Restaurant Review - Matchbox American Kitchen

There are a lot of smaller local chains that are around these days. Restauranteurs are getting much better with getting a concept up and running and having the process worked out much more quickly in the past. This allows them to try and stay around with economies of scale and to return some of the money to investor much more quickly. Matchbox American kitchen fits into that mold. With not more than a handful of locations, they are prevalent enough to be accessible, yet somewhat special. At least that's the goal.

Matchbox fits right into the mold of too many new restaurants. Exposed steel, reclaimed wood, very hipster chic. I get why, it looks clean and nice, and is less expensive than other designs. However, at this point, it's not a really good way to separate yourself visually from the swaths of other restaurants selling new age 'pub fare' or bar food. This particular location located in Rockville, MD was fine, but it didn't seem too inviting overall. For comparison, I would look to Iron Rooster which is very similar but has more down home colors that bring it some warmth as opposed to the red of Matchbox.


Outside of the decor, the menu is standard fare and my wife started with cream of crab soup. The soup was nice in it's flavor and the amount of crab. No complaints. However it did come out lukewarm, for her that's fine but if I had ordered it I would want it to be actually a hot bowl. I ordered a double pepperoni brick oven pizza. My wife ordered a burger which came with a ridiculous mountain of onion straws. The onions were good though, nice flavor and texture but in my mind the presentation was crazy overdone. I don't need that many onion straws, it seems like it could be very wasteful. They also put a little bit too much arugula on the burger itself. My pizza was somewhat disappointing. The pepperoni was very good. It definitely was the star of the show because the sauce was boring and the crust was bland as well. Regarding the preparation, the crust wasn't as crispy as I would like it to be in the middle.


Matchbox might have had an off day in terms of preparation. That happens. However I don't know if the food itself warrants giving them a second chance. While it wasn't bad, it wasn't groundbreaking either. For my pizza I would prefer to go to Blaze or somewhere like that which is less expensive but tastes better to me. The soup was good, but lukewarm and the burger, while presented nice, and decent flavor, doesn't do enough to warrant a repeated visit. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and other times...it just is. This was one of those times. The one thing that does still interest me, is the opportunity to try their short ribs....I am there for that.


Rating: 3/5

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Restaurant Review- MOD Pizza

So there is yet another new spot in the local area for on demand Artisan pizzas and it was one I was looking forward to seeing once this trend really began to flesh itself out. MOD pizza. One of the things I have been watching closely was the proximity of these chains to one another and it seems that there is little overlap for most of them but it is starting to make me think of the numerous sub shops that exist locally. But hey, I'm willing to continue giving these places a try as they pop up.

First up, there is a menu which is pretty good and does have a lot of signature selections with a top ten of pie flavors that they offer. The design is more of the rustic reclaimed wood and dark hard grays, blacks and silver. The chairs all look like they were left over from Shake Shack. Mod does offer one major thing that most pizza places don't offer, milkshakes. The layout also has a much better setup for the pizza turner who uses a small metal paddle for the 11 inch pizzas and not a massive one which is blocked by the counter at some of the other places. In many of them I think they put more of a premium on the customer seeing the pizza than they need to.

I ordered a "Mad Dog" pizza which is the classic red sauce, meatballs, sausage and pepperoni. I opted to not get the sausage because I'm not a big fan of sausage honestly. I also ordered cinnamon strips and dipping sauce. The pizza itself is pretty good, the meatballs went a little heavy but maybe thats because the location is new and they were alright but i wasn't blown away by their taste. The sauce is pretty good but it does have a little bit of a spice to it. The pepperoni's were perfect. Aged well with a good spice to them and the cheese blend was fresh and top notch. At the end of the day, the crust of course tells the tale and the MOD crust is pretty good. I still think that bagby pizza is a little better but that's a local place which you're not going to catch everywhere. It bubbled up nicely and had a good crunch and didn't completely fall apart as I ate it.

The dessert I purchased, the cinnamon strips was a 5 inch pizza crust with butter and cinnamon on it, Simple right. The strips themselves could have been put into the oven a tad bit longer to get some more crispness- that would have made it perfect. However, this was all before I tasted the syrup/sauce of creamy cinnamon sugar goodness that was extra delicious. That dipping sauce is a highlight and it might be worth a visit on it's own I enjoyed it so much.


