Pizza Baron

We joined a larger group for a low key graduation party. We were greeted by a typical old, dark and cool interior with plenty of seating for all three reserved parties booked for that afternoon. Vinyl seating booths border the walls with charming antique like décor set throughout the parlor; in the dining area, there is a large stone fireplace that perhaps was once lit to add atmosphere – but not this day.
The games offered at Baron are quite enjoyable – in fact, my son loves the Simpsons Pinball machine. A good portion of the games were newer and I’m good condition. Quite inviting for children’s birthday parties.
The pizza was kind of lack luster. I’m all for a good, no fuss pizza – I have been since I was little and enjoyed our local offerings very similar in nature to Baron’s however there was not only no fuss but no additional appeal. I like thin and crisp crust but this was a little too crisp with limited flavor. The toppings were generous enough but again nothing stood out.
Generally, Baron’s seemed to be an okay place for a larger group with a decent gaming area and a basic almost lack luster pizza. I do wonder however if the standard sized pizzas have better taste as ours was the larger sized pizza with three pizza types in one (seriously it was about half as long as the tables we were sitting at). Who knows. I don’t imagine we’ll return unless it’s for another gathering hosted by someone other than ourselves.

I’ve been to A LOT of pizza places all over the Northwest but not a single one of them even gets close to Pizza Baron. They’ve mastered the flavor combinations of their crust, sauce, and toppings. The atmosphere is great– perfect for any occaision from a low-​key date night to a big family get together. I especially love that they get orders out so quickly even when they’re busy. And their salad bar, while not incredible, is still awesome.

I get excellent service every time I walk in. Even when I order for delivery they are always arriving within the given time frame, if not sooner.
The thin crust they use for all of there pizzas is amazing and I feel like I’m cheating on them when i have stuffed crust somewhere else.
Decent beer selection now and the salad bar isn’t bad, but i typically don’t go to a pizza joint for a salad.
The games are great and they are ever changing to bring in fresh games to keep up with the times.
I used to always do birthday parties here as a kid and they are always a great venue for a small get together or event.

I was not expecting to like this place, but I have to admit I enjoyed the food and the experience. Even though I play poker regularly next door, I had avoided trying Pizza Baron for years. I’m a pizza snob and it didn’t seem like there possibly could be good pizza at a strip mall in this rough neighborhood. Plus the place looks forbidding from the outside, with its dark windows. I know, I’ll walk into a gambling den without batting an eye, but a pizza place you can’t peer into scares me.
Well, after a recent losing session at cards, I finally went to eat at Pizza Baron. I ordered the special: a calzone, which came with a side of potato salad! Strange combination, don’t know how they decided on potato salad (or potato chips if you wanted) as the side. But the calzone was fine and large. Actually they called it a half calzone, but it was more than enough for me. The beer list was surprisingly good. Don’t order the «Baron’s Brew,» that is just Rolling Rock renamed. But they also had Fearless Scottish Ale, a nice local brew you don’t see often enough in pubs, and several other micros. The staff were all cheerful, attractive and attentive young people. And the other customers… maybe I was there on good day, but there seemed to be great-​looking women of all ages. They had big smiles and tight clothes and great figures — it just reminded me that there is more to life than inner-​Portland hipster hangouts. (Don’t get too excited, guys, this isn’t a meet market or anything — the ladies were all with husbands and most with kids too, but it just made for nice scenery.)
Anyway, the whole experience cheered me up enough to go back to the cardroom and lose some more money!

