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 Greenville . Score: 50/80.
