PST Pizza Slice in Azabudai, Tokyo

There is a new NYC-style pizza slice shop in town. Doing things their own way, the PST brand has launched PST Pizza Slice in Azabudai, Tokyo, offering a combination of fresh pizza slices and frozen pizzas – everything is “to go.”

PST stands for Pizza Studio Tamaki. If you know the brand, you know they have earned a reputation for offering fantastic pizza, delivered with originality and style. Both PST Roppongi and PST Higashi Azabu make the list of the top 10 pizza shops in Tokyo (both are excellent). In northern Japan you can score some Tokyo-grade pizza at PST Niseko (the Hokkaido PST shop).  While the “pizza slice” concept comes as a bit of surprise, PST continues to excel at the art of pizza – one slice at a time.

So when PST decides to do pizza slices, what does that look like?

Does that look good?  We speak from experience, and it’s very good.

PST Pizza Slice Azabudai opens at 12 noon. The shop has a walk-up window, and serves two different kinds of slices, available for take away. You can squeeze inside and buy a full line of frozen pizzas from a freezer just inside the door. There is no place to sit (does that little wooden step-seat count?), there’s no restroom, they don’t want your trash, and you can only pay by credit card (no cash).

That is a lot of “saying no” as you walk up. Generally, when you have this many rules posted – you’re expecting tourists and this is all crowd control.  It’s not particularly hospitable, but… maybe it’s necessary?

And now, a look at the pizza menu.

On the day we came by for lunch, there was a choice of just two kinds of slices. You could order the Margherita Pizza slice or the Crunchy Pepperoni. For NY-style slices, in our opinion the Pepperoni is always a good place to start.

Crunchy Pepperoni Pizza Slice: Tomato Sauce, Cheese, Pepperoni, Basil Sauce
— PST Pizza Slice menu

You might notice the conspicuous tower-slice shaped boxes.  There is a not-so-subtle tie-in to the Tokyo Tower, which is just a three-minute walk away.

Pizza Slice PST starts taking orders a little before 12.  I was behind a group of about eight tourists, and then another couple (also from out of town), and had to wait a while to get any attention. Eventually I rang the bell, and I placed my order for a slice and a lemonade.

As I waited, slices were coming out of the oven. Each slice is set on a sheet of paper, and then loaded into it’s own slice-shaped box.

How’s that look?

This is some good looking pizza; fresh, beautiful.  With all the sauce (two kinds, tomato and basil), the paper gets messy and doesn’t photograph particularly well.

How about the taste?

First bite: The crunch of the crust, then tomato sauce, that mild burn from the spice of of the pepperoni, and then a note of the basil drizzled on top. This is a very good slice. This is gourmet pizza.  It is barely in the category of “New York Slice,” but that’s the general idea.

It’s surprising – and interesting – to watch PST make a play at the slice market. I have never seen a high-end pizza spot like Pizza Studio Tamaki try to do a NYC-style slice, and yet, the execution from PST lands where you might expect; their famous fantastic flavors delivered as “street food.”

I can’t be certain this sauce is the same sauce they use on their Neapolitan pizzas… it would make sense if it was not. Whatever the recipe, it was easy to love. The pizza was papered with wafer-thin pepperoni salami, served crispy (without being burnt… which can be good too).

When they claim “Crunchy” Pepperoni, are they talking about the crust?  Theirs is indeed an “American” style crust, and it’s wonderful.

Most NYC pizza spots (in Japan, or anywhere) cook the pizzas, and then set them out in a glass pizza case, so you can see what is available. Unlike most NYC pizza spots, PST Pizza Slice does not have a case. While it’s nice to see all your choices, at those other slice spots the pizza sits around (can get a little dry or stale); when you order, your slice is cooked again (occasionally blasted with some misty water to re-hydrate the slice before it’s second trip in the oven). You can occasionally get a fresh slice right out of the oven, but that is mostly not how it works.

As far as I can tell: at PST Azabudai, every slice is fresh. Maybe the crust is parbaked (?), but the individual slices are dressed and cooked, and served to you in real time. Correct me if I’m wrong (please do), but this does appear to be one of many ways in which PST Pizza Slice is not like The Pizza (Hiroo/Shimokitazawa) or Pizzanista (Shibuya) or Roccos Pizza (Kita City).

This is a different kind of pizza slice.

For the slice I was served, that crust was crunchy on the bottom, soft, fresh, and wonderful in the cornicione.

While this is a delicious, high-quality crust, there is so much sauce, you cannot quite pick it up like a traditional slice.

Compared to classic NYC pizza slices in Japan like at Jesus Pizza in Kobe, Dookie’s Pizza in Nagoya, or Henry’s Pizza in Osaka, the pizza slices at PST are too sauce-laden to be picked up right away – at least not with one hand, at least not until you’ve trimmed off a few bites.

