Pizza, Please Brings a New Affordable Spot to the Village

By: Lanie Brice ‘24

“I’m gonna go grab something to eat,” one of my classmates announced as I walked into the lecture room with ten minutes to spare before the class started. He’d decided he needed sustenance to make it through the next two hours of his four hour block of solid classes. He appeared ten minutes later and slid into the back of the room with lunch folded in a napkin. I asked him if it was pizza since it was awkwardly folded and half covered, and when he said yes, we all turned to ask where he got it. 

This was the week that Pizza, Please opened in the USC Village, news to everyone else in the room. As we asked for details, he said it had moved in next to City Tacos—which as close as you can get to the main music school buildings most of my classes are in—and a slice was only $3. I made a mental note of the new offering. 

A few weeks later, I was wracking my brain for a lunch option that would keep me full during my long stretch of classes from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and through my half hour commute home. That’s when I remembered the folded slice of cheesy pizza and wandered my way to the edge of the Village in the late afternoon. 

The restaurant is immediately inviting with a gated section of outdoor seating with high and low top tables and chairs in a variety of bold colors. Inside, there’s a spacious seating area and large tables that would be perfect for studying and a nearly brewery style interior design with exposed brick and beams. Speaking of breweries, for those over 21, they do have beer on tap and sell White Claws. When I stopped in, there wasn’t a wait to order and there were maybe three or four people scattered around the restaurant. 

Like all restaurants at the Village, Pizza, Please is counter service, and ordering was easy and efficient. With six kinds of pizza (though they are customizable into more options), a few types of wings, and a couple sandwiches, the menu isn’t so extensive you’ll be overwhelmed. Being the ultimately boring soul I always have been and always will be, I ordered a slice of cheese pizza. In my opinion, you can’t beat simplicity. 

It only took about a minute to receive my order in a mini pizza box. Pizza, Please’s service lived up to the extremely fast food run I’d seen my classmate take, and since pizza is extremely portable, this is the perfect between class or event stop for a semi-balanced meal. I took my box outside to enjoy the first truly sunny day we’ve had in way too long. It was so nice to be able to head straight to their designated patio area instead of being left to aimlessly wander through the always packed Village patio furniture to find a seat. 

When I opened the box, I was pleasantly surprised at the generous size of the slice. It was about double the size I’d expected. The pizza itself isn’t going to make you say, “Wow, this is the best pizza I’ve ever had,” but for $3.28 with taxes, it’s an entirely satisfying, quick meal when most offerings in the Village will run you at least $10 if not more. The pizza itself is a pretty standard crust on the thinner side that was somewhat reminiscent of Domino's pizza. If you’re not much of a tomato sauce fan, you’ll love Pizza, Please since the sauce was layered on so thin, there’s a chance you won’t notice it’s there at all. The cheese blend is tasty, and there is plenty of melty cheese. It’s hard to have complaints about pizza, honestly. 

While Pizza, Please doesn’t conquer the problem of a lack of affordable, healthy options in the Village, it does offer an efficient restaurant to stop in between classes for one of the best priced meals you’ll find near campus. Given that pizza is a notorious college student staple, it’s about time the Village locked in a permanent pizza stop open for late night runs until 11 p.m.

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