TJ’s Italian American Restaurant in Cordele, GA

The Facts:

Pizza: TJ’s Italian American Restaurant

Business Category: Locally-owned

Website: (none)

Location: 1712 E. 16^th Ave. in Cordele, GA (just west of I-75 exit 101)

Date of Review Visit: December 18, 2013

What I Ordered: Medium (12”) pizza with sausage and pepperoni; Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $13.86 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

The Micro:

Crust: TJ’s standard thin crust comes well-baked and slightly blackened but not burnt.  TJ’s also offers a thick crust, which would normally be more to my liking, but it costs extra (which is somewhat of a problem here: see the “value” criterion below).  The crust has a crisp, fresh taste, and I like it even though it is thin and slightly overbaked.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: The sauce has a good fresh taste; it is spiced without being overspiced.  The quantity is perfect.  Only my personal pet-peeve against chunks of tomato in the sauce prevents a perfect score.  Score: 9/10.

Cheese: The cheese comes in good quantity, and the taste is pretty good especially after some parmesan cheese is sprinkled on.  Unfortunately, the cheese also produces an above average amount of grease, leading to a slight deduction in this category.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The sausage and pepperoni are both good quality, tasty meat, but there are two problems: both toppings appear in below average quantity, and the sausage is rather overspiced.  The spiciness of the sausage is a personal preference, but TJ’s really needs to be more generous with the toppings.  Score: 6/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza’s appearance is hurt by the low quantity of toppings; otherwise it is fine.  The atmosphere of the dining room is casual and functional but nothing more, as you might expect for a small town restaurant. The service is fantastic.  Score: 6/10.

Value: The quality is quite good, but the price is high compared to similar pizzas I have eaten elsewhere.  Thus, the quality/price ratio grades out slightly worse than average here.  Score: 4/10.

Taste: Everything works together pretty well with this pizza.  The only real complaint I have involves the sausage: its spiciness overpowers everything else when you get a large bite of sausage.  Score: 17/20.

The Final Judgment:

TJ’s does not make elite-level pizza, but it grades out better than average.  The next time you are driving through south Georgia (on your way to Florida?), stop by and pay them a visit.  Score: 59/80.

Pizza House in Travelers Rest, SC

The Facts:

Pizza: Pizza House

Business Category: Locally-owned

Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pizza-House/343148130824?rf=181252431912735

Location: 310 Poplar St. in Travelers Rest, SC (visible from US 25)

Date of Review Visit: October 26, 2013

What I Ordered: Small (10”) pizza with sausage and pepperoni; Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $10.64 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

The Micro:

Crust: Pizza House makes the nice, inch-thick crust that I like.  The crust is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, as it should be.  Some cheese that spills over onto the crust adds to the flavor.  Occasionally the crust seems bulky and tasteless, but for the most part I really like it.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: The pizza is somewhat under-sauced, and the sauce does not have a lot of flavor or seasoning.  The oddest part about this sauce is the temperature: the sauce is much hotter (in terms of temperature, not spiciness) than the rest of the pizza.  This fact might be a consequence of the way this pizza is cheesed (see below), and I can’t say I like the sauce this way.  Score: 6/10.

Cheese: The cheesing is also unusual: there is a thick layer of white cheese in the middle of the pizza and almost none toward the edges.  Thus, the pizza is only undercheesed if you insist the cheese go all of the way to the edge.  The only real problem in my view is that the cheese does not have much flavor.  Overall, slightly above average marks here.  Score: 6/10.

Toppings: Aside from perhaps the crust, the toppings are the strength of this pizza.  The ground-up sausage almost forms another layer, and there is plenty of pepperoni too.  Neither the sausage nor the pepperoni are particularly spicy, and their tastes are pretty good but not stellar. Score: 9/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: I like the friendly, homey style of the service at Pizza House, but that is the only positive thing I can say on this criterion.  Removing the pizza from the pan gives the pizza an unrefined look, as does the odd cheesing and the sausage “layer.”  Worst of all, the dining room has not been updated for at least 25 years, and the seats have no padding.  The dirty ceiling tiles make the dining room’s appearance even worse.  Some serious improvement is in order here.  Score: 3/10.

Value: The price is reasonable, and the quality is above average.  Pizza House seems to be a favorite stop for families with kids.  Overall, the value grades out pretty well.  Score: 8/10.

Taste: Some of the parts grade out well, but nothing on this pizza adds any real flavor.  Thus, the blandness of the thick crust governs the entire taste metric.  The taste is not bad, but it is not particularly good either.  Score: 16/20.

The Final Judgment:

Pizza House makes a good if somewhat unspectacular pizza.  A renovation of the dining area would take this pizza place to the next level.  As is, I come here occasionally, but Pizza House is not my favorite pizza restaurant.  Score: 57/80.

Gondolier Pizza

The Facts:

Pizza: Gondolier Pizza

Business Category: Regional Chain (30+ locations in 4 states; based in Cleveland, TN)

Website: http://www.gondolierpizza.com/

Location: 6901 Lee Highway in Chattanooga, TN

Date of Review Visit: October 11, 2013

What I Ordered: 2 small pizzas, 1 with sausage and pepperoni, and 1 with sausage and onions

Price: $11.84 (includes tax but not drink)

The Micro:

Crust: The crust is a nice, thick crust baked to a perfect golden brown.  The crust does not have a lot of taste, but it does its job without being bulky or distasteful.  This is not the best crust ever, but it is pretty good.  Score: 8/10.

Sauce: You hardly notice the sauce thanks to all the cheese (see below), but that is not because the pizza is undersauced.  The sauce does not have a strong taste, and even though it may do little to add to the pizza, it certainly does nothing to detract from it.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: This is probably not the tastiest blend of cheese I have ever eaten, but the quantity more than makes up for any blandness.  The cheese covers the pizza from crust to crust with a thick layer of off-white goodness.  Memo to the national chains: this how you cheese a pizza.  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: As good as the cheese is, the toppings are almost as bad.  The sausage appears as tiny ground balls, and the thin slices of pepperoni add only a little flavor.  The quantity is decent but not excellent.  There is room for improvement here. Score: 5/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The dining room has a casual family atmosphere with big screen TV’s.  I had no problems with the service, and the appearance of the pizza is pretty good except that the cheese looks too white to me. Score: 8/10.

