How Long Would You Wait In Line For A Slice Of Pizza From Apollonia’s ? #100DaysofSummer

By notoriouslysinglegirl, August 26, 2025

My Love Language Is Pizza.

-Unknown

Waiting in line seems to be the trend in Los Angeles that’s going viral this summer.

For me it started with Elon’s new Tesla charging station in WEHO, where some people who didn’t even own a Tesla, waited up to 5 hours in line to eat a greasy burger served by a robot. And then there was the Wendy’s Wednesday pop up ( I believe was located somewhere in Norwalk) where people were waiting anywhere from 3-6 hours to go through a drive through inspired by the Netflix show.

How long would you wait in line for a slice of pizza? A slice of pizza that was named best of 100 pizzas in the world for both 2024 and 2025.

The Answer is ONE hour

That’s right. I waited ONE hour at Apollonia’s pizza for 2 slices of aka lukewarm cold greasy pizza that’s allegedly in the top 100.

I drove to Korea Town from Silver Lake, it was around 12:30pm on a Sunday. Apollonia’s opens at around 12pm -2:30pm and then again from 5-8pm. There was already a line outside formed that was around 12 people deep. And of course there were a few people inside. At least I was lucky enough to snag a parking space in the parking lot.

Around 1pm, a big hefty guy with a beard walks out and yells “We have a limited supply of pies. It’s better if most of you come back at 5pm.”

Technically in marketing psychology this is called queuing the line where people’s perception of value is further increased by people’s willingness to wait in line. Basically, an “occupied” wait feels shorter than an empty one. So, companies may provide entertainment or wait updates to reduce perceived wait times.

There was no entertainment but lots of anxiety

Immediately the anxiety from the hefty guy mulls over the populace waiting in line placing their nervous system in “fight or flight” further making acquiring a slice of pizza pivotal to your survival possibly increasing its likability. Now, there probably were about 30-40 people in total who have entered the queue. Obviously, the scarcity only made people go into a frenzy and stay in line further gambling their odds of getting a slice by 2pm.

Of course, more people started to line up only providing social proof :long line of people showing that a product or service is in high demand and therefore is desirable.

After chatting with several people in line, I found that almost every one there was an “Apollonia virgin” and had never tried a slice of the pizza worthy of a 100 best pizzas of the world list.

What’s all the hype about

Apollonia pizza is the brain child of chef Justin Del Leon . Although I don’t think he really went to culinary school so does he still get a “chef” title?

From my research I found that Justin was a photographer who loved to make pizza. He married both of his loves and created “Apollonia’s Pizza” in 2012. Originally, Apollonia offered eclectic pizza toppings like alligator sausage and rattle snake. Although, these toppings are no longer on the menu. at least I didn’t see them.

According to a friend of mine and Korea Town local, Apollonia’s pizza was not doing too well and was about to close its doors, hence the weird store hours. And then a guy by the name of Dave Portnoy gave the pizza an 8.2/ 10 and named it the best pizza in Los Angeles in 2024 making it all go viral possibly keeping the doors open and somehow getting on the pizza to the top 100 best pizzas of the world.

Is Apollonia worth all the hype?

Yes, I was able to make it in the door by around 1:30ish. There were several slices available even though we were warned that “slices” were limited. I was able to get 2 slices : Vodka sauce with some cheese, and a slice of tequila chicken sausage pizza with arugula since I only had a $20 bill I found at the bottom of my purse. That’s right, Apollonia’s is a cash only operation.

I was given the option of pizza slices that were lukewarm ( where I was supposed to go home and heat them) or a hot pizza which would have me waiting 30 minutes more. Unfortunately, I chose the lukewarm option since I figured waiting almost 2 hours for a pizza was out of control.

If you zoom in on the arugula pizza, you can see that several of the arugula leaves are yellow when they are supposed to be green. Not what I would expect from a pizza deemed one of the world’s 100. It’s meh at best and perhaps it would have been better if the pizza was hot. However, there seemed to be at least 7 guys working and of course no women making the service remarkably slow. Again, not what I’m expecting from a top 100 pizza place.

And unlike Dave Portnoy giving Apollonia pizza an 8.2/ 10, I’ll give it a 4/10 at best. It was super greasy and the cheese of course was cold. I even got super bloated due to all the grease this pizza held. In all of my existence I’ve never had anyone offer me a lukewarm pizza.I use to work in a bakery where we made focaccia and pizza for ourselves. My cousins own a pizzeria. Yes I’ve been to New York and Naples, Italy where pizza originated.

As I drove a few blocks down Wilshire blvd. on my way home, something caught my eye: Numero Uno pizza. And yes, Apollonia’s tastes like a Numero Uno pizza knock off with all the greasiness.

This pizza is not worth all the hype.

Seems like Justin De Leon must have gone to some Brujeros and done some black magic causing Dave Portnoy to walk into his shop and boosting Apollonia’s pizza into the viral social media universe further enabling their doors to stay open. I can see this just by looking at Justin De Leon’s picture. I can see the darkness around him. There’s a dark aura and a desperate urgency. After all a picture tells a thousand stories.

I get it. At the same time, if you wanna be the top 100 best in the world, you gotta bring forth that quality. Customer service is key. And please serve your pizza hot and hire better staff.

Or maybe it’s all just marketing magic that caused him to stay open with queuing lines social proof and TikTok influencers making Apollonia’s go viral.

In my opinion, Apollonia’s pizza is not worth waiting in line for over an hour for a “lukewarm” pizza slice and definitely not worth being on the world’s top 100 best pizza list.

Maybe drive a few blocks down to Numero Uno and throw some buratta on your pizza and go buy some “green arugula” at Trader Joe’s . You’ll save a few hours on your life and probably enjoy a better slice.