“I’m starving and I don’t want what my mom is making!” Join the club! But now there are plenty of options just around the corner.

We’ve all heard of Blaze and Pizza Hut, but it’s time to try something new! Why not stop by Mod Pizza?

Mod Pizza is located in the Day Creek Marketplace, with a Starbucks not too far away. A small sign gives a nice minimalist look to the restaurant. It’s neither too fancy nor too bland.

Mod started out as a small business in downtown Seattle. Husband and wife Scott and Ally Svenson, were stuck thinking about what they should do for a business. According to Inc.500, “a business connection suggested they look at the pizza industry.” So they decided to do it. But they wanted it to be different, so they created a place that was healthy, friendly and affordable. Just ten years later, Rancho has our own Mod Pizza.

When I walked in, the first thing I noticed was how open they made the place feel. As any franchise should do, the staff greeted me with a warm smile and a hello. This place was different because they took the time to get to know me. As they took my order, it was easy to talk with the employees. The staff was mellow and patient with me as I decided on my toppings.

The decor was very urban and rustic, like many restaurants nowadays. But it also had a sense of hominess and a relaxing atmosphere. They played a country type of music with a twist of pop, which gave the place a good vibe.

Well, enough about how beautifully set their decor was, let’s get into their food. I ordered an 11-inch pizza with regular dough. I asked for red sauce with olive oil first. Then I had the normal mozzarella cheese with a sprinkle of parmesan. Next, I moved on to the meats, asking for pepperoni and chicken. For the greens, I chose spinach (just to add something healthy). I like to kept it nice and simple.

They do have different sizes, allowing the customer to customize their own pizza. They have gluten-free pizza, mini pizza and mega pizza. But you can’t only have just pizza, so they also offer salad, garlic strips and cinnamon strips. The salad options include a mini salad and a mega salad. And as I already mentioned, they even have small chocolate cakes called No Name Cakes.

Now getting into the taste of their pizza. Of course when the food arrived, the pizza was nice and warm but not too hot to eat. To start off, the crust was very crispy, but had some soft spots to it, so it wasn’t too crunchy to chew. The red sauce did give a subtle taste, but the oil just made the pizza oilier. As all pizzas are, you can’t exactly describe the taste – it just tastes like what it is. All the toppings had a good texture to them. As I took a bite, I could taste the cheesiness. The meat also mixed with it, creating a strong flavor that blended well. The spinach had a different texture to it then the rest of the toppings. It was squishy and mushy with a crunch. Their food tasted like normal pizza. There wasn’t really anything too unique to it, though the flavors still tasted amazing.

I asked one of the managers how their pizza compares to Pizza Hut and Blaze. “We are way better, [and] we are way friendlier than your typical fast food place. We like to focus on the people rather than just giving food, so we like to say we’re not a pizza place, we’re a people place,” an employee responded. Mod believes that they are better in multiple ways: “Our ingredients are way fresher. We have our very own dairy cows, we have our own beef. We are much nicer than them as well. Our recipes are greater, our dough is better. We’re just all around awesome! And we were the first ones, too.” Mod may be similar to Blaze in our eyes, but to the staff of Mod they say they are better because of their fresher ingredients and unmatched kindness.

Mod Pizza is a great place to have brunch or dinner with friends or family.

Overall, Mod pizza is an upgrade from other places, if you know what I’m talking about (*cough…Pizza Hut…cough*). Mod is healthy, the staff is friendly, it’s affordable and of course it tastes great!