When I first moved to Toledo, my brother-in-law said there was one place I had to try: Pizza Cat. After five long years, I finally decided it was time.

The first time we ordered takeout, I noticed the restaurant had added items to the menu since the last time The Blade reviewed it. They now offer $5 steamed bagel sandwiches, and we tried the Reubagel, which was pretty much a Reuben with a bagel as the bun. Surprisingly the delicious bagel sandwich held up well to the ingredients, not getting soggy or falling apart at first bite.

We also ordered two Keto pizzas, which come with chicken crusts. Now when I first heard of chicken crust, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. However it’s a very flat chicken patty and surprisingly does remind me of a typical crust in consistency with a faint chicken taste. Keto Bandito is an $8 pie with a 6-inch chicken crust, ranch, pizza cheese, and bacon. The other was a create-your-own with the chicken crust, Daiya (vegan cheese), Carolina boom sauce, and banana peppers. Both were pizzas light in size (being only 6 inches) but full in flavor.

We also got a Devilbiss Tiger, a $13 pork pizza with sausage and banana peppers under the cheeses with bacon tiger stripes on top. The amount of bacon on this pizza was insane. It was so good. The taste of the banana peppers still shined through although the sausage was slightly overwhelmed.

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One dining companion was disappointed with his pepperoni pizza ($11), saying he didn’t see what the hype was about and that the cheese was a bit too much.

I was a bit surprised by that, but after my second time going, I realized Pizza Cat can be divisive. On this outing I asked several coworkers to partake and got a wide variety of opinions — almost as wide as Pizza Cat’s menu.

The clear winner this time was Smelly Cat, even though as one coworker put it, he didn’t expect much from a pizza with the same name as that annoying song from Friends. He admitted he was pleasantly surprised. The $13 pork pizza comes with garlic butter sauce, red onion, roasted garlic, salami, and sausage. Almost everyone loved how pungent the garlic was and how meaty the salami was.

The $13 Adams St. Veggie was chock-full of mushrooms, green peppers, red onion, ricotta, artichoke, and roasted red peppers. The ricotta was a hit, and one coworker said the crisp veggies made for a very filling pizza. However another called it bland and didn’t care for the crust getting a bit soggy.

Another veggie pizza, the $13 Rainbow Road, was sprinkled with pineapple, green pepper, red onion, and roasted red pepper. One coworker found the ingredients gave the pizza a colorful pop and refreshing taste while another wished there was more pineapple on the pizza.

We found the $15 South Toledo Supreme to be good but not great. The toppings of sausage, pepperoni, mushroom, green pepper, and red onion were tasty, but we found that they were outmatched by some of the other pizzas we had ordered.

The last pizza we ordered was a create-your-own in order to try the cauliflower crust. A friend had recommended it to me, so I created a pizza with cauliflower crust, pizza cheese, Italian sausage, and spinach. The crust was surprisingly crunchy and tasty with one friend calling it a hearty competitor for typical pizza dough.

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Speaking of the crusts, one coworker admitted he isn’t a fan of thin crust pizzas, which is what Pizza Cat typically appears to offer. But he said he still enjoyed it and that the cauliflower crust is a good choice for health-conscious pizza lovers.

Overall almost everyone enjoyed Pizza Cat, but one coworker said he didn’t find the flavors of the pizzas distinct enough and would have preferred more sauce and less cheese.

So to my brother-in-law’s surprise, not everyone loves Pizza Cat. Several of us agreed that what was missing most was consistency: Some pizzas are great, but some are just OK. Even knowing that, it’s definitely worth ordering from Pizza Cat again and again to try its experimental takes on pizza chock-full of hearty toppings. That’s where this restaurant shines brightest.

First Published July 15, 2021, 12:00 p.m.