CYO Craft Your Own Pizza and Salad

Was in town for business and had some time to spare drove around the corner and made a turn into a random plaza. It must have been fate for me walk into this someone hole in the wall. CYO gives you the opportunity to create your own delicious pizza. Many toppings to choose from just have to use your pizza imagination. Another thing that was new but absolutely delicious and refreshing is the Boylan Bottling Fountain Soda marine. Pure cane sugar and natural flavors coming out of a soda fountain. Best sodas I’ve had to date! I was lucky today to have a great meal on this short business trip. Will be coming back in the near future. Not I do have something to look forward to while on this once a month trip.

I have only had salads from here, but they are always good. The ingredients are fresh and healthy. I always get a to go order and it’s always correct. The customer service is good too.

I’m not from the area, needed something quick on my lunch break and this pizza place was AMAZING! And super cheap, it was happy hour and for my pizza and drink it was only $ 5.40! Couldn’t believe it. It was tasty, & did flop when I picked it up which is a major plus!
The drink fountain however wasn’t something I was fond of, it’s not your typical soda machine, settled on a drink I had in the car.

I had high hopes for Craft your Own Pizza & Salad (CYO). The service AND food were absolutely terrible. The restaurant was very hot & stuffy. I ordered the Organic Mixed Field Greens Salad (grape tomatoes, + english cucumbers + shredded carrots + white balsamic-​basil vinaigrette) and it was very small. I counted two small tomatoes and one cucumber slice, yes one. I decided to «craft my own pizza.» I ordered a variety of toppings and many of the toppings were not even on the pizza. The toppings that were actually included were very few. A couple of diced pineapple slices, a few bell pepper slices… you get the idea. I had to request a side of pizza sauce since there wasn’t very much so the pizza was very dry. The pizza was dry and severed cold. Pizza Hut would have been much, much better. If I could give a ZERO, it be a zero rating.

This place was mehhhh. The pizza was ok but nothing great. I wasn’t totally crazy about the crust and I didn’t think the selection of toppings matched the price. One thing that I really disliked was the fountain soda machine. It’s not a normal selection like Coke or Dr Pepper. It’s some weird line of soda that I’ve never heard of and it didn’t hit the spot. If you’re like me and you want an extra fizzy fountain Coke with your pizza, this pace doesn’t have it.

The Pacific Rim Salad is fantastic. Fresh and tasty. I like to add feta, red onion, and extra Thai peanut dressing. Even the half-​sized portion is pretty big — and I like the fresh lemonade.

Craft Your Own is a fast fired pizza place, which is all all the rage these days. The thin crust pizza allows it to cook quickly, which means you can customize your order exactly how you want it. If you don’t know the drill, you pick your sauce, cheese, meats and veggies. You can add as much as you would like, and comes to a flat $ 8.95. It’s so much better than getting pizza by the slice, but you get what you want hot out of the oven. As a pizzaholic, it feeds my addiction.
CYO is a pretty cool restaurant. It has a modern design, and Edison bulbs everywhere. The high ceiling adds a lot of space, and the large windows let in plenty of light. And the out door seating is really nice, there is plenty of shade for when it’s hot and heaters and even a fire place for when it’s cold. I always come here for lunch, so I’ve never seen it lit but it would be great to sit by at night

I brought my wife here again. She is in love with the atmosphere, and great food. This is a great place to visit.

Tried this place for the first time a few nights ago, although pass it frequently: It was basically empty, only 4 people were in the restaurant. Ordered the Romaine Salad (candied walnuts, croutons, lettuce, mustard: no vegetables so basically unhealthy) as a side with my pizza (sausage, onions, mushrooms). It was very pricey and it wasn’t worth the cost, although was able to finish it. Pizza was very doughy and oily and salad was pretty bad: the dressing had a strong unpleasant odor .
This restaurant is sister with Tin Leaf in Aviara, which is WAY better than this restaurant.

The service, variety and quality is really exceptional at CYO, I am so glad we stopped in for lunch while visiting the area.
I crafted my own salad as well as pizza and both were fantastic, my husband and son made their own pizzas and loved them as well.
You have the option to ad a soup or salad for $ 2.95 which is a great value.
The décor and vibe is nice, clean bright and modern.
The food came out quickly and was prepared perfectly.
They have unique additions such as pork belly and potatoes, all very tasty.
Great addition to the area, I wish them all the best!

