Oak Park Mall in suburban Kansas City was sort of blessed with the only Kornet Pizza franchise in America. We went to the food court on assignment for my dude Grocery. I say this because I hate this mall with a passion. The food court is pretty much the same since I was there a couple of years ago. They have a Panda Express, some sort of cheese steak and potato stand, a Subway (coming soon!), and a Sonic. All of these places were busy with hungry Friday afternoon shoppers, while I was the only person within at least twenty feet of the Kornet counter. All the details and pictures after the jump.
I can say one thing for Kornet Pizza: their staff is very friendly. They practically treated me like a regular. The fact that anyone was buying a pizza cone seemed to be a novelty to them. I ordered a veggie cone and the dude told me that he was going to “make one fresh for me if I had a couple minutes.” I looked at the cones that had been tanning underneath a heatlamp for awhile and decided that it would be in my best interest to go fresh. Each cone ranges from $3.99 to the five dollar range. I sat down and he called me out after about five or six minutes when it was ready.
The cone comes in some sort of modified tissue box. Taking the cone out, I was surprised at the lack of grease or “leakage.” That was before the first bite.
I would say that the pizza cone was 3/4 full of just mozzarella cheese. I didn’t reach sauce until about halfway into the cone. Not that an edible cup of melted cheese is a bad thing, the distribution of ingredients just seemed sort of off.
Then the cheese started to ooze. The consistency seemed a little off. I had to actually pull some of the cheese out because I realized that I was chewing on these insane bites of cheese like it was bubble gum and it was very disconcerting.
I think they were going for a thin crust, but it’s pretty bland and has the consistency of a saltine cracker, which doesn’t help in controlling the contents much. You could go to the Sbarro in the food court and wrap a slice up and have more success, and pizza, than at Kornet.
I gave up towards the end. I wouldn’t say that the pizza cone is awful. It was an interesting novelty food item, but I’m not sure how long the novelty can last. For me it was after about two bites. The staff is friendly and made a fresh cone for me, so I’m rooting for them. Otherwise, you can find me back at the Oak Park Mall food court in two more years, eating a SuperSonic cheeseburger and and a cherry limeade instead of pizza in a cone.