First off let’s talk pizza, I mean it’s the reason we go to PB, right? The pizza is classic American pizza, baked in old shelf ovens which means that the pizza crust is crispy (no thick crust for me!), and is exactly how I like it. The toppings are generous, but not packed on. They have a nice selection of toppings, nothing upscale or trendy. I’ve been reluctant to buy the fresh tomato slices recently because they’ve been on the green (tasteless) side most times I’ve ordered them.
Now the salad bar, that’s another story altogether. The green salad base is a iceberg lettuce mix with faint sprinkles of a shredded carrot or two, with the ever popular macaroni, potato, and bean salad, and cottage cheese (I’ve never understood why CC is found in old school salad bars, but it is). The salad toppings are few, let me see if I can remember them all: cucumbers slices (semi-​translucent sad little things), baby peeled carrots (dry and unappealing), baby corn (a favorite, I think it’s the novelty, they aren’t terribly tasty, are they?), olives, tomatoes (these were red and juicy), fakin’ bacon bits, sunflower seeds, commercial croutons, and maybe a couple of other things that I’m forgetting. They also offer bread stick (pizza dough slices) that unfortunately had a garlic shake on them that I found unpalatable.
The décor is fun, lots of interesting memorabilia and knick-​knacks. They also have a huge electronic game area, I can’t tell you anything about that other than it seems to be a hit with the kiddie crowd.

Pizza was good, but expensive! $ 22 for a medium that two of us finished off. Profit margin must be fantastic! The restaurant was dark, dingy and basically falling apart. We tried three booths before we decided to sit in hard-​back chairs by the un-​lit fire.
This place needs some attention, but the pizza brought me back to childhood.

I’ve been coming here since I was a kid and also the David Douglas days. Moved to Orange County about 7 years ago and haven’t had any pizza that even compares to this over there. Lucky for me I’m in town today and will be taking my wife and daughter here for old tradition and favorite pizza of all time!!! Thanks You Pizza Baron for all the wonderful years. Timeless.

So we had family in town visiting and we all wanted pizza. We have four kids so all the games are great. The pizza wasn’t spectacular but it was good and it’s not cramped for seating. The downside and the reason for the two star rating is the price. $ 30 for a combination pizza with no green peppers and $ 27 for a pepperoni. Also, no refills on drinks which is not cool. The staff is not super friendly either. We most likely will not be back.

The best anywhere .We have to drive always to come here. but we have not found any pizza that compares to this place. Great service and best pizza in Oregon.

Pizza Baron was an institute in my house growing up, and in fact we still go there every time I visit Oregon upon my father’s insistence. The pizza is decent. It’s probably 60% cheese which to me is a deal breaker, but most people like cheese.
The customer service when Bill isn’t around is pretty lousy, and the prices are a little presumptuous. The facility itself is very dirty, the restrooms are appalling, and the area is probably one of the squirreliest in Portland.

Been going to Pizza Baron since I was a teenager, it was a mainstay of life at David Douglas. The go to place after football games. The pizza hasn’t changed and is still incredible. Some of the best pizza I have had anywhere. The thin, crispy, cornmeal crust is so good. And is almost even better cold the next day. I moved to the west side a few years ago and there just any pizza like this in Hillsboro, so every now and then I have to make the 45 minute drive here simply for the pizza.
Yes, the booths are starting to tear and the bathrooms are kinda gross. The lighting is low but I like that kind of ambiance. And I love the fireplace in the middle of the room. If you want a good pizza at a Portland mainstay, this is the place for sure.

I love this pizza. So perfectly thin and crunchy with cornmeal dust to make it taste just right. My favorite is just your standard, but perfect, pepperoni. And it supports local high school kids. The owner is involved in helping the schools and the kids that go there

Rude staff that talk down to you or just ignore you. The game room smells funny. The high chair is broken and unsafe, my nephew got stuck by his head dangling down in it. Could have been a tragic first birthday if he was not being watched.

Went here for a birthday party and honestly I think Chuck e Cheese would’ve been better (no it wasn’t a kid’s party!) The dough was undercooked, no sauce and very little cheese. Our server was rude, we had to ask for plates, go find our own forks. I won’t be going back.

This may have been the worse pizza i ever had.
I was really hungry too. Pizza crust was under cooked, so i had to scrape the toppings off and eat with a fork. Which wasn’t bad. I had the pizza delivered. The lady took down the wrong address. So the driver called me. I told him where i was. I asked driver for cheese and peppers, No go. Food was cold so i heated up half of it, hoping the crust would somehow come together. Nope. All bad. Cannot recommend this spot.