Value: Now here’s an odd case.  Gondolier sells their pizzas buy-one-get-one free.  If you only buy 1 pizza, the value is probably average at best.  Buy two and the value/quality ratio starts to tip in your favor.  Thus, you should bring a friend or take one home for tomorrow whenever you come to Gondolier.  Score: 9/10.

Taste: The cheese and crust make a nice combination, but the taste of this pizza is held back by the quality of the toppings.  I do like the taste of this pizza, but it could be better. Score: 16/20.

The Final Judgment:

Gondolier makes a pretty good pizza, and it is significantly better than the national chains.  I will come here again the next time I am in the Chattanooga area.  Score: 64/80.

Mama Maria’s Greek and Italian Restaurant in Greenville, SC

The Facts:

Pizza: Mama Maria’s Greek and Italian Restaurant

Business Category: Locally-owned

Website: http://www.dinosmamamarias.com/

Location: 7611 White Horse Road (US 25 on the west side of Greenville, SC)

Date of Review Visit: September 14, 2013

What I Ordered: Small (10”) pizza with sausage and pepperoni, Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $10.91 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

The Micro:

Crust: As its name suggests, Mama Maria’s makes Greek style pizza similar to what is popular in the northeast USA.  This means that the pizza is baked in a shallow pan (not to be confused with the deep pans of Chicago-style pizza), giving the medium-thick crust a crispy outside and chewy inside.  The texture is quite good, but the crust has very little taste.  Overall, this crust is a good example of Greek-style pizza, but it is not one of the better crusts I have eaten.  Score: 6/10.

Sauce: True to the Greek style, the sauce has a strong garlic and herby taste, which means it does not suit my taste palette.  On the bright side, the consistency and quantity are quite good.  Score: 5/10.

Cheese:  I don’t have much to say here: the taste of the cheese gets completely overpowered by the spices in the sauce and toppings.  The cheese appears in good quantity, and it does not make the pizza greasy, so it has its strong points.  Score: 7/10.

Toppings: Here is the major weakness in this pizza.  The sausage is of the pellet variety, and the pepperoni comes in thin slices. The toppings have some spices, but they have very little taste.  The toppings were quite good when I first started coming here in 2011, but they are pretty bad now.  Only the high quantity saves a total disaster.  Score: 4/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza has the appearance of a nice Greek pizza.  The service has been hit and miss but more hit than miss.  I still remember the day I had to wait nearly 10 minutes to be seated even though the restaurant was nearly empty.  The dining room has some nice music and features a modern casual dining atmosphere.  Score: 8/10.

Value: As you can tell from the above, the quality is not the best, but the price is below average.  Thus, the quality/price ratio grades out fairly well here.  Score: 7/10.

Taste: The toppings and over-spiced sauce really let this pizza down.  Certainly there is worse-tasting pizza out there, but this pizza is far from the best.  Score: 13/20.

The Final Judgment:

Mama Maria’s pizza is decent, but only decent.  I come here fairly often because it is directly on my route from Furman University to home, but there is better pizza to be had on the north side of Greenville.  Score: 50/80.

Ledo Pizza

The Facts:

Pizza: Ledo Pizza

Business Category: Regional Chain (100+ locations; based in Maryland)

Website: http://ledopizza.com/

Location: 489 South Herlong Ave. in Rock Hill, SC

Date of Review Visit: September 21, 2013

What I Ordered: Small (10” square) pizza with sausage and pepperoni, breadsticks as appetizer, Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $12.83 (includes appetizer, drink, and tax but not tip)

The Micro:

Crust: I like this crust: it is thin and crispy yet has some substance.  I also like the fact that Ledo only makes square pizzas, meaning you get more pizza per inch.  I remember the days in Lynchburg, VA when I would carry-out a large Ledo pizza: it would provide all of my meals for two days.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: Ledo’s sauce is a thick, robust sauce, just as I like it.  The sauce has a good fresh taste, and it is not overspiced.  Mm-mm-mm!  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: If this pizza has a weakness, the cheese is it.  The cheese is used in good quantity, but it has little taste except for the parmesan that I sprinkled on.  Also, this cheese produces quite a lot of grease, far more than produced by good quality cheese.  There is some room for improvement here.  Score: 6/10.

Toppings: Ledo’s toppings are fantastic.  The fresh Italian sausage is sliced into small cubes, and it has just the right amount of spiciness.  The thick-cut pepperoni is among the best I have ever had. Score: 10/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The square crust gives this pizza a unique look that I really like.  The dining room in Rock Hill has flat screen TV’s and college football decorations covering the walls.  The service was somewhat disappointing: I had to flag the waitress down to be served even though the dining room was almost completely empty.  Score: 8/10.

Value: The price looks steep for a 10” pizza, but you have to remember that this is a square pizza.  Also, my order included $2+tax for breadsticks, which has nothing to do with the value of the pizza.  Considering all of these factors and the excellent quality, the value actually grades out pretty well.  Score: 9/10.

Taste: I really like the taste of this pizza.  Only the grease from the cheese keeps this score from being even higher.  Score: 18/20.

The Final Judgment:

I grew attached to Ledo when I lived in Lynchburg, and I remain a fan of this pizza today.  I even drive the 94 miles to Rock Hill on occasion to eat this pizza again.  Score: 71/80.

