Lamppost Pizza

The Facts:

Pizza: Lamppost Pizza

Business Category: Regional Chain (locations throughout California and Nevada)

Website: http://www.lamppost-backstreet.com/

Location: 3290 Northgate Blvd. in Sacramento, CA (south of I-80, exit 89)

Date of Review Visit: June 19, 2016

What I Ordered: small (10”) thick crust pizza with Italian sausage and pepperoni

Price: $11.09 (includes tax)

The Micro:

Crust: Lamppost Pizza offers several crust options, but I paid the extra $0.50 to spring for the thick crust.  In fact, the “thick crust” is less than an inch thick, and the thickness is mainly around the edges.  Nevertheless, the slightly crispy crust gave the pizza a robust tummy-filling feel even if the crust’s taste is unremarkable.  Score: 7/10.

Sauce: This pizza is slightly undersauced, but what sauce does appear has a nice tomatoey taste without being overspiced.  I like this sauce, but I would prefer to have more of it, especially on a thick crust pizza.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: Lamppost uses 100% mozzarella cheese in sufficient quantity, and the cheese has the somewhat bland taste you would expect from 100% mozzarella.  This cheese does not produce too much grease, so it does have that going for it.  Score: 7/10.

Toppings: Both toppings appear in excellent quantity.  The pepperoni has excellent flavor and is cut thicker than average.  The Italian sausage is spicy but only spicy: it has no independent flavor.  Score: 8/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The location I visited features a medium-sized, nice-looking, functional dining area with a single TV for your dining entertainment.  I was somewhat concerned by the fact that this location had only 1 employee present on my visit, and she spoke only broken English.  The high quantity of toppings dominates the pizza’s appearance.  Score: 8/10.

Value: The price is a little high for a 10” pizza, even after you take the thick crust into consideration.  The pizza’s quality is also good, so the value is about average.  Score: 5/10.

Taste: The quantity of toppings and spiciness of the Italian sausage really dominate the taste buds and give pizza a robust, hard-hitting taste.  The overall taste is not bad, but it does not give the flavorful combination some people expect.  Score: 15/20.

The Final Judgment:

Lamppost Pizza offers a lot of different pizza options, so you can return often without repeating an order.  This pizza ranks slightly above average in my book.  Score: 58/80.

Original Pizza House in Sacramento, CA

The Facts:

Pizza: Original Pizza House

Business Category: Locally-owned

Website: (none)

Location: 661 San Juan Rd. (north side of Sacramento, CA)

Date of Review Visit: June 15, 2016

What I Ordered: medium (12”) pizza with pepperoni

Price: $6.50 (on special; includes tax)

The Micro:

Crust: The crust made by the Original Pizza House has a nice texture: it is brown and crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside. The crust has a fresh bready taste, as it should.  My pizza was baked exactly the right amount.  This is a solid crust, though nothing makes it stand out from its peers.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: The sauce appears in good quantity and has a fresh tomatoey taste, which is not surprising given that California is the top tomato producing state.  Overall, this sauce is near-perfect.  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: The pizza is slightly undercheesed, but only slightly.  The cheese does not have a lot of flavor, but it produces quite a bit of grease, hence the mediocre score on this criterion.  Score: 5/10.

Toppings: The thin slices of pepperoni appear in good quantity.  The meat features just barely enough spices to let you know you are eating pepperoni as opposed to mystery meat.  I only ordered 1 topping for the reason given under the “value” criterion below.  Score: 8/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: Original Pizza House has a small functional dining area with a single TV for your dining entertainment.  The pizza has a clean-cut appearance, and the service was fine.  Score: 8/10.

Value: On my visit, they were running a special for $5 off a 1 topping medium pizza.  This deal made the value extraordinarily good, and it is the reason I ordered only 1 topping.  At full price, the value is still decent.  They offer a large number of pizza sizes to help with the value as well.  Score: 9/10.

Taste: Everything comes together pretty well.  The only real downside is the large amount of grease produced by the cheese.  Only ordering one topping might have hurt this score a little as well.  Score: 15/20.

The Final Judgment:

The Original Pizza House offers a slightly boring pizza but does so with good quality and value.  If I lived in Sacramento, I would come here often.  Score: 64/80.

Yia Yia’s Pizza in Lincoln, NE

The Facts:

Pizza: Yia Yia’s Pizza

Business Category: Locally-owned

Website: https://www.facebook.com/yiayias/

Location: 1423 O Street in downtown Lincoln, NE

Date of Review Visit: June 11, 2016

What I Ordered: 2 slices of pizza (see below for details); Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $11.48 (includes drink and tax)

The Micro:

Crust: The crust at Yia Yia’s has a very thin, tough, almost cardboard-like texture.  The crust has no flavor whatsoever except for some burnt cheese spilled over the edge of the crust.  While not a total disaster thanks to the cheese, this crust is not good. Score: 3/10.

Sauce: This pizza has a low quantity of sauce.  When I did get my tongue on some sauce, it had almost a salsa-like flavor with extra tomatoes.  This sauce may appeal to some people, but it is definitely not my style.  Score: 3/10.

Cheese: On the other hand, the cheese comes in good quantity, especially if you order some of the several extra cheese types.  The extra cheese options also add to the flavor.  I like this cheese blend.  Score: 9/10.

Toppings: All toppings appear in good quantity.  The Italian sausage is just on the spicy side of good, as are the thin slices of pepperoni.  The slightly sweet taste of the ham balances the flavor out nicely.  Score: 8/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: I found the menu quite complicated, so I had a hard time ordering.  That’s unusual for me because I usually walk into a pizza place with a pretty good idea of what I want, as I did this time.  But I could not figure out how to order what I wanted from their menu.  I tried to order 2 slices of Italian sausage, pepperoni, and ham pizza with 2 extra cheeses (parmesan and provolone), but I got 1 slice with said toppings and 1 slice of cheese pizza.  The man behind the counter did not help my ordering attempt one bit, hence a downgrade on the service criterion.  The atmosphere is a typical college-town pizzeria with blaring music (80’s rock on my visit), a dark dining room, and an older building with some nice artwork in the ceiling.  The pizza’s appearance is fine, but the hunk of bread served with each pizza slice is odd.  Score: 5/10.

Value: The value is hard to judge because I am not sure quite what I ended up ordering.  The price is more than I usually pay for 2 slices of pizza and a drink, but how did they price the slices?  Score: 4/10.

Taste: The overall taste would have been too spicy were it not for the cheese and ham.  As is, the taste is decent but not extraordinary.  Score: 13/20.

The Final Judgment:

If you are a student at nearby University of Nebraska-Lincoln, I would sanction coming here occasionally just to get off campus, but there are better pizza options around.  I can see how this pizza might appeal to some people, but it does not appeal to me.  Score: 45/80.