The Facts:
Pizza: Pizza House
Business Category: Locally-owned
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.
