Grub Crawl - UCF Area: Blaze Pizza and Chicken Salad Chick

I ate at these two fairly new spots in that new complex at the corner of University and Alafaya on Saturday.

Blaze Pizza - This is a pit row pizza joint in the best way. They press the dough into a pie with a machine. They then sprinkle on your toppings (they have a zillion). Then they bake the sucker in the oven for like two minutes and that's it. I had a regular pie for $5! Can I remind you of the $13 Brazilian pie crisp I had a few weeks ago? Or the $6 two slice disaster last weekend? This pie tasted fine. No complaints. A GREAT value. I think they serve other things too. It was a blur of excitement. The place has high ceilings. It looks brand new because it is. One wall is all glass. The have a huge mural/photo on another wall. You order at a counter. It was pretty full. They even have an unhinged box that saves your fingers from getting clamped down on.

Chicken Salad Chick - Now let's compare the $5 I spent at Blaze with the $9 I spent here. All I got here was three scoops of pulled chicken. Two of which were virtually uneatable. They have fifteen chicken salads. For around $9, you are pretty much manoeuvred into ordering the trio or a single salad sandwich. I tried the trio because it let me report back on the larger amount of product. The Jalapeno Holly was terrible. Pickled jalapeno flavor. Very salty. Even worse was the Jazzy Julie. It was cayenne, bacon and cheddar. Way too spicy (and I've entered those contests where the thing is free if you can keep it down). Dry, Is it so unpopular that it sits until the chicken dries up? Salty, Olivia's Old South was the only palatable entrant. It had pickles and egg. Whoopee. At least it wasn't loaded with salt and was moist. The menu also some non-chicken salads, soups, some boring sides and a few non-chicken sandwiches (actually at a reasonable price). It has been open for four months. It was unsurprisingly empty. It looks like it will be a cute little "Grand Ma" cafe and then you see the "fast food", "order here" counter. They have all these articles on how the purveyor (started in Alabama) has brought something wonderful to the Universe. I found the pickle on the side to be the best thing about the place.