since there’s nothing on the end of the block, it feels a little hidden, and I hope that doesn’t work against the restaurant, because as Alfred mentions, it seems there is a lot of genuine care going into the food here.
I also got the Shrooms pizza, and I wasn’t disappointed with the variety and taste of the shrooms. I guess, for me, it was just refreshing to get pizza that tasted very fresh and didn’t resort to canned mushrooms or any chain silliness like that.
I actually found the mushroom combination on my own pizza very flavorful and enjoyable. It’s not any specific «style»… it’s not «NY Style» and definitely not «Chicago Style,» but really enjoyable for just what it is, which is fresh and made with evident care.
The décor is pretty simple, but sleek, you could say. Things are still very new, so perhaps they’ll add a few accents here and there as they settle into their space. The dessert was indeed delicious — I had the turtle cheesecake cupcake (really just a just-​right portion of very moist cheesecake, not a cupcake in terms of consistency), but my fella had the red velvet, and I really loved his too. I think if I went back, that would be my top pick.
We were there with a large group and at certain points the timing of the food (appetizers and salads came close together, then all of a sudden, pizza!) was a little funny, but it wasn’t a big deal. Taste is still very new, hitting its stride, but I have no doubt that as long as people continue to discover it, it will win them over!

We’ve been wanting to try the newly opened Taste Pizzabar and were really happy that we got to today. I wouldn’t exactly call the décor chic, but it’s certainly new and for the most part quite comfortable. It has a loungey feel to it with ambient house on loop through the speakers. I can see this being a great hangout on the weekends, but on this Tuesday night the emptiness was slightly awkward.
I must start by saying the staff were super friendly and very enthusiastic. The general manager stopped by not long after we ordered and chatted with us for a short while. He seems to show genuine interest in the business and his customers which is nice. Our waitress was also really on top of things, although it was expected since we were really the only table in that section.
We started with the fried pickles — the batter and horseradish mayo were top notch, but the pickles themselves failed to impress… a little bit too sweet and mushy for my taste. If only they made the same dish with McClure pickles, it would have been a 5 star winner all on its own. I do recognize, however, that this is a business and it has to turn a profit somehow… but I digress. Overall it was a good start.
For pizza we shared the Shrooms (various mushrooms on mozzarella) and also made our own with pineapple, mozzarella, and gorgonzola. The mushroom pizza had good flavor, but the mushrooms were so shrunken from the cooking that they offered little to no texture. A heartier mix of mushrooms would have been nice, but the pizza was quite good nonetheless. It’s clear that the pizza crust was made in house, and while we hoped that it had a little more crisp in the bottom, we were impressed. The customized pizza was probably our favorite of the night — the gorgonzola melted into the pineapple and made a fabulous blend of greasy flavors. We had no choice but to throw our health conscience away for the night.
Our waitress was quick to point out that Taste has its own pastry chef, so of course we had to taste the desserts. The Oreo and Turtle cheesecake cupcakes were really cheesecakes in cupcake size and otherwise had no resemblance to cupcakes whatsoever, but they were scrumptious nonetheless.
Taste gives a solid effort and is here to stay despite the dismal economy. It’s always nice to see new restaurants enter Detroit, and especially one that gives thought to its food and is run by people who care. I look forward to returning.