So I had a
certificate for here and upon arriving I mentioned it to them which they then tell me they don’t participate in. I explained I just bought it that day, they said yeah we don’t do them. They were very unapologetic and just kind of rude. I don’t think I would go here again being that their customer service is lacking so much. You could have tried to make it right…

I love it here. Every time I come the pizza is the same as the last time. They are consistent. I paid under 20 $ for a family size pizza. The pizza is cheesy, crispy with a thin crust.

I’ve been to the Pizza Baron three times over the past year and a half (two birthday parties and a baby shower). Each visit was the same as the one before, so I will give them credit for consistency.
***THE GOOD***
*I enjoyed the retro look of the dining room. They have trophies and pennants on display, as well as other vintage items. I wish the lighting had been better so I could see more of the décor.
*The tables reserved for our groups were clean and in good repair.
*The thin «Oregon-​style» cornmeal crust on the pizza was very tasty.
*They had lovely lemonade, and it was even available in winter for one of the parties (early February). Many places don’t carry lemonade at all, or if they do, it’s a strictly summer-​only beverage. This Southern gal appreciated it greatly.
*The children really seemed to enjoy the games, and as far as I could tell, none were out of order.
*The picture booth was especially fun. We have one of the photos on the fridge as I type this.
*When the change machine ran dry, they quickly replenished it, thus narrowly avoiding a meltdown among the 20 or so young kids enjoying the games. This was clearly not their first children’s party.
*My daughter won several items from a claw-​like game, including a pair of Skull Candy earbuds. Not bad for a pizza joint arcade prize!
***THE BAD***
*The lighting is almost non-​existent. It is very, very dim in there. It reminds me of the neighborhood watering holes of the 70’s and 80’s, and not in a good way. It created an atmosphere that was slightly depressing and not at all welcoming.
*The pizza sauce and marinara dipping sauce are exactly the same: an unseasoned, canned tomato paste for both. Not very enticing, to say the least.
*I love mozzarella sticks, but these were bland and tasted frozen.
*The tiny salad bar has few options, and doesn’t look very clean. Nothing there was in the least bit appealing. My husband usually loads down on salad bars, but this time he took only a third of a plate of food and ate next to none of it.
*The staff needs better training. They often ignored the guests when they tried to order drinks (no refills here, which is annoying in and of itself… the least they could do is provide the new drinks in a timely manner). At one point, the guy behind the bar looked at my teen daughter in line, shrugged, and then went right back to cleaning the counter. She stood there for more than five minutes, totally ignored. When they finally did take her order, they were visibly frustrated by her taking more than a few seconds to get the right bill from her wallet.
***AND THE UGLY***
*This place is not handicapped-​accessible. On my three recent trips, I used my cane instead of my wheelchair… and am I ever glad I did. The very dim lighting plus the narrow aisles made it harder than usual to navigate the restaurant with my cane. It would’ve been an obstacle course in my chair.
*My biggest complaint: the bathroom. Nothing about it was accessible. Not the doors, not the fixtures, and most definitely not the stalls. I nearly tripped and fell when my cane hit a sizable hole in the tiling on the floor (see attached photo). This is a safety hazard, and I strongly urge the owners to fix this, and soon.
***LONG STORY SHORT***

The fun games, tasty pizza crust and good lemonade are just not enough incentive to overlook the bland sauce, inedible salad bar and mozzarella sticks, substandard lighting, drink order hassles and a non-​accessible bathroom.
***THE VERDICT***
ONE STAR for the lemonade & pizza crust.
ONE STAR for the games, as the children enjoyed them at all three events I attended at Pizza Baron.

The best calzone in east Portland! My wife and I adore this place, and the prices are insanely low! My wife and I can eat and we eat for $ 14 flat!
Oh, they have Simpson’s pinball!!!

So let’s just say you want to go here because you ain’t got money to go to Chucky cheese, John’s incredible pizza or even Pietros pizza parlor this is the bottom of the bottom!
Do not waste your money going here! we went for a birthday party they brought us out cold chicken wings, cold mozzarella sticks they were actually frozen so let me retract that statement it was frozen!
The games suck! I mean the set up is horrible I don’t know how this place is still in business? The customer service sucks majorly I don’t even know if that’s the word for it but do not go here save your money go to Papa John’s go to Papa Murphy’s take and bake your own stuff and you’ll be 100% happier