Al's Pizza and Subs in Harrisburg, PA

The Facts:

Pizza: Al’s Pizza and Subs

Business Category: Locally-owned (4 locations, all near Harrisburg)

Website: http://www.alspizzaenola.com/

Location: 409 N. Enola Rd. in Enola, PA

Date of Review Visit: July 22, 2013

What I Ordered: Medium (14”) Pork Heaven Pizza

Price: $15.37 (includes tax but not drink)

The Micro:

Crust: Al’s Pizza makes a nice northern style thick crust.  The pizza is perfectly baked, as evidenced by the speckled brown crust.  The taste of the crust is slightly bland, but only slightly.  Overall, I like this crust.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: The most remarkable thing about this sauce is that I hardly noticed it, and that is not because the pizza is undersauced.  This sauce is not a bold sauce with award winning taste, but it blends with the pizza very well.  Score: 9/10.

Cheese:  The cheese here is exquisite.  The blend is tasty, and it is applied with sufficient quantity to even bake a little on the top of the crust.  Excellent!  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: The toppings are served in good quantity, and most of them are quite tasty.  Most amazing of all, this all-pork pizza does not taste the slightest bit greasy.  Only the bacon causes a deduction: I found it too crispy and salty.  Score: 9/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza’s appearance is nearly perfect.  I deducted one point here because the delivery person was rude.  In his defense, the only reason I had the pizza delivered is because it was raining, but I did give him a large tip.  Score: 9/10.

Value: The price is slightly high but not outrageous for a medium all-pork pizza.  The remarkable fact is that Al’s medium pizza is 14”; that’s a large at the national chains.  Score: 8/10.

Taste: With all these toppings, no apparent greasy, and only a slight salty taste, the taste is top-notch except for the bacon.  Score: 18/20.

The Final Judgment:

I am glad the hotel clerk at Days Inn recommended this pizza to me, and I now recommend it to anyone who finds themselves near Harrisburg.  Score: 72/80.

Buzzy's Pizza in Niagara Falls, NY

The Facts:

Pizza: Buzzy’s Pizza

Business Category: Locally-owned

Website: http://www.buzzyspizza.com/

Location: 7617 Niagara Falls Blvd. in Niagara Falls, NY

Date of Review Visit: July 18, 2013

What I Ordered: Large (16”) pizza with sausage and pepperoni

Price: $15.07 (includes tax but not drink)

The Micro:

Crust: My compliments to Buzzy’s on this crust: they gave me a true New York style crust during my visit to New York.  The crust features a nice fresh taste, and the thickness is just right to produce the “foldable” property that characterized New York style pizza.  The folding comes in handy with some of this pizza’s other properties I describe below, but I find no fault in this crust.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: I had a hard time ranking this sauce because it tends to blend with the grease (see the next item).  I found the sauce slightly overspiced, but only slightly.  Overall, I like this sauce…I think.  Score: 9/10.

Cheese: The cheese is definitely the problem here.  Buzzy’s uses 100% whole milk mozzarella cheese and does so in fairly high quantity.  Within that statement, the whole milk part guarantees a lot of fat/grease, and the mozzarella part guarantees a very little flavor.  The good quantity keeps this score from being extremely low, but I am not a fan of this cheese.  Score: 4/10.

Toppings: The sausage and pepperoni are both quite tasty with just the right amount of spices.  Toppings appear in sufficient quantity, and I like the slightly thicker than normal slices of pepperoni.  The only real problem is that almost all of the sausage is on one half of the pizza.  Score: 9/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service:  Appearance is not the strength of this pizza.  The orange sheen produced by the grease is never a good sight, and the one-sided distribution of sausage hurts even more.  Buzzy’s does have a dine-in area, but I cannot rank it because I chose to carry out.  Score: 5/10.

Value: The price is about average, and the quality is perhaps slightly better than average.  The fact that this is a 16” pizza as opposed to the usual 14” tips the quality/price ratio in the right direction.  Score: 7/10.

Taste: The taste would be quite good were it not for the cheese.  As is, the cheese turns what would be a show-stopper into a slightly better than average tasting pizza.  Score: 15/20.

The Final Judgment:

This pizza fares pretty well against the national chains, but it is well shy of the elite level pizzas thanks to the cheese. I would sanction coming here occasionally, but I would not become a regular.  Score: 59/80

SDS Pizza and Subs in Oxford, OH

The Facts:

Pizza: SDS Pizza and Subs

Business Category: Locally-owned

Website: http://sdspizza.com/

Location: 7 E. Chestnut Street in Oxford, OH

Date of Review Visit: June 19, 2013

What I Ordered: Small Chicago-style pizza with sausage

Price: $12.58 (includes tax but not drink)

The Micro:

Crust: For once a pizza actually lives up to its name: the crust is at least 2 inches thick around the edge, just as it should be for a Chicago-style pizza.  The texture of the crust is quite good, namely crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  The size and texture make up for the lack of flavor in the dough and the slight underbaking of the pizza.  The fact that I was sitting and waiting on the pizza might have led to the underbaking as well.  Score: 8/10.

Sauce: SDS uses its own “special” sauce, but I can’t say I particularly like it.  On the bright side, the sauce has a nice fresh taste and bright red color.  On the down side, there are almost no spices, and the sauce contains chunks of tomatoes.  There is nothing I hate more in a pizza sauce than chunks of tomatoes (except maybe too much garlic).  Score: 7/10.

Cheese: This pizza has so much cheese that it falls off the pizza when you pick up a slice.  I always end up with a glob of cheese and toppings sitting in the box when I am done eating.  The quality and taste of the cheese are quite good too.  What’s not to like?  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: The sausage comes in huge chunks, as it should on a Chicago-style pizza.  Also, the sausage has good flavor without tasting overspiced.  The quantity of toppings is decent given the size of the pizza.  Score: 9/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza has good appearance except for the too-white underbaked crust.  The atmosphere and service are purely functional and nothing more.  Score: 7/10.

Value: The price here is rather steep, but the quality is pretty good.  The quality/price ratio grades out above average here, but only above average.  Score: 7/10.

Taste: The taste is very good save for the chunks in the sauce and the underbaked crust.  Score: 17/20.

