Blaze Fast Fire’d Pizza puts the “Fast” in Fast Food. A crisp crunch of crust burst into my palate with the first bite. As I continued chewing, however, my Art Lover’s pizza revealed the creamy consistency of ricotta cheese and softly roasted artichoke hearts; the symphony of textures blended fabulously.

I’ve been to numerous pizza joints in the Carmel area, but Blaze Fast Fire’d-Pizza (Blaze) is the first I’ve seen to lay out all its ingredients and allow customers to point to and select toppings for customized pizzas. This unique layout really speeds up the longer wait time for pizzas to be prepared and baked. While I’m used to waiting 20, sometimes 30 minutes for a pizza at a sit-down restaurant, Blaze’s 800-degree oven cranks pies out in about 10.

It was also a pleasant surprise to be greeted with warm hospitality at the doorsteps. The employees immediately asked for my name when I ordered and addressed me personally as I picked out toppings. When the order was ready, they called me up to the register for the pies, which came on individual serving plates, greater enhancing to the personalized feel of the restaurant.

But let’s get down to the main course of this review: the taste. All of Blaze’s pizzas feature a thin-crust. While the restaurant emphasizes custom-made pizzas, customers can also order one of its nine signature pizzas, which I got for this review. I ordered the Art Lover, Veg Top, White Out, and Meat Lover. The Meat Lover was particularly greasy, and while the name suggests a copious mound of meat, mine just had one or two sausage chunks and a piece of pepperoni on each slice. It is a very heavy-tasting pie and after eating it I felt like I completed my caloric intake for the day. The Veg Out pizza, however, had much more balanced flavor. Despite only having vegetables, the pizza was so wholesome I didn’t even notice the lack of meat. I found the White Out pizza to be the easiest to eat, but contained little sauce and was much dryer than the others. The fresh arugula on top added a fresh brightness, along with slight hint of pepper. Finally, my favorite: the Art Lover pizza. There was a good ratio of cheese to sauce and the flavors balanced without any competing for dominance. But just like Meat Lover, eating the Art Lover pizza can be messy. The red sauce dollops both overpowered chunks of the pizza and made it difficult to eat without creating a mess. Overall, the pizzas tasted good but lacked uniqueness and variation. After trying out all the slices, I couldn’t distinguish the signature pies from one another. Judging solely on taste, I would rate Blaze at a 3.5.

However, the silver lining for Blaze’s is its speedy and hospitable service. It truly puts the “fast” in fast food and if anyone is in for a quick and fun place to eat, Blaze is the place to go.