Slow Rise Slice House: Waco Dining On The River

By Kelsey Kennedy | May 10, 2024

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You probably love pizza. We all do. It’s the perfect meal when you’re hungry, when it’s late, when you need to eat somewhere with a big group of friends, when you’re broke and you can’t spend too much money, or when you want to indulge. Pizza is…just about as perfect as a single food item can get.

And if you want the best and most popular pizza in Waco, you’re probably going to hear a few people mention the name Slow Rise Slice House.

It’s a pizzeria in Waco that has a couple of locations, and the giant restaurant on The Brazos river is a popular spot for, well, just about everyone. Because yes, as we’ve established: everyone likes pizza.

Slow Rise is a Waco-owned restaurant that wanted to “do better” than the big national pizza chains that were flooding the city. So they started their own little spot.

The result? Well, Waco residents loved it.

The Woodway location became popular that they decided to open a second location. Slow Rise took over the old Manny’s on the River restaurant space on the Brazos and opened a much bigger location there.

(This one is really popular for big groups of Baylor students to dine at. It can seat up to 425 people!)

Of course, like all good New York-style pizzas, this dough is made carefully from scratch, allowing the dough to “slow rise” for that perfectly chewy crust. The pies are pretty massive, so you can easily share one with a big group of friends. Or just get a single slice (they’re pretty big) if you’re dining solo.

Pizza. Beer. What’s not to love?

The Food At Slow Rise Slice House

The Pizza

The main event, obviously. The pizza at Slow Rise is called NY-style, meaning these are big, foldable slices of moderately soft crust. I think that they undercook the crust just a tad, because I personally like just a little bit of texture on the bottom of the pizza. But these are undeniably delicious.

If you choose to get a single slice, you’re limited to five options:

Pepperoni
Cheese
Margherita
The Butcher (basically a meat lovers pizza)
Slice Of The Day

But if you want to get a full pie, you have a lot more options. If you don’t care about red sauce, the chicken pesto is a popular choice among guests. It’s a pesto sauce base with grilled chicken, fresh mozz, balsamic, and tomatoes.

I’m fond of red sauce pies (white/pesto just don’t seem like real pizza to me!), so my favorite is the spicy meatball. It’s a marinara base with lots of red chili in it for a nice kick, topped with meatballs, mozzarella, and basil. Yum.

Starters at Slow Rise

They have a pretty robust list of (predictable) starters here! Wings, loaded fries, chips & queso, and jalapeno poppers are all great options for shareable bites. The mac and cheese balls are exactly what they sounds like: mac and cheese that’s been dipped in batter and fried into little bite-size balls. Balls of mac and cheese. Yup. (Should we say “balls” one more time? Balls.)

If you’re dining with any weirdos who don’t like pizza (gasp!), they do offer chicken tenders in the menu as well. And sandwiches!

Drinks

The beer list is pretty substantial, including a lot of local options from nearby Waco breweries like Waco Ale Co and Brotherwell. And it’s cheap, too! A draft beer will cost you somewhere around 5 bucks, which is a great reason alone to swing by Slow Rise, order a slice of pie, and cheers to a cold beer and a delicious meal by the river.