The Final Judgment:

As a Miami student, SDS was my favorite pizza.  I still eat SDS every time I find myself in Oxford these days.  Give this one a try and see if it meets your taste palette too.  Score: 65/80.

LaRosa’s Pizzeria in Cincinnati, OH

The Facts:

Pizza: LaRosa’s Pizzeria

Business Category: Regional chain (locations in 3 states, based in Cincinnati, OH)

Website: http://www.larosas.com/

Location: 11711 Princeton Pike in Springdale, OH (across Princeton Pike from Tri-County Mall)

Date of Review Visit: October 23, 2022

What I Ordered: Large pan pizza (14”) with extra sausage and extra cheese, cherry Coke to drink

Price: $23.32 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

Disclaimer:

LaRosa’s Pizza is my first love among pizzas.  It is the pizza that got my entire pizza passion started.  Having grown up in Cincinnati, I still remember the special occasions that always involved my family getting a LaRosa’s Pizza.  I tried to be objective with this pizza review, but you can imagine how that went.

The Micro:

Crust: LaRosa’s offers three choices for crust: thin, super crust, and pan.  On this visit, I chose the pan crust, the thickest of the three options.  The pan crust was perfect thickness; it has the crunchy outside but chewy inside texture that makes for a good thick crust.  The pizza was well-baked, and the bottom of crust had that special LaRosa’s taste that I still have not quite figured out.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: LaRosa’s sells its pizza sauce separately, and for good reason: it is a fantastic sauce.  The sauce uses high quality ingredients and has just the right amount of seasoning with spices.  I really like it.  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: The pizza is well-cheesed, and LaRosa’s uses only high quality provolone cheese, the perfect pizza cheese.  Hence, there is a very small amount of grease.  Perfecto!  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: The sausage is high quality, but unfortunately the pizza lacks somewhat in quantity unless you order the double sausage as I did.  This potential for skimping leads to a deduction here.  Score: 8/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The appearance is quite good save for the low amount of sausage.  LaRosa’s has a casual dining atmosphere, and I have always enjoyed the service.  Score: 9/10.

Value: The price is somewhat low given the quality of pizza and dining experience you get. LaRosa’s stacks up far better than its casual dining competitors in this category.  Score: 7/10.

Taste: As you might expect given the above, the taste is fantastic.  I almost never give perfect scores in taste (just what does a perfect tasting pizza taste like anyhow?), but for my first love in pizzas....  Score: 20/20.

The Final Judgment:

LaRosa’s is a Cincinnati favorite, and it remains my favorite pizza even though I have not lived in Ohio since 2005.  If you find yourself in Cincinnati, stop by LaRosa’s so that it can become your favorite too.  Score: 74/80.

Johnny’s New York Style Pizza

The Facts:

Pizza: Johnny’s New York Style Pizza

Business Category: Regional Chain (locations in 8 states, based in Atlanta, GA)

Website: http://johnnyspizza.com/index.php

Location: 1040 Gaines School Rd. in Athens, GA (east side)

Date of Review Visit: May 26, 2013

What I Ordered: Large pizza (16”) with sausage and pepperoni

Price: $17.59 (without coupon; includes tax but no drink or tip)

 

The Micro:

Crust: For a pizza restaurant with “New York Style Pizza” in its name, the crust is thicker than you would expect.  It is also thicker than I remember it being on previous visits.  Even worse, the crust is completely black underneath due to overbaking.  I have eaten some good crust here in the past, but the crust on this visit was not up to their usual standards.  Score: 6/10.

Sauce: The sauce has good consistency and a good fresh taste.  Unfortunately, it is not evenly distributed on the pizza.  Some areas have thick globs of sauce, while others are nearly sauceless.  This sauce is pretty good, but the application needs improvement.  Score: 7/10.

Cheese: This pizza is slightly undercheesed, and the cheese has only average taste.  On the bright side, the cheese is of good quality, as evidenced by the lack of grease.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The toppings are very good.  The sausage is of the ground variety, not the pellet variety.  Both the sausage and pepperoni have just the right amount of spiciness.  Also, the toppings appear in fair to above average quantity.  Score: 9/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The appearance takes a hit due to the undercheesing and uneven distribution of toppings and sauce.  The service here is very slow, and that has been the case for as long as I can remember.  Employee turnover among servers is also a problem.  The atmosphere is quite good with some nice TV screens and old pictures of New York on the walls.  Score: 6/10.

 

Value: The price here is rather steep, but the quality is only above average.  If you order carryout, the large pizza box will contain a $2-off coupon that will make the price of your next large pizza reasonable.  With the coupon, the value is decent.  Without the coupon, you can get an 18” pizza down the street at DePalma’s for about the same price.  Score: 5/10.

Taste: The taste is better than you might expect given some of the micro scores above.  This is good pizza even if it is not New York style pizza.  Also, although this is a pizza blog, I note that the calzones at Johnny’s taste better than the pizza.  Score: 16/20.

The Final Judgment:

Johnny’s is not my favorite pizza in Athens, but it is pretty good.  Johnny’s is better than the national chains, and it makes a nice change of pace from the usual pizza fare.  Score: 57/80.

Your Pie

The Facts:

Pizza: Your Pie

Business Category: Regional Chain (18 locations, based in Athens, GA)

Website: http://www.yourpie.com/

Location: 1045B Gaines School Rd. in Athens, GA (east side)

Date of Review Visit: April 28, 2013

What I Ordered: Your Pie (10” pizza) with Italian sausage and pepperoni

Price: $9.58 (includes tax but no drink or tip)

The Micro:

Crust: As its name suggests, Your Pie has only one pizza-related menu item: made-to-order individual-sized pizzas.  The crust is the ultra-thin southern style, and you can choose between white and wheat.  On this visit, the pizza I ordered was rather overbaked, leaving the crust black around the edges and underneath.  In short, the crust was not the strength of this pizza, but there are still things to like here.  Score: 7/10.

