Rudy’s Gourmet Pizza changes locations, moving from 48th and Powell to 24th and Powell, now much closer to Cleveland. In fact, the walk is only about two minutes. Burgerville and Homebase have new competition.

In addition to proximity, which totals an entire 0.1 mile, Rudy’s has something that neither Homebase, McDonald’s, or Burgerville offers—a Cleveland special. Students can order a single slice of pizza and a drink for $3, or you can add another slice for $5 total. Full pizzas are available in three sizes: 10” small, 14” medium, and a 16” large. Prices range from $12.95 to $26.95. Moreover, they cater to a multitude of dietary restrictions. You can order your meal gluten-free, vegetarian, or vegan. Other than pizzas, they offer other American comfort foods as well. Shout out to the cheese garlic bread, which is honestly as big as a full pizza.

We tried their five-cheese pizza and their garlic cheesy bread. The crust didn’t seem completely cooked through at times, though this may be a result of it being relatively thick. Or it could be due to the fact that Rudy’s is pumping out pizzas in under 10 minutes. Our pizza had a bit of oil, yet that can be accredited to the fact that it was a five-cheese pizza. Besides, isn’t that to be expected of a pizza, America’s shining star of at-home cuisine? It was still good— better than a coffee or fries for lunch and cheaper than a full meal at Burgerville. Overall, their menu has plenty of variance with different types of pizza, wings, appetizers, and desserts. Sadly we haven’t gotten to try the desserts yet, but there is always next time.

That being said, the food came out fairly quickly. Not fast enough to make you wonder if it’s actually just Digiorno’s™, but it left you enough time to actually eat while sitting down. That’s another thing: you can sit down. Unless you count Cleveland’s very own cafeteria, the other nearby eateries don’t offer enough seating space for the amount of students that come through. At Rudy’s, you and some friends can sit down. You know what else this place has? TVs. (However, they are all on the sports channel, which makes sense seeing as Rudy’s is technically a sports bar.) So if you eat alone, you can blame it on the fact that you want to immerse yourself in sports.

If you plan to sit, take this word of advice: Consider placing your bag underneath the table, rather than in the aisle. We tripped the waitress, on complete accident of course. Despite this, she remained really friendly. (We hope we can show our faces in there again.) In general, the staff is very amiable. There are not many people working (maybe two on the register and six in the back whipping out the food), yet, as said earlier, they’re speedy enough to allow you to get back to class on time.

The staff seems to be adapting quickly to the influx of people during lunch. Nonetheless, they messed up our order. This mistake wasn’t a bad one, though. They upgraded our size from a medium to a large. This let us share some cheesy joy with basically our entire friend group. So that was sick win.

The main advantages include the versatility and price of the menu, timeliness, and comfort. Consistency in the crust is something to work towards. We think this is easily overlooked by the positive attributes. Decide for yourself if coffee surpasses imperfect crust. We give Rudy’s Gourmet Pizza 4.5/5 slices. It’s cheap, filling, and fast—the best qualities of a high school lunch spot. It’ll be hard to top.