I eaten here before and the pizza is very good but the meat lasagna was the worst I have ever eaten

CYO is yet another delicious option from the owners that brought you Tinleaf and Beach Plum Kitchen. The whole make your own «chipotle» style pizza thing seems to be the newest fad amidst casual fast food. Being a huge fan of Tinleaf, I figured I’d give this place a shot for a pizza. The service was astounding and the pizza was actually quite tasty, quite a bit better than Blaze, Pieology and Project Pie. The crust was perfectly done and the food was served in a timely manner. The salads here are actually quite good and the draft beer selection is a-​ok as well. Overall, this place is a great spot to try if you’re craving a pie or salad with some fantastic high quality ingredients.
Pros–
Location
Menu
Salads
Beer
Pet friendly outdoor seating
Service
Rewards program w/​Tinleaf, Beach Plum
Ingredients used
Cons–
Parking
Pricey

Bottom Line: Get creative and craft your own fresh salad or fresh-​topping pizza or try a signature dish; either way, you can’t go wrong at CYO.
CYO is definitely not just another fast-​foodish restaurant as they use fresh and high quality ingredients to create extra delicious dishes. As the name implies, you can custom order a salad or pizza. But, if that seems like a lot of work, rest assured that their signature salads and specialty pizzas are always delicious without the mental tasking. For salads, I personally like the Tuscan Chicken Salad. Regarding pizzas, there are sooo many good choices including Wild Mushroom, Farmer’s Pie and the more decadent Baked Potato. If you are going to craft your own, I highly recommend the awesomely addicting Walnut Pesto sauce as a base.
CYO does not have a bar per se but they do offer a handful of each wines and craft beers. Also, they have happy hour specials on Monday through Friday from 3pm to 6pm. Speaking of specials, kids 10 and under eat free on Sunday nights with each paying adult.
CYO has indoor dining as well as a patio. I’m not a fan of the patio because it is always soooo windy out there. All of the outdoor tables within the Palomar Commons shopping center are located in the wind tunnel so there is no avoiding it. There are some TVs inside in case you want to keep an eye on the score while you enjoy your meal.
CYO’s sister restaurants include Tin Leaf and Beach Plum. I appreciate that all three restaurants are linked to the same rewards system so you can earn free stuff faster.

In a world of on the go the new make your own pizza places that I’ve been popping up are pretty cool. Bressi Ranch is totally developing itself and CYO is a good place!
Walking in the place is laid out really nice there’s lots of seating and some nice outside seating. They already have some premade pizzas you can order or you can order your own. I ended up ordering the barbecue chicken pizza. They put just enough sauce on it and it was pretty tasty. The chicken wasn’t too dry and the barbecue sauce wasn’t too sweet. Even though it is a personal pizza if you aren’t that hungry two people could probably eat it. Overall it was a good experience and I would totally come back and try to again.

Fresh ingredients, order as many toppings as you want for the same price. Great crust, ricotta cheese was fluffy (that’s all i can think of to describe it) and almost sweet, the oregano and basil were even fresh!
You can’t go wrong here!

Stopped by here on Saturday, totally starved. Probably a good thing that the pizza only comes in 1 size…
As the name suggests this is a «craft your own pizza» place which means you pick your sauce, cheese, and toppings. At CYO you choose exactly what you want on your pizza.
But really isn’t that what all pizza places are? Think about it, you go into Oggi’s or wherever and there’s a ton of pizza choices with different sauces, cheeses, and toppings. And you pick the one that has everything you want. At CYO, it’s the same thing, just not assembled and given a fancy name like the Slam Dunk.
The ingredients are listed on the board above as are the salad fixings. It would be nice if everything was laid out so I could see each option.
Anyway, CYO is to adults as Blaze is to teens. (Dang, I feel like I’m writing questions for the SAT.)
What I mean is the atmosphere of CYO is more of a sit-​down and relax a little longer. Whereas, Blaze (as the name suggestions) says, «sit down, eat, and get out.» Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But I’m digressing. Let’s talk about the food because that’s why you’re reading…
I opted for a cheese pizza — it was about 4 p.m., the dh was cooking steak kabobs and dinner would be reading in about an hour. But I was starved and could not wait. I needed something now. CYO fit the bill.
Crust: Medium soft and while not my favorite (I like them thin and crispy) it was decent.
Sauce: Housemade tomato sauce. Let’s just say interesting. It wasn’t bad, but I haven’t had an orange pizza sauce since elementary school. (And I won’t even say how many decades ago that was…)
Cheese: Delicious and lots of it. Loved that they didn’t skimp on the cheese, it was oozing off each slice.
Happy Hour (wasn’t there for this but here’s the details): Monday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
$ 3.50 house pints
$ 5 house wines
$ 5 cheese piazza
$ 5 walnut pesto ricotta crostini
$ 5 side meatballs
On Sundays, kids (10 and under) eat free from 4 p.m. to close with the purchase of an adult meal. (Dine-​in only)
Would I go back again? Yep, I’ll try it again. The pizza was good. And I’m interested in seeing if I get another orange tomato sauce…