Sauce: Your Pie has several sauces to choose from, but I chose the standard tomato sauce.  The sauce has good consistency and taste.  The pizza seemed undersauced, but that is in tune with the paper-thin crust.  Overall, the sauce is pretty good.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: Again, there are several cheese combinations to choose from, but I chose the standard cheese, which is mozzarella.  The quality and quantity of the cheese were both average to slightly above average, but the pure mozzarella blend did not have a lot of flavor.  Surely there is a better “standard” blend than this one.  Score: 7/10.

Toppings: The quantity of the toppings is passable but no more, and the sausage and pepperoni I ordered here had only an average amount of flavor (as opposed to slightly above average spiciness).  Toppings are divided into two categories: standard and premium.  Of course, the premium toppings cost $1 extra, and that leads to the main complaint I have about this pizza: EVERY meat topping is a premium topping!  Since when is run-of-the-mill pepperoni a premium topping?  This pricing may be great for making a socio-political statement, but it is horrible if you are a carnivore like me trying to order a tasty pizza.  Score: 5/10

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza’s appearance passes muster except for the blackened crust.  The dining room has a functional feel with a nice outdoor seating area.  The service was quite good, and it is nice to watch them assemble your pizza as you order it.  Also, every math professor has a soft spot for a restaurant where the servers wear T-shirts advertising pie day (March 14, or 3.14).  Score: 8/10.

Value: I am afraid this pizza is rather overpriced, especially if you order more than 1 meat toppings.  (No, I will not let my issue about the topping prices go.)  If you have a large group to feed on a budget, forget about Your Pie.  On the bright side, the Tuesday special actually brings the price down from the amount posted here to something reasonable.  Score: 4/10

Taste: The taste of Your Pie pizza is an acquired one, but I got hooked rather quickly.  The crust, sauce, and cheese work together quite well.  This would be a real winner but for some better tasting toppings and the overbaking.  Score: 17/20

The Final Judgment:

Customization is the selling point here.  If you like exotic (by my standard) vegetable toppings, then this may be your pie, pun fully intended.  Most of us “regular” folks will find better value and quality elsewhere.  Score: 56/80

Puleo’s Grille in Knoxville, TN

The Facts:

Pizza: Puleo’s Grille

Business Category: Regional Chain (6 locations, mostly in Knoxville, TN)

Website: http://puleosgrille.com/

Location: 7224 Region Lane (Strawberry Plains; I-40 Exit 398)

Date of Review Visit: April 13, 2013

What I Ordered: Pizza Creation (10” pizza) with Italian sausage and pepperoni; Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $13.77 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

The Micro:

Crust: Puleo’s makes flatbread pizza, hence the thin and crispy crust. The pizza is well-baked, as evidenced by the speckled brown crust.  The crust also has a nice fresh taste.  Although this crust is different, it is quite good.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: The sauce has a fresh, pleasant, sweet taste, which suits my taste buds perfectly.  The sauce appears in good quantity, and it has some spices without being overspiced.  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: The cheese is a nice blend with good taste, but the adding some parmesan cheese really steals the show: it is hand-grated from a chunk of parmesan, not the powdery stuff you get at most pizzerias.  Excellent!  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: The sausage has excellent spice and taste.  I would prefer some thicker pepperoni, but the thin pepperoni actually works well with the thin crust.  Score: 9/10

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza has an odd appearance because the toppings are clustered in the middle.  The dining room has a standard casual-dining atmosphere a la any of the national casual dining chains, and Puleo’s offers much more than just pizza.  The service was very good.  Score: 9/10.

Value: The quality is excellent, but you will pay for it.  Save this one for a special pizza occasion.  Score: 4/10

Taste: Puleo’s sprinkles some Italian spices on top of its pizza, and there were a few bites that I found to be slightly overspiced.  Otherwise, the taste is excellent.  Score: 18/20

The Final Judgment:

Puleo’s has won several local awards, and if you come here once you will likely see why.  I will be back again the next time I find myself in Knoxville.  Score: 69/80

Fox’s Pizza Den

The Facts:

Pizza: Fox’s Pizza Den

Business Category: National chain (375+ locations in 28 states)

Website: http://www.foxspizzaden.com/

Location: 200 N. General Daniels Ave. in Danielsville, GA (on US 29 2 blocks north of the old courthouse)

Date of Review Visit: April 5, 2013

What I Ordered: Small (10”) pizza with sausage and pepperoni; Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $10.34

The Micro:

Crust: This crust has the odd property of being thick and bulky around the edge but thin and wimpy in the middle.  Some corn meal baked into the crust adds texture and flavor that would otherwise be lacking.  Overall, there is nothing stellar but nothing horrible about this crust.  Score: 6/10.

Sauce: The sauce has a very strong taste of garlic, way too strong for my anti-garlic inclined palette.  The taste wears on the taste buds: I noticed it very much at first and then less and less as I ate more.  There is an adequate amount of sauce on this pizza, but that may only be a good thing if you really like the taste of garlic.  Score: 4/10.

Cheese: The cheese also has a garlic taste to it, but it is not nearly as strong in the cheese as in the sauce.  Even the sprinkle-on parmesan cheese contains a mixture of garlic and herbs.  The pizza is well-cheesed in terms of quantity.  Were it not for the sauce, this cheese would be a tasty blend.  Score: 7/10.

Toppings: Toppings are the strength of this pizza.  They appear in good quantity and have good taste.  The sausage is especially tasty.  Score: 8/10

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza has an attractive appearance, but elsewhere this area presents some problems.  The large dining room has a lot of open space and feels somewhat like dining in a warehouse.  The service was also quite slow: the pizza took a longer than expected time to arrive even though I was the only customer in the restaurant when I arrived.  Score: 7/10.

