Building off the success of other uber-cheap pizza buffets, Pizza Presto brings its own brand of bargain pies to East Baltimore. Six bucks gets a person all the pizza, salad and ice cream he can eat. At Pizza Presto, that's going to be a lot. Portions may be small, but who cares? It's a buffet. Make a few trips. After all, it might actually burn some calories.

Digs: Pizza Presto has the look of a newly-opened, cheap pizza buffet. Fitting, don't you think? The decor is pretty typical: Wooden chairs and booths adorned with ambiguous fake plants. It's not flashy, but its small size keeps things cozy. The buffet looks sparse, as only a few slices are served during lunch, but the food keeps coming despite the buffet's barren appearance. Actually, "despite appearances," was the theme of our visit to Presto Pizza, as most things here are much better than we expected them to be at first sight.

Food: You won't be wowed by the aesthetics of Presto's pizza. The pies look as if they were cooked in a dirty college microwave, but you'll be surprised by how delicious those tiny little slices turn out to be. The salads, too, are nothing special, but the house dressing is impressive. The buffet lacks a large variety (offering cheese, pepperoni, white and a few others), but the a la carte menu provides more interesting offers. The Chesapeake Bay pizza, for example, with lump crab meat, fresh diced tomatoes and mozzarella cheese looks especially enticing. For dessert, you get soft serve ice cream, like it or not. (We liked it.)

Crowd: Expect to see mostly local families with lots of kids running around during the day, and the same local families minus the runts at night.

Drinks: No alcohol allowed here, sorry. They've got plenty of soda to go around, though, with some nice bottled iced teas for non soft drink fans.

Vibe: No need to dress up at Pizza Presto, unless you consider throwing on a pair of overalls and flip flops dressing up. If that's the case, you should probably dress up. Things stay pretty casual here, and rightly so. Most people just stop in to refuel after a long, arduous journey through the Shoppers next door. Supposedly, you can have your birthday party here, but, without alcohol, what's the point?

Bottom line: It's good...really good, actually, for what it is. That said, if you're in the neighborhood and looking for a cheap meal, you can't do much better than Pizza Presto. If you need to drive more than 15 minutes to get here, though, you're probably better off cooking up a couple of Ellio's at home.

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