The Facts:
Pizza: Cassano’s Pizza
Business Category: Regional Chain (33 locations, all near Dayton ,
OH
Website: http://cassanos.com/
Location: 430 W. Main Street
in New Lebanon, OH (on US 35 near Family Dollar)
Date of Review Visit: June 11, 2015
What I Ordered: Small (9”) pizza with sausage and pepperoni;
Dr. Pepper to drink
Price: $9.51
The Micro:
Crust: Cassano’s Pizza features a crispy thin crust. The crust is similar to Donatos
in style, but no cornmeal is baked into the crust for texture. Like Donatos, the crust is loaded
edge-to-edge with toppings and other good stuff. My pizza was slightly overbaked but only
slightly. Overall, this crust does a
solid job of what it is supposed to do, and for that it deserves good
marks. Score: 7/10.
Sauce: This pizza has almost no sauce, and therefore it is
very under-sauced. I could not even get
a pinch of the sauce on my tongue to determine what it tastes like. How do you rate something you can’t
taste? I’ll pretend I tasted a little
and score it…. Score: 3/10.
Cheese: The cheese is applied with good quantity, but it
produces too much grease to be good quality cheese. They do give you the option of sprinkling on some
parmesan for more flavor. Score: 7/10.
Toppings: The quality of the toppings is a mixed bag. The pepperoni comes in thin crunchy slices that
are nothing to brag about. The finely
ground sausage is more appealing; it has a lot of fat but also some
flavor. Both toppings appear in good
quantity. Score: 6/10.
The Macro:
Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza’s appearance is
tidy. The dining room atmosphere is
purely functional. The room features
some very bad ceiling tiles that show heavy evidence of roof leaks. On my visit the TV was tuned to a bad movie,
so bad that I turned my back to the TV to prevent myself from watching it. The service was prompt and helpful. Score: 6/10.
Value: The price is low, but this metric is value, not
price. Cassano’s small pizza only measures
9 inches, and the quality is not great. Therefore,
this pizza performs well on this metric but not as well as you might
think. Score: 7/10.
Taste: Everything comes together pretty well. The high amount of grease is the only real
turn-off. Score: 16/20.
The Final Judgment:
Somewhat of a Donatos want-to-be, Cassano’s is not bad for a
change of pace, but it probably will not top your list. There are better pizza options in this area
(see LaRosa’s
or Donatos, for example). Score: 52/80.
