Hideaway Pizza, a chain that started in Stillwater in 1957 and now has seven locations throughout the state, is known by just about all long time residents and is a favorite of many. The special "Hideaway Red" sauce is quite popular, and many people like to order some of the specialty pizzas that are loaded with ingredients.

I do not feel that there is much point in trying to find the best pizza or make suggestions for ordering. Almost everyone in the area knows Hideaway and has a favorite pizza. Instead, I will just relate some of my own experiences.

My initial experience with Hideaway was at the location on Western Avenue. Much of the popularity with the pizza comes from its restaurants in Stillwater and Norman. Since I did not attend college at either place, though, I "missed out" on this experience.

With my limited experience, though, I thought the newest Hideway in Warr Acres (a suburb on the west side of Oklahoma City) was rather disappointing. This could be due to a number of factors including different cooks or my changing tastes. I have found a number of pizza places in the city lately (as well as Italian restaurants) that I think offer fresher and more flavorful pizza. Almost everyone offers pizzas that can be"loaded up" with ingredients. In my opinion, though, good quality sauce, crust, cheese, and toppings are more important. I do like Hideaway's red sauce, but some of the other ingredients were less interesting.

Veggie pizza

The Veggie Pizza comes without the red sauce, and perhaps this is a reason I did not care as much for it as others I have tried. The veggies were good, except for the fact that it was loaded with black olives but no green ones. The cheese was fairly good, but the crust was probably not even average in flavor. The pizza was good, but not to the point I would say you need to rush out to try one.

Half Sooner Schooner, Half Pepperoni

The Sooner Schooner is a specialty pizza that offers a number of ingredients at a price that is more reasonable than ordering them separately. Included are hamburger, smoked bacon, Italian sausage, red onions, and green chiles.

The Pepperoni and Sausage Pizza is one of the choices under the "design your own" pizza section (customers choose the toppings and pay for each one individually). In the case of the pizza pictured above it was a "half and half" with the other half being the Sooner Schooner (the price charged will be the greater of either type of pizza chosen).

My feeling after trying the several varieties of pizza pictured was that the Hideaway on Western was more enjoyable, and had a better flavor. I have not tried enough samples at both places to say this as a definitive statement, but it seems to be the case.