Shakey's Pizza Parlor

The Facts:

Pizza: Shakey’s Pizza Parlor

Business Category: Regional Chain (locations in 3 states, mostly in southern California)

Website: http://www.shakeys.com/

Location: 2437 E. Glenn Ave. in Auburn, AL (I-85 exit 57)

Date of Review Visit: January 7, 2016

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

Price: $12.19 (includes drink and tax)

The Micro:

Crust: Shakey’s offers two crust options: traditional thin and sourdough pan. As regular readers of this blog would expect, I chose pan.  The crust has a near-perfect texture: crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  I could not taste the sourdough, but the crust tasted like good quality bread.  I like it.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: This pizza is very undersauced.  When I did get a lick of sauce, it had a sweet taste similar to Papa John’s, which I liked.  Overall, this sauce is good, but the pizza needs more of it.  Score: 6/10.

Cheese: This pizza is definitely not undercheesed: a nice layer of mozzarella or provolone blankets the pizza.  The cheese does not produce too much grease, so it is good quality.  Sprinkling on some parmesan only enhances the flavor.  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: The Italian sausage is downright terrible: it comes in large pellets that dissolve into grease when you bite them.  The pepperoni is a little better: it comes in thin slices that are only slightly spicy.  Overall, the toppings need improvement.  Score: 3/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza’s appearance is fine except for the pellet sausage.  Shakey’s offers counter service rather than table service, but I had no trouble ordering.  The restaurant has a nice casual dining atmosphere, but the dining area is too large: I was the only customer in the building at 5:30 pm on a Thursday.  Score: 9/10.

Value: The price is reasonable, but the quality is only OK.  Thus, the value is only slightly better than average.  Score: 6/10.

Taste: The good and bad really clash here.  This pizza tastes like good quality pizza if your bite includes only crust and cheese, but you learn otherwise when you bite into the toppings.  Score: 15/20.

The Final Judgment:

Shakey’s is a decent pizza option, but there are better.  It could be a real winner with some better toppings.  Score: 58/80.

Grimaldi’s Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria

The Facts:

Pizza: Grimaldi’s Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria

Business Category: National Chain (locations in 14 states)

Website: http://www.grimaldispizzeria.com/

Location: 6401 Bluebonnet Blvd. in Baton Rouge, LA (near Mall of Louisiana and behind HH Gregg)

Date of Review Visit: January 5, 2016

What I Ordered: Personal (12”) pizza with Italian sausage; Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $15.81 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

The Micro:

Crust: The name and dining atmosphere at Grimaldi’s screams New York, but the crust on Grimaldi’s pizza is actually the crispy thin southern style.  The crust is slightly charred, as is usual for a brick-oven pizza, but I could taste the charring of the crust a little more than I would have preferred.  Score: 7/10.

Sauce: The sauce has a nice thick texture, and it is slightly spiced without being overspiced.  Overall, this sauce is excellent, and it is the strength of this pizza.  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: The cheese blend is 100% mozzarella, so it produces a rather bland taste.  Sprinkling on the parmesan provided helps but only a little.  The pizza is slightly undercheesed.  On the bright side, the cheese produces no grease, so there is a redeeming quality on this criterion.  Score: 6/10.

Toppings: The toppings appear in moderate quantity.  I tasted no spices in the Italian sausage at first, but the spiciness built the more I ate.  The real problem with the toppings is the pricing scheme.  Each topping is the same price regardless of pizza size, so the personal size is a real loser.  There was only one of me, and I came here on a hiking trip, thus making me unable to store leftovers.  Therefore, my only choice was to order a personal size pizza, so I had to order only one topping to keep the price reasonable.  Score: 6/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: Grimaldi’s offers a pleasant upscale dining atmosphere with a touch of class without being pretentious.  Pictures of New York dot the walls.  The pizza’s appearance is OK except for the undercheesing.  The service was fine on my visit, but I should note that they re-light the oven every day right before dinner rush, and they cannot bake pizzas while the oven is being re-stoked.  Thus, I had to wait about 20 minutes before they could take my order.  Score: 9/10.

Value: And now we finally get to the New York aspect of this pizza: the price!  The quality is good, but this pizza is very overpriced, especially for the personal sized pizza due to the topping pricing scheme described above.  For what you put in your mouth, this pizza is not worth the price.  Score: 2/10.

Taste: The excellent sauce saves what is otherwise a fairly bland overall taste.  Score: 14/20.

The Final Judgment:

I might come here for a change of pace, but the price would keep me from being a regular, and I would never order the personal size pizza if I lived nearby (and therefore had a refrigerator to store the leftovers).  In the brick-oven pizza category, I prefer Brixx over Grimaldi’s.  Score: 54/80.