Buddy’s Pizza & Steak, 6239 N. Teutonia Ave., can be easy to miss if you’re not looking for it. Located in the Silver Mill Shopping Center, it is surrounded by several businesses and another strip mall, which houses a Division of Motor Vehicles location.

Buddy’s owner Mike Ayad took over the space a year ago after the previous ownership, another pizzeria called Papa Lucci’s, closed its doors after several years in business. Buddy’s Pizza & Steak opened late last summer.

Ayad wasn’t present to meet with me, but I was able to get some useful information from a staff member.

Upon entering Buddy’s, I found a black leather bench with a Buddy’s sign above it in the waiting area on my left, a large take-out window on my right, and six tables with chairs straight ahead. I was happy to see the dining area because I wasn’t sure how the pizzas would hold up on a 20-minute drive home.

I scanned the menu boards above the take-out window and made my decision. After standing at the counter for a minute or so, I was greeted by a staff member offering his assistance.

I placed my order, sat at a table and waited … and waited … and waited. My order was ready almost 40 minutes later. The phone rang steadily with requests for delivery and carry-out orders, so there must have been several orders ahead of mine, even though I was the only one dining in.

The tables and chairs looked like something you’d find in an old diner. The tables had metal trim and white tops with red and gray line patterns on them. The chairs had red cushions and backrests with that classic diner "glitter" effect.

The walls looked as if they were freshly painted on the top half while several chips were found in the paint on the lower half. Prints of the New York City skyline at night hung on the walls, so I assumed I would be dining on New York-style crusts.

Most of the tables and chairs were clean, but the floors didn’t look very clean. I just hoped that the kitchen was cleaner than the dining room.

I turned my attention back to the menu. I was curious about the steak dishes at Buddy’s Pizza & Steak, but I didn’t really find any.

The menu featured pizza, chicken, ribs, seafood, sandwiches, burgers, gyros, salads, appetizers and desserts. The word "steak" appeared in the Philly steak pizza, the Philly cheese steak sandwich, and the Philly steak salad.

I don’t think I would single out steak in my business name with a mere three uses of "Philly steak" sandwich ingredients. Perhaps steak dishes will be added later.

However, I was intrigued, so I ordered a Philly steak pizza topped with mozzarella cheese, steak meat, mushrooms, onions and green peppers.

The "steak meat" looked and tasted like chunks of ground beef. It also had a very similar texture. Perhaps it was ground steak or there were pieces of steak scattered on the pizza, as well. I just didn’t notice them.

When I asked the gentleman who took my order, he assured me that steak was added, but had a perplexed look on his face when I showed him the meat on the pizza. It seemed he agreed with me but wasn’t going to admit it.

It wasn’t that big of a deal to me, but I thought I should point out the difference between ground beef and steak to benefit the staff and future customers.

I will say that the meat was seasoned very well and added a great flavor to the pizza. The mushrooms were fresh, not canned, which was another bonus.

Overall, I actually liked the pizza. It was generously topped and had a good flavor. It didn’t taste that much like a Philly cheese steak to me, but it wasn’t bad. Maybe a cheddar cheese sauce or melted Cheez Whiz could have brought a little "street cred."

The hand-tossed crust was crispy and chewy, similar to a New York-style crust, but not exactly a New York-style crust. It was also better than I expected it to be.

The other pizza that caught my eye was the Mexican pizza. I don’t think I’ve seen one on a menu since I started these blogs.

Buddy’s Mexican pizza was topped with taco meat, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, jalapeno slices and black olives. It also included a couple of small containers of sour cream on the side.

The lettuce and tomatoes were really warm and the lettuce wasn’t crisp, so they must have been baked with the pizza. I would have preferred them to be added as cold items after the pizza came out of the oven.

Most of the jalapeno slices had seeds in them, so several bites generated some heat and prevented me from tasting much of the other flavors. Some of you probably prefer the heat and would consider it a flavor enhancer.

The taco meat didn’t have the flavor I experienced with the meat on the Philly steak pizza. In fact, I would use that seasoning blend on the taco meat instead of the Philly steak pizza meat, or use it on both pizzas.

I didn’t add the sour cream because, frankly, I didn’t trust it. The containers were cold, so that wasn’t a concern but the sour cream was likely transferred from a larger source, and I didn’t know what the expiration date was on that source. Besides, I felt like I’d already taken enough chances.

The pizza crust was crispy around the edge but the grease in the center of the pizza made the rest of the crust soft and less appealing.

Overall, the Mexican pizza was okay, but I’ve had better in Milwaukee at a place I’ll be blogging about in the future, so stay tuned.

Both pizzas had a very small amount of pizza sauce, which I was fine because for these two specialty pizzas, I preferred to taste the toppings more than the sauce. However, what I did manage to taste seemed like a spicy flavor.

Buddy’s pizza crusts and pizza sauce are made in-house. Actually the sauce starts from a can, but then the proprietary seasoning blend is added, which was the creation of their head cook.

Pizzas sizes come in 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 inches. The specialty pizzas come in the same sizes except they are not available as 10-inch pizzas. A 10-inch cheese pizza starts at $7.99 with additional toppings starting at 99 cents.

Specialty pizzas start at $12.99 for the 12-inch and besides the two pies I tried include a Californian pizza topped with anchovies, spinach, tomatoes, feta cheese, mozzarella cheese and ranch sauce and a Greek pizza topped with mozzarella cheese, feta cheese, gyro meat, tomatoes, onions, hot peppers and black olives.

Admittedly, I was skeptical about what my dining experience would be like when I arrived. Even though I waited longer for my order than at any other pizzeria or restaurant I’ve visited, the pizzas were better than I expected.

The Silver Mill Shopping Center seems like a tough location, but I don’t think there is much competition in the area, other than Hup’s (previously blogged). Besides, Ayad owns other restaurants and pizzerias, so I think he has the experience to have success here.