Ordering takes a little time as you’d expect from a place where people have to lay out a food game plan to the cashier but the service is pretty fast and the place is always clean. There’s a lot of boys who work here so the girls bathroom can sometimes need a once over and since they don’t enter that sacred ground between scheduled visits they wouldn’t know. They have hands free faucet and a fast dry system and that always makes me happy but a place to hang or set my purse would be nice.
What I ordered — Baked potato pizza. Comes with béchamel + mozzarella/​provolone cheese, slices of potatoes and pork belly. I switched the pork belly for pepperoni and ditched the green onions. I also added their romaine salad.
I’ve ordered this here before and remember liking the pizza but feeling I needed to change it up some to add some kick but since I didn’t remember that BEFORE I ordered, my pizza still came out pretty standard and just a little on the bland size. It did remind me of a baked potato and in that regard it was good but it needed something to give it a little WOW ORDER THIS AGAIN about it. My crust really didn’t have much of a flavor and it was slightly burnt. The potatoes were done well and I liked the cheese mixture with it.
Now my salad I really enjoyed. There was actually a girl at another table eating the same salad I had and I heard her say «Well this is a good salad’ and I laughed because I’d been thinking the same exact thing. It was just a simple romaine lettuce salad with croutons, grated parmesan cheese and candied walnuts. They lightly toss it in this garlic dressing that is really very yummy. I can’t say I’d fight my way to come back here again but should someone want to go I’d shrug and come along. And for sure I’d order a salad.

Solid 3 star review from me…
We were heading to Carlsbad Beach for a nice walk when hunger hit me… and fast! Hangry was setting in!
I’ve seen CYO Pizza and Salad a bunch of times and decided to try it. Cool thing about them…
Sunday after 4pm, kids eat free with each paying adult. Score!
I’m not crazy about their pizza, but I don’t really like any of the new ‘create your own’ pizzerias. However…(don’t stop reading!)
The salad I had was delicious! I ordered the salad nicoise and it was so flavorful. I would come back for this salad and to try their other salads. They looked really good.
The service was fine (order at the counter and they bring it out), place was clean, and they had all natural sodas in their machine. I stuck to water, but I was happy to see other options!

4.5 stars! CYO is great Met friends here for a girls night this week and was really happy with my experience.
The employees are super friendly. A man (I’m assuming the manager) asked me right away what questions I had, if I wanted recommendations, what he could start for me when another friend ordered. The employee who took my order was very nice and ordering was easy.
My pizza came or pretty quickly. I had the gluten free crust and it was thin and crispy. Goat cheese, chicken, lots of veggies, and house tomato sauce. It was really delicious and I ate the whole thing! Fresh and light (probably since I didn’t have the whole thing covered in cheese) and a pretty good price.
Other friends had salads and soups and loved them. And another had the Thai chicken pizza and said it was awesome.
Plenty of seating, both inside and on the patio.
I love the fast casual dining and the pizza trend is one of my favorites.

I stopped in for a late lunch before heading for a massage in the area. I felt like having pizza, so I popped in to check this place out. There was a happy hour from 3−6p M-​F with a couple draft beers, house wines and 3 appys for $ 5.
There is a nice large patio outside and the indoor seating is really nice and spacious. Every table has a place setting already and there are TVs in multiple locations. The staff is really friendly and on point.
I opted to order the appy meatballs and personal cheese pizza and a diet soda. The meatballs and pizza were OK. I should have ordered a pizza with toppings, however.
Overall, this is a great alternative for an inexpensive meal, especially during happy hour.