Value: Fox Den Pizza is underwhelming in this area: the price is not particularly low, but the pizza is not particularly good.  There’s nothing to really fault here but also nothing to really like.  Score: 5/10

Taste: The garlic overpowers everything else, I am sorry to say.  If you like the taste of garlic you will probably like the taste of this pizza.  I do not like the taste of garlic, so I don’t.  Score: 12/20

The Final Judgment:

In fairness, this pizza has some merit to the right set of taste buds.  Nevertheless, the garlic taste is too strong to score well on my ranking system.  Score: 49/80

Domino’s Pizza

The Facts:

Pizza: Domino’s Pizza

Business Category: National chain

Website: http://www.dominos.com/

Location: 115 Gaines School Rd. in Athens, GA (just south of US 78/Lexington Rd.)

Date of Review Visit: February 24, 2013

What I Ordered: Medium (12”) pan pizza with sausage and pepperoni, plus a side of stuffed cheesy bread

Price: $14.96

The Micro:

Crust: Domino’s offers 4 choices of crust, everything from pan to thin.  As will be no surprise to regular readers of this blog, I chose pan.  The pan crust was crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside as it should be.  In an effort to improve quality, Domino’s drastically changed its pizza recipe a few years ago.  I liked their old pan crust, and this one is slightly better.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: The taste and consistency of the sauce are quite good but not stellar.  My only complaint here is that the pizza is slightly undersauced.  Score: 7/10.

Cheese: The cheese on the pizza has good quantity, but I found it to be quite greasy.  Also, the cheese is all mozzarella, so it has a bland flavor.  The cheese blend on/in the stuffed cheesy bread is much better.  I wonder if there is any way to order the cheesy bread cheese on the pizza.  Score: 7/10.

Toppings: Toppings have always been a weakness of Domino’s pizza.  I still remember getting one piece of sausage per slice in the old days.  The new recipe is better than the old one, but the toppings still lack taste.  Also, they still only appear in average quantity.   Score: 4/10

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The appearance of the pizza is quite good.  Domino’s may have gone to a new recipe, but they still use the odd-shaped hexagon box.  Also, I miss the classic blue and red domino logo on the box.  Score: 8/10.

Value: Somewhat unusual for a national chain, the quality/cost balance does not grade out well here.  The quality is decent, but the cheesy bread costs $6, and the pizza is only a medium 12” pizza. There is much better value to be had elsewhere.  Score: 3/10

Taste: The taste is rather palatable, and it is significantly better than it was a few years ago.  Only the grease drags this score down somewhat.  Score: 15/20

The Final Judgment:

Did Domino’s new recipe improve the quality of their pizza?  To at least some degree, yes.  Is this the best quality pizza or the best value for your dollar?  Certainly not.  Score: 53/80

Paparonni’s Pizza in Danielsville, GA

The Facts:

Pizza: Paparonni’s Pizza (pronounced PAW-PAW-RAW-KNEE)

Business Category: Locally-owned

Website: http://paparonnis.com/

Location: 240 Gen. Daniel Ave. S. in Danielsville, GA (on US 29 just south of the old county courthouse)

Date of Review Visit: February 8, 2013

What I Ordered: Small (10”) pizza with sausage and pepperoni; 0.5 liter Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $8.54 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

The Micro:

Crust: The crust on this pizza has some good qualities.  It is not too thick and not too thin.  It has good consistency.  The taste is quite good at first, but the more I ate the more I noticed a salty taste that seemed to be due to the crust.  I will revisit the saltiness in the “taste” criteria, but overall this crust grades out pretty well.  Score: 8/10.

Sauce: The sauce has a good, fresh taste, and it appears in good quantity.  The company Paparonni’s buys its sauce from is advertised on the walls of the dining room: it is based in California.  This sauce is among the better sauces I have ever tasted.  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: The cheese is quite good here as well, both in terms of taste and quantity.  The cheese under the top layer comes out in small chunks because it never completely melts.  Score: 9/10.

Toppings: Unfortunately, this is not the strength of this pizza.  The sausage is small processed balls with plenty of spices but little flavor.  The pepperoni is only a little better: the taste is passable, but the slices are thin and greasy.  Score: 5/10

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza has good appearance, but it is served in a box even if you dine in.  I have never had a problem with the service.  The dining room is purely functional and needs some sprucing up, especially the old ugly carpet.  On the bright side, Sirius XM’s The Message is played over the speakers in the dining room.  Score: 8/10.

Value: The price is low and the quality is rather good, but this is only a 10” pizza.  Exceptional value would demand this be a 12” pizza. Score: 9/10

Taste: The salty taste is somewhat prevalent, but it is not as bad as Pizza Hut.  The toppings are quite a shame because everything else works together pretty well.  Score: 15/20

The Final Judgment:

Paparonni’s website says they want to make the best pizza you have ever eaten.  While it is not the best pizza I have ever eaten, it is pretty good.  Paparonni’s is worth a short drive to Danielsville.  Score: 64/80

Jet’s Pizza

The Facts:

Pizza: Jet’s Pizza

Business Category: Regional chain (locations in 16 states; based in Michigan)

Website: http://jetspizza.com/

Location: 3622 Highway 81 north near Anderson, SC (just south of Concord Rd.)

Date of Review Visit: January 28, 2013

What I Ordered: Large Deep Dish pizza with sausage; shredded parmesan flavored crust

Price: $13.02 (includes tax but not drink)

The Micro:

Crust: Jet’s in Anderson offers 3 styles of crust: deep dish, hand-tossed, and thin.  Being the thick-crust lover that I am, I chose the deep dish.  The deep dish lives up to its billing: it is a robust northern-style thick crust that is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, just as it should be.  The only downside is the silly “flavorize your crust” option, which I exercised to add some shredded parmesan cheese.  Memo to Jet’s management: good pizza does not need “flavorized.”  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: The thing that stands out about this sauce is that nothing stands out.  The pizza has adequate sauce, but the sauce does not have a strong taste, nor does it have a strong consistency.  It’s just kind of there.  Overall, it is not a bad sauce, but it doesn’t make you scream for joy either.  Score: 7/10.

