A little group of us wanted pizza last Saturday night so we opted for somewhere new. VIA 313 is a Detroit Style Pizzeria with two sit-down restaurants locations and one food truck in the Austin area. We went to the newest location off of Guadalupe in the North Campus area. I have to admit I have never even heard of “Detroit Style” pizza before, but it quickly became a winner in our books!
The location we went to had an open dinning area with a bar along the back wall. There was a mixture of high top round tables that can sit 2-3 people, 2 long community style tables and I believe I saw a couple of normal tables at the opposite end of the restaurant. We arrived around 6:30pm and found a place to park in the attached garage pretty quickly. We could tell they were already getting busy inside and we did have to wait about 20mins for a table (which wasn’t bad because they originally told us 30-40mins). While we waited we enjoyed a beer from the bar. They also offer to-go orders and the line for pick up was pretty impressive. I could tell pretty quickly why they were so busy because it smelled amazing inside! (Pictures below were taken on a different visit when not so busy. 2:30pm on a Sunday. Yes, we went again the next day for lunch, it’s that good!)
Bar area with Take out
Beers on Tap
Community table
Rear seating area
Once we were seated, we met our waitress and she was very knowledgeable. She asked us if we had ever been here before and if anyone had any food allergies. I explained it was our first time and that I was vegan. She took a minute to go over the menu and explained what Detroit Style pizza was. Basically it is a thicker, fluffy crust and they put the cheese directly on the crust and then the sauce and toppings on top of that. Then she showed me what options I had and what was her favorite choices. They have vegan cheese which was “Follow Your Heart” brand (way better than Diaya in my opinion) and pretty much any pizza could be made vegan by adding or taking off certain toppings. They also had a couple of vegan starters which were white bean humus and, her recommendation, the roasted broccoli and cauliflower. My husband and our friend (both Omni) ordered starters but I wasn’t starving so I passed this time. Then she did inform us that the pizzas would take around 30-40 mins to cook and rechecked with me to make sure I didn’t want something while we waited.
So after waiting about an hour before our actual pizzas came (from the time we arrived), we made a note to get there earlier so that we could actually be eating a little earlier. Either way, the wait was definitely worth it 110%! We each ordered the 8×10 inch, square, personal sized pizzas. My husband was concerned that it might not be enough to fill him up, but he was wrong. When the pizzas came they looked and smelled fantastic. It was like heaven when I took my first bite! I ordered the Herbivore ($12, with an extra $3 for the vegan cheese) and switched out the onions for pineapples. The crust was so good and having the cheese right on it made it taste even better. The red sauce was really tasty too; it had a very distinct, homemade taste. The only thing I would have done differently was asked for a side of the red sauce to use for dipping! My husband and his friend loved their pizzas as well and no one could finish their plates! The four little squares are very deceiving and are very filling! We each had to go boxes for tomorrow! Yum!
The Herbivore, with pineapple instead of onions. Sorry I took a couple bites before I remembered to take a picture! It was too good to wait!
Overall, Via 313 is the best pizza I have had in a very long time. Out of all the places in Austin that I have had vegan pizza at (Conan’s and Blaze Pizza are the most recent) this place blew them all out of the water! And my Omni company also agreed that it was the best pizza they have had period. Price wise it was very comparable to Conan’s. It cost us $37 for two pizzas (one with vegan cheese and one with extra toppings) as well as one caesar salad. We will definitely be coming back and I highly recommend them for any group of eaters!
Monkey Toes and Flying Avocados 