From X’s restaurant to a pizza vending machine: Delta inspected all the pizza joints on campus looking for the perfect margherita. There was something for everyone.
In Pulse you can get a super quick pizza from the vending machine. (Photo: Thirza Bolhuis)
Exam period or not, TU Delft students sometimes need a quick meal between activities. Maybe an Italian? Armed with scales, a thermometer, and good taste buds, Delta left the office for a thorough food test. We visited all the pizza places on campus and tested each one’s pizza margherita. None really stood out, but fans of sweet and slightly spicy, plenty of vegetables or plenty of cheese all got their fill, as did fans of slight disappointment.
The Food Station – Different to the rest: sweet and spicy
Price: € 8 // weight: 480 grams // size: 33.5 cm wide // waiting time: 11 minutes // temperature: 65 degrees // pre-cut
De pizza from the Food Station is sweet and slightly spicy. (Photo: Thirza Bolhuis)
The test panel weighed every pizza with great accuracy. (Photo: Thirza Bolhuis)The Food station is located next to the Spar on campus. The menu includes the Dutch dish kapsalon, pasta and kebabs, as well as pizza. There are nine types of pizzas, including the margherita.
You can order through Thuisbezorgd, or you can drop by. The restaurant is open every day from 14:00 to 21:00. Inside is a screen to order and pay. There are tables to eat at, but you can also bring your pizza home in a pizza box.
The pizza has a thin crust, which may make it a favourite for people who do not like the crusts. When you open the pizza box, you mostly smell the crust and the cheese. The crust reminds you of biscuits as the dough is a little sweet. The base is crunchy while the pizza slices are still flexible enough to fold. What first hits you when you bite into it is that the sauce is slightly spicy. That bit of spice in the sauce makes this the most interesting pizza in the test. The pizza has a lot of cheese, which makes it quite, but not too, fatty.
Evaluation: Half our panel likes the sweetish and spicy fast food pizza while the other half prefers a more artisanal Italian pizza. Whatever their preference, the testers thought this was a good snack or quick bite during a day of studying.
The pizza machine in Pulse – Dry disappointment in a box
Price: € 7.99 // weight: 260 gram // size: 25.5 cm wide // waiting time: 3.5 minutes // temperature: 39 degrees // not pre-cut
The pizza from the vending machine does not really look like the Italian classic. (Photo: Rob van der Wal)
On the ground floor of Pulse, behind the Vietnamese Nomnom, is the nightmare of every Italian – a pizza vending machine. There are two meat options: bacon and hot salami, but we go for a simple margherita again.
The vending machine can be used during Pulse’s long opening hours: 8:00 to 00:00: very handy for early morning and late night snackers.
Back to our pizza. It is not delivered within the promised preparation time of three minutes, but even at three minutes and 25 seconds, it is still ready fast. You can watch the preparation through windows in the vending machine, striking is how fast the pizza rotates in the oven. But the pizza that then comes out of the oven does not look like the pizza advertised on the vending machine at all. The sticker on the vending machine shows an excellent Italian classic with plenty of topping, but what comes out of it is a measly pizza with hardly anything on top.
We can also be clear about the flavour: no human and thus no love is involved in the preparation, giving the pizza no great taste. The crust is a large dry cracker, like a Matze, that is burned around the edge. The dried up tomato may be sweet once in a while, but the mozzarella has a strange after taste. The crust is also pretty tasteless.
Evaluation: For € 7.99 this pizza is what you may expect from a vending machine pizza: disappointment in a box. We leave with an even bigger sense of disappointment than the hunger we tried to feed.
The pizza vending machine in Pulse can be found behind restaurant Nomnom. (Photo: Thirza Bolhuis)
Pizza night at X – Favourite of cheese lovers
Price: € 9 // weight: 500 gram // size: 29 cm wide // waiting time: 8.5 minutes // temperature: 38 degrees // pre-cut
The margherita from X is outstanding for cheese lovers. (Foto: Thirza Bolhuis)
The room at X is full. Luckily, we do not have to wait long. X has margherita, chicken zucchini, and broccoli pesto mixed seeds pizzas. When you order and pay at the bar, you will get a beeper that beeps when your order is ready.
The fresh oregano on the top makes it a colourful margherita. The topping is spread out and leaves enough crust to pick up the slices. There is a lot of cheese on this pizza which you can clearly smell and taste. The slices even bend under the weight of the filling. The crust is very soft, and maybe should have been left in the oven a little longer.
Evaluation: We enjoyed this biggest pizza in the test. If you find cheese too heavy, this may not be your favourite. But we at least like to come back for more.
The restaurant in the Aula – Well filled, but a tasteless sauce
Price: € 7.95 // weight: 420 gram // size: 27.5 cm wide // waiting time: 5 minutes // temperature: 30 degrees // pre-cut
The testpanel also measured the temperature of this well-fillled pizza (Photo: Thirza Bolhuis)
You have probably been to the restaurant in the Aula on occasions. It is open between 17:00 and 19:30 for evening meals. We checked beforehand and found out that you have the biggest chance of getting a pizza on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Various meals are ready to eat under heat lamps in the Aula, but because the pizzas are so popular, we have to wait. They are taken out of the pizza oven and we can take them away.
The first thing that struck us is that all the pizzas in the Aula are well covered with vegetables. In contrast to the other venues, we cannot order a classic margherita here. To give a fair judgement, we first eat a couple of slices without vegetables and then enjoy the complete pizza as intended by the chef.
When we pick up the pizza, we immediately get the aroma of the crust. The crust is unusually tough and is at least one centimetre thick. The rest of the crust is soft and maybe should have been have been left in the oven a little longer. The pizza does not feel fatty (in comparison to an average pizza). Some of our panel members find the sauce tasteless, while the others appreciate the little amount of salt. One thing is certain, it is not an exceptional sauce. The vegetables on the other slices give the most flavour.
Evaluation: The opinions of our test panel are diverse. Still, every member finds the pizza good for stilling hunger while studying, and definitely so if you leave the vegetables on top.
By Thirza Bolhuis and Rob van der Wal
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