Taken altogether the pizza was excellent as was the dessert which definitely puts the entire experience up a couple of notches. This particular location is pretty new outside of the Columbia Mall which probably affected the staff and their relative inexperience with some aspects of the menu. However as they get some more practice, things should get better.




Rating:4.5/5

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Places - Blaze Pizza

There are so many new Quick Service Fast Casual Restaurants popping up all over the place it can be hard to keep up. One of the newest concepts you will see popping up everywhere is the on demand pizza model. I previously visited Pie 5 as one is close to me and the family enjoys it. For lunch this past week I visited another version of the idea, Blaze Pizza which is similar but it does definitely have some major differences.


First off the Blaze Pizza is bigger than the Pie 5 and where Pie 5 uses a dough that they have lined up in pans for baking in their conveyor belt oven, Blaze keeps the dough balls waiting until you arrive and press them right there. The ordering is little bit different as well, they have a variety of specialty pizzas and a make your own option which for the price and the variety can be beneficial if you can't make up your mind like me.  So you pick your toppings and they write them on the menu sheet which sits in front of them, which has to be helpful for prep, and put it into their more traditional style oven and it gets turned and cooked in under 5 minutes.

The one thing I have to say is that when it's crowded this area has to get hectic as the cook has to keep up and rotate the pizzas, this particular location in laurel could probably use more space between the oven and register from what I saw. Onto the pizza itself, I got two specialties put together, the Meat Lovers and White Pizza.

The ingredients are very fresh and it's amazing how much of that you can taste and tell. I did read reviews that the pepperonis didn't quite have enough spice to them and they were a bit mild maybe, but it could be from not aging and being processed as much as some other places. The sauce, while fresh had a lack of flavor, I mean it wasn't very tomato tasting nor was it really flavorful. They do offer a spicy red sauce as well so you might want to give that a try. The Meatballs on the meat lovers side were pretty good though.

The white pizza side the sauce was still slightly underwhelming. It could have used a little bit more salt and they sprinkle garlic over the top instead of having more of it in the sauce itself which would have been better so that it gets distributed more. It also has bacon on it which is cool but my preparer left off my arugula which I'm sure would have added some more contrast. it was fine though. My big issue is with a place like this the crust needs to be a star and it wasn't. It was very underwhelming and plain. I contrast with Pie 5 whose crust is very distinctive and worth eating on it's own this was the biggest disappointment for me.

Overall it wasn't a bad experience and the pizza isn't bad, it just doesn't make me scream out we have to go back. There are little tweaks they could make and the size and value are there for the price compared to pie 5 and so that is what makes it a more difficult decision, but if it's based on taste alone I'd choose Pie 5 personally. I almost forgot, I did get a heated SMore's cookie and it was good. I mean the cookie/cracker wasn't overly sweet but the entire composition was still tasty.






Rating: 3/5

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Taste Test - Subway Flatizza

I was holding off on trying these just because I'm not a fan of Subway and avoid going in there most of the time. But I was a little hungry and went in one and I decided to try these simple little pizzas that Safeway is suing to try and pump up their business a little bit.




The Flatizza itself is beautiful simplicity. A Flat crust that is baked like their bread is topped with sauce and cheese and pepperoni if you so choose. They take it toast it and cut it into four slices for you and give it to you in a little box, which I feel could be slimmer to reduce waste. it's a quick concept that fits in right with what Subway has on hand. As for the flatizza itself, it is pretty good. If you ever had and liked a Celeste Pizza, the cheap ones in the freezer section of the market, or even a totinos and cook it in the oven instead of the microwave, thats about what you're getting here.

The sauce is kind of sweet, no it is sweet with a taste of maybe roasted onion flavoring and some basil. It is unique though I suspect it is the same stuff as say the Celeste but it hasn't had the chance to be frozen and so has some freshness to it. The Subway put a good amount of pepperoni and cheese on mine. The thing that i liked, was the crust edges. See that's my favorite part of a thin pizza like this, getting the slightly burned edges and sauce because it comes together pretty good. Subway appeals to anyone who may like that under the guise of having it 'fresh' your way and quick. For the price it was 3 bucks for a cheese, 50 cents more for pepperoni it's good. Maybe not the best deal but it's convenient and gives me something to order the next time my kids insist on getting subs.

Rating: 7/10

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