Cheese: Oddly enough, the same thing I said about the sauce could be said about the cheese.  The cheese is 100% mozzarella, which means it has the standard somewhat bland mozzarella taste.  The cheese is of good quality and quantity, but it does not bring with it much flavor.  Score: 7/10.

Toppings: I’m trying not to be redundant, but the sausage falls into the same taste category as the sauce and cheese.  There is plenty of sausage on this pizza, and you can taste the Italian spices in the Italian sausage.  Nonetheless, the spices seem to add heat without adding much flavor.  As a cut of meat the quality is decent, but the taste does not stand out.  Score: 5/10

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza has good appearance, and a deep dish will fill the entire box.  I have never had a problem with the service.  The small dine-in area has little to say for it except for some nice TV screens.  Also, I have to deduct at least 1 point of the comical man in the jet pack on the box.  Score: 8/10.

Value: This isn’t the best pizza around, but it isn’t the highest price either.  Overall, the quality-price balance grades out pretty well here. Score: 7/10

Taste: After reading this review, you can see why they allow you to flavorize the crust: very little else on this pizza adds any flavor.  If you like thick hearty pizza as I do, then the taste is at least passable.  If you prefer a rainbow of flavors on your palette, you will need to go elsewhere.  Truth be told, the bacon Jet’s bread (cheesy bread topped with bacon) might taste better than the pizza.  Score: 13/20

The Final Judgment:

Jet’s is standard, run-of-the-mill northern pizza that made its way south.  Being from Ohio myself, I give it 1 thumb up, but you may want something with a better blend of flavors.  Score: 56/80

Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers

The Facts:

Pizza: Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers

Business Category: Regional chain (locations in 17 states; based in Atlanta, GA)

Website: http://mellowmushroom.com/

Location: 305 S. Main St. in Anderson, SC

Date of Review Visit: January 21, 2013

What I Ordered: Small (12”) Mighty Meaty pizza with Mello Yellow to drink

Price: $14.73 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

The Micro:

Crust: The thick crust is crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  It also has a light brown color that I have not seen often on a pizza.  The flavor is quite good with or without the parmesan cheese they sprinkle on the crust.  Even better, the pizza is baked to perfection.  What’s not to like? Score: 10/10.

Sauce: The sauce is a thick, robust sauce, and the pizza is well-sauced in terms of quantity.  The sauce does contain some bits of tomato peel, a pet peeve of mine.  Overall, this is a good sauce.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: The odd part about the cheese is that I hardly noticed it under all of the toppings, and that’s not because the pizza is under-cheesed.  The blend of cheese is a little bland without any parmesan cheese, but it really comes alive when you sprinkle on some extra parmesan.  Score: 9/10.

Toppings: This is where this pizza really stands out.  Not only is it loaded with toppings, but they are all of excellent quality.  The thick-sliced flavor-packed applewood smoked bacon is a real find.  Score: 10/10 (only because the scale goes no higher).

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza looks like the robust yummy pizza it is.  The service here has always been excellent, and the atmosphere complete with old-looking brick wall and big-screen TV’s is first rate as well.  Score: 10/10.

Value: Yes, this is an all-meats pizza, and yes the quality is excellent, but it still hurts to pay $15 for a small pizza, and that is before the tip.  Mellow Mushroom is definitely good eats, but I can’t say it is good value. Score: 4/10

Taste: As you can probably guess from above, the taste is out of this world.  The toppings steal the show, but the crust, sauce, and cheese do their part to make for a flavorful experience. Score: 19/20

The Final Judgment:

I love eating at Mellow Mushroom, but I do not come here too often due to the price.  Value aside, this is a great place to come for that special pizza occasion.  Score: 70/80

DePalma’s Italian Cafe in Athens, GA

The Facts:

Pizza: DePalma’s Italian Cafe

Business Category: Locally-owned (3 locations, all near Athens, GA)

Website: http://depalmasitaliancafe.com/

Location: 1965 Barnett Shoals Rd. in Athens, GA

Date of Review Visit: January 13, 2013

What I Ordered: Large (18”) pizza with sausage

Price: $15.52 (includes tax but not drink)

The Micro:

Crust: The crust on this pizza is large and chewy.  It does not have much taste, but some corn meal baked into the bottom adds a little flavor.  This crust is not a disaster, but I have certainly eaten better.  Score: 6/10.

Sauce: This pizza is well-sauced in terms of quantity.  You can see and taste the Italian herbs and spices in the sauce, but they do not overpower the taste buds.  Overall, this is a good sauce.  Score: 9/10.

Cheese: The pizza is slightly undercheesed, as evidenced by the bare spots of sauce in a few areas.  However, in other areas the cheese actually gets baked into the outer crust, so undercheesing is not a serious problem here.  Even better, the cheese has low grease and good taste even before sprinkling any parmesan cheese on the top.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The toppings are sufficient in quantity.  The sausage in particular comes in large hand-cut slices.  The sausage is a little spicy, but that is expected for good Italian sausage.  Score: 9/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The large bland outer crust and bare spots of sauce look unappetizing even though they are not.  The service at DePalma’s is excellent, as is the atmosphere in the dining room.  Score: 7/10.

Value: The price looks expensive, but this is a good quality 18” pizza, not the 16” or 14” that is normally called a “large” pizza.  Thus, this pizza does not score as poorly here as you might expect. Score: 7/10

Taste: This is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  Everything blends together very well; no part really stands out.  Given some of the not-so-great scores in “The Micro,” the taste produced by this pizza is quite a surprising accomplishment. Score: 17/20

The Final Judgment:

This is my favorite pizza restaurant in Athens.  The fact that a score in the low 60’s can claim that title speaks somewhat of the poor state of pizza in the Classic City.  Be that as it may, this pizza is the best around, and for that it deserves credit.  Score: 63/80

Cici's Pizza

The Facts:

Pizza: Cici’s Pizza

Business Category: National Chain

Website: http://www.cicispizza.com/

Location: 3190 Atlanta Highway in Athens, GA (beside the Honda dealership)

Date of Review Visit: December 16, 2012

What I Ordered: Endless buffet and drink

Price: $7.15

The Micro:

Crust: When I eat at Cici’s, I typically cut off the crusts and dispose of them as scraps.  Cici’s is the only pizza with which I do this; that’s all you need to know.  Score: 1/10.

