Bohemian Pizza

Whether people realize it or not, I really try to be fair with these reviews. I know fans of some of the restaurants or events that I panned might disagree, but I try to take several factors into consideration. The level of the restaurant, the situation I am dining under and my own food prejudices (like meatballs and bread). This often puts me at odds with some of the common opinions on places and with this review it is putting me at odds with at least a couple of my fellow diners.

Impromptu Dinner

Last night our dinner group went to Bohemian Pizza for a slightly impromptu dinner. I say impromptu as we normally have one main dinner a month that we vote on a place, a date and have at least a couple weeks to set up reservations for the restaurant to handle our numbers, typically between 10-18 people. Even with that much notice I am aware that we often tax the restaurants resources. Although they can handle that many people in the course of the time frame, typically they aren’t all being seated at the same time, ordering drinks, appetizers, meals, and wanting their checks simultaneously. I am getting tired thinking of it. So, I normally give a little break on the service end when I review places that are dealing with our numbers.

Pizza Social

Some of our group have been getting together on a Sunday evening lately for ice cream to relax before the work week. With the weather changing and football season both interrupting Sundays, the organizing of the ice cream social someone suggested turning it into a pizza social. This resulted in a short notice attempt to get reservations for at first 15 people and eventually 19 people for pizza on Saturday at 5. We found that at Bohemian 15 was the magic number with 16 a little less magic. I won’t bore you with the details, but basically management said that with short notice they could handle the 16, and even more if we wanted to pre order everything to do that. Short of that they would prefer cancelling the reservations that they had accepted over taking more than 16. They told us they didn’t feel they could do a good job providing a good experience with more on such a short notice. Saturday morning was a little late to cancel for Saturday at 5 so, we said we would take the reservations for 16 and reluctantly had to call the last few that expressed interest in attending to let them know they couldn’t.

Knowing Their Limits

I tell you all this, because I want you to understand why I have a different opinion of Bohemian Pizza than at least a couple of my fellow diners. They knew their limits, they warned us of their limits, and they even were willing to walk away from a decent order to ensure that they weren’t overtaxed. It is my opinion that it is unfair to complain about management for not letting us have the number of people we wanted, when they obviously had the room, and then complaining about the service when our numbers did exactly what they were afraid they would, impact the level of service we got. Just keep in mind that there is a second opinion out there that was very unhappy with Bohemian service, the food and even the rest rooms. But since I am writing the review you are going to get my view, with maybe a little wave to a couple points that I feel we aren’t culpable for.

Great Atmopshere

I like the atmosphere at Bohemian Pizza. Its walls are covered with album covers and posters that you could look at for hours straining your eyes, neck and memory. There are big fish tanks built into the wall which are fun except when they give you a view into the restrooms. Although I guess depending on your point of view that could make it more fun. Even without trying the food you can have fun here. The waitresses are friendly and our waitress, despite having the daunting task of dealing with our numbers never once failed to smile or be friendly or cheerful. Things like that are important to me. You can take your rigid, efficient waiter that gives great service and no personality. Give me a waiter that makes me smile and want to be there. We had such a waitress. Service was inconsistent and slow, but as I already said that is probably as much on us, the size of our group and our ignoring the concerns of management, as it is attributable to any deficiencies of Bohemian Pizza or our waitress. Not everyone in our group agrees with me on this but let them get their own review blog.

Good Start

The opinion on the food was as inconsistent as the opinion on service. This can only partially be attributed to the kitchen having to deal with our numbers. It started out well with small loaves of bread and olive oil with soaking cloves of roasted garlic for dipping. My nachos were decent but not great. The meat and cheese on them weren’t hot, which could be due to the number of orders in our group, but the overall size and taste is on them. They are just slightly above average in that regard. Another of the diners had the poke tuna nachos. I am not sure they liked them as they passed a third of them on to me. I however, thought they were very good. The chips were puffier house made fried wonton, not your strait flat boring chips found in most nachos and in the regular ones here. The tuna was small chunks of flavor, sesame crusted mixed with “pickled carrots & cucumbers, seaweed salad, cucumber wasabi and sweet soy glaze drizzles, and crushed wasabi peas.” The wasabi added a wonderful kick to the tuna. My one complaint was that it could have used more of the fried wonton as there was more of the wonderful mixture that was begging for more of those crispy wontons. In hindsight this was probably the best thing I ate there. Once again I was out ordered. This is becoming a pattern.

Calamari and Wings

The calamari got mixed reviews, with the diner to the left happy with theirs and the one to my right having too much salt on their breading. I tried theirs to verify this and they were right. Another function of a rushed kitchen maybe? The teriyaki wings were average to good. Nothing to complain about, but nothing to rave about either.

Pizza

I had tried the pizza on one prior occasion having a half criss cross and half andouille BBQ. My memories of these were that they were once again, an overall mantra for this place, average to good. I am starting to find myself liking more of the specialty pizzas that are being offered at places and these would not compete with the better ones I have tried. A few people at my table got the fig jam pizza and their overall rating seemed to be good to very good on this specialty pizza, with the only negative comment was one person felt the crust was too hard. Our other table’s comments on the pizza was not as favorable with the consensus being fair to average. I believe they mainly had more traditional pies. I get the sense that the more unique the pie, the better they do with it.

Blackened Chicken

Having had the pizza last time and fearing there wouldn’t be enough room for another pie on our table I got the blackened chicken pasta. This was an above average dish that had the blackened spice flavor of the chicken but seemed to lack the normal cooking method. A dish worth ordering, but not worth raving about.

Check Please

We were considering dessert, but the waitress must have been tied up with other tables as she seemed to disappear at this point only to come back after what seemed like 20 minutes with the checks in hand. I guess she rightly decided we didn’t need dessert. This might sound like I am complaining but I am not, just telling what happened. I think considering the number of tables she had, the added burden we put on her, and the limited time they had to adjust, both our waitress and Bohemian did a decent job in this area.

I’ll Be Back

We ended up with 17 people there, one more than we were supposed to and one more than we approved. The range of opinions run from never going back, to worth another look. I will be back for the atmosphere, for the bread, with olive oil and roasted garlic, for the poke tuna nachos, and to try other specialty pizzas. I may have to find new friends to go with, however.

Notes on Photos

A couple of notes on the photos. As mentioned, we had a large group, which took up a lot of my attention. As such I only took a few photos. Fortunately to people came to my rescue. Sheila Ivain, who is fantastic local photographer that you will find at just about every local event with her camera, smile and spectacular photos, and Sue Pagel, one of the members of our dining club that was dining with us that night that caught some great photos in between laughter. I thank them both as they greatly enhance this review and give a much better feel for Bohemian Pizza than my mere words can do.