Colorado Mesa University offers a pretty decent variety of food venues for its students to eat at. One eatery is the Italian restaurant, Pandini’s. Located in the Tomlinson Library food court, Pandini’s offers several Italian dishes for students to sink their teeth into.

As a freshman forced to get a meal plan, I was able to stop by and use meal transfers instead of paying for the food, so take this with a grain of salt, as I only experienced the meal transfer options.

I took the extra trip to make it to the Tomlinson Library and walked up to the Pandini’s menu, which was pretty disappointing. For meal transfers, you have two options of entrees: pasta or pizza. Quite the limiting menu, but upon a closer look, I figured out that there is actually quite a bit of variety. There were two types of pasta, one a baked pasta and the other the traditional spaghetti and meatballs.

Following the recommendation of the worker, I went with the baked pasta, and it was pretty dang good. Now here comes the shining example of the cuisine: the pizza. We all know the pizza in the cafeteria has its faults, many times I’ve been let down by the mediocrity of the pizza served there. Not to dismiss the tostada pizza that has popped up twice, in my counting, because that pizza is well in “yum” territory.

However, the pizza at Pandini’s is on another level. The joint typically offers the basics: one pepperoni pizza and one cheese pie. On top of that, they offer a third and they are unique pizzas. When I went they had a buffalo chicken style ‘za which is what I got, and there was a pepper garlic themed one, which my friend swiped. There was also a meaty pizza baking in the oven. Clearly, the first impression from the lackluster menu is much like E.T: don’t judge it by the cover, because it’s pretty dope on the inside.

My slice of buffalo chicken was cooked just right, and the flavors all complimented each other nicely. No spot of the pizza went untouched by an ingredient, creating a euphony of tastes, smells and sensations, paired with great dough quality. The slice left me in an ecstasy until the very last bite. All delightful imagery aside, it was the first thing I had eaten all day, it was almost one, so that could’ve affected my experience a tad.

Now Pandini’s is no Beau Jo’s pizzeria, and if you don’t know what Beau Jo’s is, I highly encourage a trip down to Idaho Springs. I would go as far to say that they have a better pizza than the local Domino’s. Since it isn’t as rushed as the fast food chain, they can make some proper pizza. The big question still remains: is it worth the walk? To that, I say that Pandini’s is definitely worth the extra walking distance, especially for those looking for a change of taste bud scenery and some pretty good pizza. Seven slices out of ten.