Restaurant Review: Pizza Fusion, Glen Allen, VA

I recently enjoyed dining at the new Pizza Fusion restaurant in Glen Allen, VA. The franchise motto is, "Saving the Earth, One Pizza at a Time." Pizza Fusion claims to be fresh, organic, and earth friendly with its menu of locally sourced ingredients and restaurants built with renewable resources like bamboo. If you have special dietary restrictions, Pizza Fusion has vegan and gluten-free dishes clearly marked on the menu.

On my first visit, I was seated quickly and the waitress gave me some ideas of what to order. She made some suggestions of what she liked, but in the end I ordered pizza. I had the traditional cheese personal pizza, made with organic tomato sauce and artisan cheese blend. This item was $7 and was served on a large platter. I really liked the thin crust that was very crispy. The pizza was certainly not the Americanized deep dish heavy on the bread variety.

I ordered a tea and was served Just Black Honest Tea, which I did not care for. Pizza Fusion does not serve name-brand sodas - only Boylan's Sodas, Honest Tea, Fiji Water, and Vitamin Water. They also serve chilled tap water. The tea was $3, bringing my total to $12 with tip.

Husband went with me on a Saturday lunch date on my second visit to Pizza Fusion. The waiter seated us a two-person table by the wall so we had a good look at the restaurant. According to the menu, the tables are made from reclaimed wood sources, countertops from recycled glass bottles, artwork is printed on recycled materials, renewable bamboo wood is used throughout the store, and faucets and toilets are low water flow. All of the energy used is offset by renewable energy, takeout boxes are recyclable, and they use low energy CF and LED light bulbs.

Our waiter made some suggestions but we already had picked out choices. Few things are better than beer and pizza, so we asked about the beer bottles on the bar rack. We did not recognize any of them! All of the beers and wines served by Pizza Fusion are organic, with such colorful names as Butte Creek Brewing, Stone Mill Brewing, Frey Vineyards, Stellar Winery, Cooper Mountain, Dixon's Peak and Badger Mountain. Pizza Fusion also serves gluten-free beer brewed from sorghum and they also serve gluten-free pizza.

I had the Stone Mill Pale Ale and Husband had a Butte Creek. Both were surprisingly good. I ordered a Four Cheese & Sundried Tomato Pizza ($10) and he ordered an Organic Pepperoni Pizza ($8).

For an appetizer, we got the Chicken Bruschetta ($10), which was arugula, romaine, free range chicken, mozzarella, onion, basil and crostini. The serving was smaller than we expected. Sometime we only order appetizers, but this time we were glad we ordered a main dish.

The pizza crust on my pizza was a little bit too toasty this time, but I just ate around the blackened edges. Husband's was cooked a little more gently and tasted great. We grew up on fresh garden vegetables and it is easy to taste the difference when a restaurant chooses natural and local produce.

Pizza Fusion has restaurants in Mesa, AZ, Clovis, CA, San Diego, CA, San Luis Obispo, CA, and Temecula, CA. There are six Florida restaurants: Deerfield Beach, Fort Lauderdale, North Miami Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Wellington, and Weston. Other locations are Atlanta, GA, Naperville, IL, Leawood, KS, Ridgewood, NJ, Gibsonia, PA, and Houston, TX. The restaurant we visited is located at 11331 West Broad Street, Glen Allen, VA, in the Short Pump area.

Pizza Fusion is not your everyday pizza restaurant - it's way better! I love the fresh ingredients and no-preservatives and no-hormones ingredients. Their pizza is more like what you would make at home with your fresh garden vegetables. The menu is a little pricey for the quantity of food that you get, and I did not like having a limited selection of drinks (which were also higher priced than expected). But overall, the quality and taste of the food is good and we will definitely go back and visit Pizza Fusion soon.