In the pictures here, I had to use two hands and eat several bites before I could pick a slice up for the usual Pizza Czar pizza test photo.

For all of our reviews of pizza restaurants in Tokyo, we like to take a photograph of the pizza and a drink. At Azabudai PST Pizza Slice, there were three choices of drinks; Craft Cola, Spiced Lemonade, and Premium Macha Green Tea.

I ordered their lemonade; also a specialty take on typical lemonade; sweet, but a hint of spice.

While the simple menu delivers wonderful taste, this may be the most pricey pizza in Tokyo (aside from the pizza-tour experience at Pizza Bar on 38th). For a slice of pepperoni and a lemonade, my bill was close to 2500 JPY. There a several Tokyo pizza restaurants that will give you a comfortable seat, and deliver a “lunch set” that would include a full-sized pizza, a salad, and a drink, all for under 2000 JPY.

There are no tables, no chairs, no counter to lean on. There is one step that seems to have been converted into a kind of bench (perhaps by the previous tenant?). Most of the tourists that got their slices ahead of me, just wolfed them down on the sidewalk – when they were finished, they traded in a full pile of those big, clunky boxes (which the shop was happy to take back).

I ate my slice sitting on that little bench seat, and watching the traffic drift by on the sidewalk.

It was a very good slice. It’s not a comfortable place to enjoy lunch, but it was super tasty. If the goal is to get locals on lunchbreak to buy slices to take back to their desks, that probably works pretty well.

And then there are the frozen pizzas; not slices, but full pizzas in two sizes.

We caught a shot of the pizza crusts being baked before they opened up.

The pizzas in the freezer are the frozen version of what you might find at the PST restaurants – perhaps also designed to serve local office folks; an easy meal to take home, and heat up, after work. A frozen PST is not going to be like sitting at the counter at PST Higashi Azabu (one of my favorite places to eat pizza in Tokyo), but I bet the frozen PSTs might make a tasty, quick meal.

I intentionally buried this at the bottom of this review, but if you’re still reading: “Pizza Slice” is in the name.  If you know the pizza in this city, you know “Pizza Slice” Tokyo is a brand of it’s own.  There are several “Pizza Slice” pizza shops by that name, and PST consciously blurs that brand as they bury that phrase in the name of this shop… it’s a curious choice.

I wish they had a counter. Even if you couldn’t sit down, it would be better if you could eat there (at least some of the time). The beautiful pizza slices at PST Pizza Slice would look even better served on a paper plate (which is the traditional vehicle of the NY pizza slice) and enjoyed (more comfortably) on the spot.

Yeah, a seat, and then…

What is a slice of pizza without a beer? Beer is not for everyone, but since we’re drawing from the New York street pizza format; a slice and a beer is very often exactly how they to do it in the Big Apple. We love what PST brings to pizza slice culture in Tokyo, but, perhaps in the future they’ll set up a different lease in a bigger location, and… they can bring along the rest of NYC tradition.

Until then, PST Azabudai shall be known affectionately as “hybrid pizza.” The Azabudai location produces a “luxury pizza slice” in the large, New York single-slice format, packaged at a premium price. A category-breaking flavor, and quality, that may not exist anywhere else.

Recommended.

Pizza Slices in Tokyo

— The Pizza in Hiroo, Tokyo
— New York style pizza slices at New York Tonyz Pizza in Tokyo
— Rocco’s NYC Pizza in Kita City, Tokyo
— NY pizza slices at Nim’s Pizza in Asabujuban in Minato City, Tokyo
— Pizza Slice Cat Street in Shibuya, Tokyo

For more Tokyo Pizza see:

— Marumo Pizzeria in Ebisu, Tokyo
— Pizza Bar on 38th’s omakase pizza at the Mandarin Hotel in Chuo City, Tokyo
— Massimotavio Pizza in Suginami City
— Roppongi PST Pizza in Minato City, Tokyo
— Savoy Asabujuban Pizza in Minato City, Tokyo
— Simple, excellent pizza at Frey’s Famous Pizzeria, in Roppongi, Minato City, Tokyo
— Pinsa at Bonta Italia in Sarugakucho, Shibuya, Tokyo
— Pizza Strada in Azabujuban, Minato City, Tokyo
— Devil Craft Pizza in Kanda, in Chuo City, more Chicago pizza at DevilCraft Gotanda in Shinagawa, Tokyo
— Shibuya pizza at Kevelos, in Tokyo
— Sabasu Pizza in Akasaka, Tokyo
— Komazawa Pizzeria da Peppe Napoli Sta’ Ca” in Setagaya City, Tokyo
— Deep-dish pizza at Pizzakaya (Detroit style) in Minato City, Tokyo
— Seirinkan Pizzeria in Meguro, Tokyo
— Risto Pizza in Azabudai, Minato City, Tokyo
— Butcher Republic in Ebisu, Tokyo