Dine Des Moines: Nick ‘n’ Willy’s Pizza

Last night Sam and I ordered from Nick ‘n’ Willy’s Pizza in West Des Moines.

But first, a quick thought: There’s some controversy going on in the healthy living blog community right now about whether some bloggers are truly “healthy.” I could write a whole spiel about it, but since I’m a new blogger and most of my readers don’t read a lot of other healthy living blogs, I will just say this: I am human. I skip workouts and eat pizza. Last night I did both. :)

We’ve gotten Nick ‘n’ Willy’s before—I got a pizza and Sam got wings, but he was jealous of my pizza crust so we decided to order again.

It’s not the cheapest pizza—two thin-crust mediums came to $28–but it’s so worth it. We were all set on ordering a large four-cheese, then I got all excited about the Mediterranean, so I ordered two mediums. I can call it blog research, right? :)

It’s OK that you spelled my name wrong, guys. Just keep making me pizza.

The Aegean (N&W’s most popular pizza, and what I ordered last time) is still my favorite, but the Med pizza was still awesome. I love that they use super-fresh ingredients and hand-toss the crust. And there’s something about the cheese—maybe it’s just the right amount—but everything comes together perfectly.

Sam ordered the four-cheese…

It, too, was great. Perfect proportions of sauce, cheese, basil and oregano. Sorry about the lighting, by the way. It was dark out, I don’t have fancy lighting equipment and Sam was hungry and rushed me…as if food were made for eating instead of photographing or something. Life with a food blogger is rough.

They offered to put our pizza toppings on olive oil instead of tomato sauce, which I’ve never heard of before. Anyone tried it? We were sort of intrigued by what that would taste like. Maybe it’s like white pizza, only…oily? I don’t know why I’m still talking.

When I went in to pick up the pizza, a man I can only assume is the owner said the pizzas were just out of the oven, thanked me for ordering and said he appreciates our business. I’m totally a sucker for that stuff—I feel like nobody values customer care anymore—so that, plus the fact that the pizza is amazing, will probably make Nick ‘n’ Willy’s our new go-to pizza place (Sorry, Great Plains, but you’re far, far away now).

In terms of health, N&W’s isn’t really too bad. They have a nice page on their website detailing nutrition, and you can even download a nutritional information sheet for each individual pizza. The sheet says a serving size is one slice, though, so unless you really only eat one slice of a 12-inch thin-crust pizza, some math is involved. They also have salads that look amazing (I was going to order one last night but I’m poor, OK?), sandwiches and gluten-free options for all my Celiac friends out there.

Overall, I’m happy we stumbled upon Nick ‘n’ Willy’s. The WDM location is the only one in Iowa (and one of a handful in the Midwest). We’ll be back again!

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