How do you top this? Try a Crash Landing

The indecisive might not do well at Crash Landing Pizza. At this carry-out pizza joint, there's no "Crash Landing special" or other combinations to guide your pizza path.

You choose your own topping adventure. But picking what lands on your pizza is the only complicated element of ordering here, since Crash Landing specializes in pizza alone. With gourmet toppings that extend beyond traditional pepperoni and Italian sausage — options like sun-dried tomatoes, Bulgarian feta and asparagus — suddenly picking your own sounds pretty good.

Crash Landing, located in the eastern side of Ballard known as West Woodland, has the aura of a college pizza joint, with a graffitied counter, pizza slices warming under a heat lamp, and half a rocket jutting out from one shiny red wall. But it's a friendly, neighborhood-type place, where students stop by for the charming, alcohol-free 2-4 p.m. happy hour weekdays, when all pizza slices are $1.99.

Prices in general are quite reasonable. An 18-inch pie with one topping costs $17.50 plus $1.50 to $2.25 for additional toppings. A 14-inch pizza with one topping costs $12.95, and additional toppings cost $1-$1.50.

The pizza itself is made New York-style with thin, crisp crust. The slices aren't big enough to fold in half, but the crust manages to be both crunchy and chewy, and is topped with a light, fragrant combination of cheese, tomato sauce and herbs.

A friend and I differed on the crust. She thought it was slightly dry. I felt it held its own and was more concerned with a smallish dose of Italian sausage.

But it was a problem limited to that topping. For the most part, Crash Landing keeps everything in balance, achieving that all-important combination of cheese, crust, sauce and toppings.

Lucky for them and for us, their pizza doesn't crash and burn.

Check, please:

Vegetarian pizza: For this half of a 14-inch pie, we had Bulgarian feta with Niçoise olives, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes and spinach for our vegetarian option. The olives were a nice salty offset to the light feta, fragrant sun-dried tomatoes and other vegetables. The light tomato sauce complemented the fresh toppings and worked well with a crunchy, yet still tender crust.

Italian pizza: The owner guided me to pick this classic combination of Italian sausage, onions and mushrooms. Chopped Italian sausage was sprinkled sparingly along with thinly-sliced vegetables. The flavor combination was relatively mild, and more meat would have provided more punch. I sprinkled on crushed red pepper for a needed flavor boost. I'll go for pepperoni next time.

Pepperoni slice-to-go: Slices come in several varieties, and the day I picked one up, other options included a mushroom, olives and ricotta combination and a pepperoni, olives and mushroom choice. Pepperoni is a straightforward option but made a convincing case for itself, holding up fairly well to the heat lamps. And the nice mix of spices in the sauce sang through in this basic combination, with the pepperoni providing the requisite spicy kick.

14-inch pizza (half with five toppings, half with three) $14.95

Pepperoni slice $2.35

Root beer $1.50

Limonata soda $1.50

Total $20.30

Nicole Tsong: ntsong@seattletimes.com