Sauce: This may be the most undersauced pizza I have ever eaten.  Oddly enough, what little sauce there is does little to add to the flavor, so it is not really missed.  Score: 1/10.

Cheese: The cheese is low quality with little taste, but it is not severely undercheesed like many of its competitors.  The cheese on the ham and cheddar pizza, my favorite at Cici’s, is actually quite good.  Score: 4/10.

Toppings: This area is hard to score because so many toppings are available.  Most of the pizzas have sufficient quantity of toppings (the aforementioned ham and cheddar might be an exception).  The meats are low quality and high fat meats, but they taste at least decent.  There is some good and some bad here, so I decided to score right in the middle.  Score: 5/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza looks like the cheap pizza that it is.  The atmosphere is similar to Chuck E Cheese complete with game room and kids running around all over the restaurant.  The service is fairly good, but flagging down someone behind the counter to place a special order can be a hassle.  Score: 4/10.

Value: Like most “cheap” pizzas, this is where Cici’s really shines.  You can get as much of any kind of pizza as you want with a drink for around $7; ‘nuff said.  Score: 10/10

Taste: Again, this area is hard to score because it varies greatly from pizza to pizza.  The taste of the specialty pizzas (ham and cheddar, all pork, and barbeque in particular) is quite good save for the awful crust.  They are the reasons I come to Cici’s with any frequency.  As for the non-specialty pizzas, the phrase “if you can’t say anything good...” comes to mind.  Score: 8/20

The Final Judgment:

For a family with many kids or the mandatory occasional self-gourding via pizza, Cici’s is a passable option.  If all pizza tasted like this, I would never have started this blog.  Score: 33/80

Marco's Pizza

The Facts:

Pizza: Marco’s Pizza

Business Category: National Chain

Website: http://marcos.com/

Review Location: 209 N. Magnolia Dr. in Tallahassee, FL

Date of Review Visit: December 20, 2012

What I Ordered: Large (14”) pizza with Italian sausage and pepperoni

Price: $13.96

The Micro:

Crust: Some may claim the crust on this pizza is too thick, but the thick crust is needed to support the large volume of cheese and toppings (see below).  Besides, the crust has a pleasant taste, and I like thick crusts.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: There is plenty of sauce on this pizza.  The sauce tastes a little overspiced to me, but that may be due to my preference for sweet sauces.  Overall, this is a good sauce.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: The cheese is a little on the greasy side, but the cheese is above average in quality and there is plenty of it.  You can even see the cheese baked into the edge of the crust.  Memo to most national pizza chains: this is how you cheese a pizza.  Score: 9/10.

Toppings: The toppings are robust in terms of quantity, as evidenced by the huge chunks of sausage in the picture below.  The pepperoni and sausage both have some flavor, but neither is overly spicy.  I actually expected the Italian sausage to be spicier than it is.  The only difficulty was keeping the sausage on the pizza: I lost several chunks of sausage to the floor.  Score: 9/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The golden brown pizza looks great.  Even the box is one of the best looking pizza boxes I have ever seen.  Fantastico!  Score: 10/10.

Value: This is good quality pizza, but the price reflects such.  Thus, I can only give slightly above average marks here.  Score: 7/10

Taste: The robustness of the cheese and toppings are what really stand out with this pizza.  This is hearty fare for the serious pizza-eater, not a light snack for the delicate among us.  I think this pizza tastes very good, but you will have to decide if it is what you want.  Score: 18/20

The Final Judgment:

This is grown-up pizza, and it is not for the squeamish.  I like it, but make sure you know what you are getting before you dive in too deep.  Score: 70/80

Ferrando’s Pizzeria in Aiken, SC

The Facts:

Pizza: Ferrando’s Pizzeria

Business Category: Locally-owned

Website: https://www.facebook.com/Ferrandos-Italian-Pizzeria-116040908424200/

Location: 3555 Richland Ave. in Aiken, SC

Date of Review Visit: December 12, 2012

What I Ordered: Small (10’’) hand-tossed pizza with sausage and pepperoni; Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $9.31 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

The Micro:

Crust: The crust is New York style: crispy and significant without being bulky.  Thus, this is a good crust.  The only downside was that the crust was very hard to cut with my knife.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: The sauce has a nice, fresh taste to it.  The amazing thing to me is how well the sauce fits in with the rest of the pizza.  Often I hardly realized the sauce was there, and that is not because the pizza is undersauced; very good.  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: Ferrando’s uses premium cheese, and I could taste the difference.  Sprinkle on some parmesan cheese for even more flavor.  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: The classic sausage and pepperoni combination works its magic again.  Both high-quality meats have enough spicing to give them zest but not enough to be overpowering.  Score: 10/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza’s appearance is perfecto.  The atmosphere is similar to a fine bar and grill complete with televisions and pictures on the walls.  The service was a little slow on my visit even though there were only two occupied tables in the restaurant: I had to refill my own Dr. Pepper because the waiter never returned to do it.  Score: 8/10.

Value: It is hard to find pizza this good for less than $10, but that is exactly what you get here.  If this were a 12” pizza the value would be excellent; as is it is very good.  Score: 9/10

Taste: Ferrando’s claims to make pizza via an old family recipe from Italy, and the overall taste bears record of that.  Have I eaten better tasting pizza?  Probably.  Have I eaten it recently? No.  Score: 19/20

The Final Judgment:

Ferrando’s offers excellent pizza at a very good price, and it is the first pizza to earn a 70+ score from me.  I wish I lived closer to Aiken so that I could come here more often.  Score: 75/80