A place to dive into some good bites and relax in Downtown Raleigh

Picture this: You’ve just spent nearly nine hours at a doctor’s appointment and left exhausted as well as with a delay on your chemo that you were expected to begin that day. You haven’t eaten, you’re starved, and frankly not in the mood to cook. What do you do?

On a normal Thursday like that, I’d stop by my favorite place in Durham (she’s getting a review of her own soon, so I’ll let it be a secret where that is,) but they were on winter break. I looked to my mom and we both telepathically agreed “pizza.” Pizza typically is the right answer in an instance like this one (and most other instances.)

Enter Poole’side Pies; James Beard award winning chef Ashley Christiansen’s pizza spot smack dab in downtown Raleigh. Right next to Red Hat Amphitheater, Poole’side Pies is one of the very first sights you see coming in to town. It’s a welcome one- clean white brick, pool tiles, blue accent lighting, fun neons, and a great bar set up that looks just like a diving platform. It’s a spacious restaurant, and the theming is fun without being cheesy or tacky. It is just the perfect ‘cool’ hangout, and one of those places I feel you would go with a group of friends when you want a reasonably priced meal that’s still really darn good. Oh wait, spoilers, sorry! Let’s discuss the food before I blab anymore. 

We walked in and were seated right away, taken care of by an attentive server. It was a fairly busy evening as well, and for everything to be so quick really spoke to how well oiled the front of house machine is at this restaurant. That’s an AC Restaurant for you though- this ain’t their first rodeo. Up first were our drinks; I opted for a classic Diet Coke (the best pairing for pizza, in my humble opinion,) and my mom got an Ah, Aperol! which she thoroughly enjoyed and cited as very refreshing.

We ordered the Crispy Calamari to start us off (did I mention we were starving?) and it came out promptly. Instead of a crust or flour battered calamari that you typically see in restaurants, this calamari was given an almost tempura like treatment, and I would liken it’s fry to that of a fritto misto. It was light and hardly had any grease to it, and the squid was very tender and not rubbery at all, which it so often can be. My only wish was that there was some more seasoning to the batter because the flavor wasn’t as bold as I would have liked, however having it served with marinara dipping sauce and a lemon helped a lot with filling in that gap for me. Then arrived our pizza- the Five Cheese and Mushroom with chili crunch. This pizza was everything I wanted and more. I am a big white pizza girl, which this one is, and the flavors could have been one note given it was just a five cheese, but the chefs here thought ahead and added this perfect chili crunch. I mean it really did add so much in terms of texture and also a perfect bite of heat. The crust was absolute perfection as well with no floppiness to be seen.

So I lied about what I said earlier when I said “my only wish…”, really I have two. My second wish was that we were able to drizzle on the chili crunch ourselves because I would have done so much more up near the crust, and also maybe dunked my pizza in it, heck I would even take it home and drizzle it on more things there. It was that yummy.

The takeaway? This spot is popular, and with good reason. Their salads are yummy, drinks are simple but fun, and the pizza is some of the best in Raleigh. Their is an option for everyone, and the desserts didn’t look too shabby either. Like I mentioned above, this is your ideal spot for a girls night out, or even a birthday gathering. It’s still nice without absolutely attacking your wallet, and above all, it’s quality food. Now is it the best pizza in Raleigh? Maybe I will have to do a little series and we can find out, but in the meantime I will tell you it ranks up there. Go grab a slice and take a dip into the poolside vibes and see what I mean.

Rating: 4/5

Hey all! I hope you enjoyed this latest restaurant review! I have been working on a couple of posts ahead of time and want to know which you all would like to see sooner! If you don’t mind voting in this poll, I would greatly appreciate it. Much love and thank you for reading! Xoxo-Riles