Northlake Tavern & Pizza – Best Pizza in Seattle?

Northlake Tavern & Pizza

Recommended by:  The cashier at Stone Way Cafe suggested Northlake Tavern & Pizza for what she called the “best pizza in town”

Description on their web: The special kind pizza we feature here is from an old Italian recipe. It happened one day as the original owner of this establishment expressed his dissatisfaction with the pizza. “Pshew, what garbage!” he exclaimed. “I’ll bet I can make a better pizza than this.” So a bet was made.

Neighborhood/Type:  University District / Pizza

Address: 660 NE Northlake Way, Seattle, WA 98105

Music playing:  None. Trailblazers game was playing.

What we ate/drank:  Logger Special Pizza- Canadian bacon, Italian beef sausage, black olives, fresh cut green peppers and onions. Combo – Pepperoni, Italian beef sausage, black olives and mushrooms

Comments:  This place had been recommended to us by the cashier at Stone Way Cafe.  And although I had been here before, my wife had not.  It had been at least 20 years since I’d been there, so you’d think the décor would have been upgraded since then. But stepping into Northlake Tavern & Pizza is like stepping back in time. It had not been changed one bit. The cartoons on the wall are still there, the tables covered in plastic picnic table coverings are there, the bar is exactly the same.  I guess you could say this is both good and bad. Bad because nothing has been upgraded and refreshed. Good because it’s nostalgic and not having any upgrades means hopefully no substantial increase in prices. Northlake Tavern & Pizza has been open since 1954 and I would not be surprised if there have been no renovations since then, but that’s part of it’s charm. As mentioned there’s the old cartoons on the wall, there’s UW sports memorabilia and autographs, the neon beer signs are not Fremont or Georgetown Brewing, but Pabst and Budweiser.  I’ve already mentioned the plastic picnic table covering, but all you get with your pizza is a paper plate and fork. You read that right, a paper plate.

Let’s get down and dirty.  We know there’s a lot of good pizza in Seattle and the sheer number of pizza places make the competition for pizza pretty ferocious. To separate themselves some have carved out a specialty or niche- Deep dish Chicago style, Fusion, Northwest spin, Neapolitan, Vegan.  Just off the top of my head for pizza places we’ve been to or ordered from in the last few years-Serious Pie, Flying Squirrel, Pagliacci, Alibi Room, Windy City Pies, Frelard, Dino’s, Rocco’s, Zeeks, China Pie, Turnpike, Veraci, Ridge. So where does Northlake Tavern and Pizza stand out in the Seattle pizza landscape?

• Ambiance? No
• Exceptional Service? No
• Fast Service? No
• Great Location? No. It’s directly under the I5 going over Lake Union
• High end ingredients? No. There’s no truffle cheese or pecorino sadro
• Unconventional ingredients? No. There’s no clams, mandarin oranges or chocolate hazel nut spread.
• Cheapest price? No
• Kid Friendly? No
• Place to impress your first date, in laws or hip/trendy friends? No, no and no.
• Massive amounts of toppings?  YES YES YES

This is the place to go for just plain ole great pizza. The one thing that makes it stand out is the massive amount of toppings. The diameter size of the pizza is like any other pizza place, but the huge toppings make the height taller than any pizza in Seattle.  For this reason, we always get a small size pizza, because after eating two slices, we’re full.  Due to the weight of the toppings, it’s difficult to eat a slice with your hands, so having fork comes in handy. Our go-to pizzas here are the Logger Special Pizza and the Meat Eaters(see below pics for ingredients). And although we know what’s coming, whenever the pizza arrives to our table we always say, “Wow!”

The atmosphere is very relaxed and informal and you get the feeling that most of the patrons have been coming here for not years, but decades.  On a particular Saturday night visit we noticed that 80% of the patrons seemed to be 40 years or older, so it really does seem like a place that has some history among those who go there.

One callout, because it’s technically a tavern, you must be 21+ to enter, so no kids.  There was a 6 week stretch where our neighbor watched our kids so we could go out on a few date nights. We had a hankering for pizza and came here three times.  I mentioned I had not been here in 20 years.  I kind of just forgot about Northlake Tavern & Pizza as an option, but the Stone Way Cafe cashier’s suggestion to come here rekindled my affection for their pizza and gave my wife an opportunity to try their pizza for the first time. Coming here 3 times in 6 weeks shows it’s in the forefront of our mind now.

The one area we’d like to see is improvement in would be the time it takes to make the pizza. Perhaps, with the size of the toppings it can’t be helped. On average I would say it takes 45 minutes to an hour for the pizza to be made. Granted, we’ve always come on a Friday or Saturday night which are definitely busier.  There’s not a lot of small talk from the servers. It’s pretty much taking the order, which is fine by us. There was one time where the server gave my wife a free soda, because our pizza was taking a long time to come out, which was a nice of her.

If we want ambiance, we might go to Via Trib. Fast service, we might do take out from Zeeks or Pagliacci. Great location, we might go to Dino’s in Capitol Hill. High end ingredients, we might go to Flying Squirrel. Unconventional ingredients, we might go to Serious Pie.  Kid friendly location, we might go to Freland Pizza.  But when we have a hankering for a relaxed environment with just plain old great pizza, we’ll come to Northlake Tavern & Pizza.

Atmosphere: 3.5

Service: 3.75

Food/Drinks: 5

Bang for the Buck: 4.5  (Small pizza is $23, but it’s so filling due to the huge amount of toppings. This is really 4 meals)

Overall: 4.25

Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is

• • Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
  • Most locals know about it
  • Locals “in the know” know about it
  • Only those who live close by know about it.
  • You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!

 Servers recommendations to visit in the future:

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