Hideaway Pizza, Warr Acres

With more than 10 locations in Oklahoma, Hideaway Pizza is a local giant. For many people, it is a staple of 'non-chain' pizza. And while it would be ideal to review the original location in Stillwater first, your humble pizza reviewers have neither the time, nor the gas money, to burn on a spur of the moment 90 mile one-way trip. Instead, we visited the location at 5501 NW Expressway in Warr Acres.


So, how did the hometown Goliath hold up?

Let's start with the Cheese pizza. Scratch that. Let's start with the cheese in the shaker. It was actually freshly grated Parmesan, which is amazing.


Back to the cheese pizza. The hand-tossed crust, and this is something that applies to most of the pizza, could be considered a "chameleon crust." It works well with different sauces and toppings, but does not stand up well by itself. Speaking of not standing up well, the crust under the sauce and toppings was flaccid. Attempting to pick up a slice resulted in an avalanche of toppings. It didn't bring a lot to the table taste-wise either. Not to say it's bad, just insubstantial. The sauce was the standard red affair, neither savory nor sweet, but straddling the line between the two. The sauce is mild, doing its job, but not standing out, some might say down right boring. The five-cheese blend was fantastic, with the feta pushing it just over the top.


Next, we had the pepperoni. The crust and sauce were exactly the same as above. The cheese blend was different. Without the support of the provolone, cheddar, Parmesan, and feta, the mozzarella was bland. The pepperoni was both flavorful and spicy, but extremely greasy. Seriously, it soaked through everything. And this is exacerbated by the fact that the top of the pizza was tiled completely over by the pepperoni.


The "Big Country" came next. Named for Bryant Reeves, the basketball player that led OSU to the Final Four in 1995, the Big Country has pepperoni, Canadian bacon, Polish sausage, hamburger, cheddar cheese on top of the standard foundation of hand-tossed crust, red sauce, and mozzarella. It was this pizza where some major sliding was going on. The cheese was unable to hold the crust due to the glut of toppings and the lack of support from the crust, and if you tried to pick it up to eat everything fell off. So this is defiantly a pizza to eat with a fork. This pizza wasn't nearly as greasy as the pepperoni, and individually all the toppings were tasty.


The surprise star of the night was the Mediterranean. Its foundation was the hand-tossed crust with an olive oil and garlic glaze, topped with fresh spinach, mozzarella and feta cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes. With the glaze instead of the red sauce, the crust managed to hold up well in both taste and tensile strength. With feta in the picture again, the cheese blend is both flavorful and does its job well of holding things together. Other than some issues with the tomatoes and spinach being in large chunks, the rest of the toppings were perfect!


It is rather easy to see that Hideaway's main strength is toppings.  Honestly, they offer more than 30 different kinds, and have 18 different named combinations to choose from. Unfortunately, a plate and fork are almost always required to enjoy the pizza. Hideaway has become a regular part of our diet here at New World Pizza, and every experience there has been a positive one.

***Update***
After rigorous testing we have determined that Hideaway’s pizzas reheat extremely well.

Also, we weren’t trying to be overly harsh on Hideaway and hope it doesn’t come across that way. It is one of our (many) standbys. We just feel that too often it is judged not just on merit alone, but with the added benefits of tradition and history.