R&B Pizza Place in Pittsburgh, PA

The Facts:

Pizza: R&B’s Pizza Place

Business Category: Locally-owned

Website: http://www.rbpizzaplace.com/index.htm

Location: 107 Smithfield St. in downtown Pittsburgh

Date of Review Visit: July 11, 2017

What I Ordered: slice of sausage pizza; French fries; Pepsi fountain drink

(lunch combo #1)

Price: $6.06

The Micro:

Crust: R&B’s Pizza Place makes pizza with the thick northern-style crust.  The crust has a nice crispy texture, but nothing else really offends or stands out about this crust.  Score: 6/10.

Sauce: This pizza is quite undersauced, and what sauce there is has little flavor.  Score: 3/10.

Cheese: R&B Pizza has a nice base cheese, but they also add an extra layer of mozzarella on top of the base.  Thus, the cheese is the strength of this pizza. Score: 9/10.

Toppings: The sausage appears in decent quantity, but the ground up sausage has very little flavor.  Score: 5/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The extra mozzarella gives this pizza a white appearance.  The cramped dining area is typical for a downtown pizza place.  The service is counter service and was fine on my visit.  Score: 9/10.

Value: This pizza’s quality leaves somewhat to be desired.  However, the price is cheap, as R&B Pizza offers some of the least expensive pizza in downtown Pittsburgh.  Therefore, this is the place to come for value.  Score: 9/10.

Taste: French fries and pizza is an odd combination, and the crispy French fries may have tasted as good as the pizza.  I never thought I would write that in a pizza blog.  Score: 12/20.

The Final Judgment:

The two pizza places I visited in downtown Pittsburgh arrived at nearly the same final score but by very different avenues.  Pizza Parma has slightly better quality, but R&B’s Pizza Place offers slightly better value.  Score: 53/80.

Pizza Parma in Pittsburgh, PA

The Facts:

Pizza: Pizza Parma

Business Category: Regional Chain (3 locations, all near Pittsburgh, PA)

Website: https://www.pizzaparma.us/

Location: 823 Penn Ave. in downtown Pittsburgh (corner of Penn Ave. and 9^th St.)

Date of Review Visit: July 10, 2017

What I Ordered: Personal (8”) pepperoni pizza; 20 oz. Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $9.62 (on the lunch menu)

The Micro:

Crust: The pizza at Pizza Parma features a thick northern-style crust.  The crust has an extremely tough consistency: I could not cut it with the plastic knife and fork Pizza Parma provides.  The crust’s consistency is probably due to the fact that my pizza was slightly overbaked.  The crust has a nice fresh taste, but the tough consistency keeps this score down.  Score: 5/10.

Sauce: The sauce has a somewhat unremarkable tomatoey taste.  It appears in good quantity.  Score: 7/10.

Cheese: The yummy stringy cheese appears in excellent quantity, but it produces quite a bit of grease.  Thus, a mandatory deduction applies.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The pepperoni appears in good quantity, but it also comes in thin slices with little spiciness or flavor.  Score: 6/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza has a nice symmetrical, somewhat orange appearance.  The dining atmosphere is the cramped no-amenities dining room you would expect from a downtown location.  I actually ordered a personal sausage pizza, not the personal pepperoni pizza they made for me, so the service gaffe leads to a deduction.  Score: 7/10.

Value: Pizza Parma is about average in quality, but it is not too expensive compared to other downtown lunch spots: you can and I did pay $14 for a hamburger in downtown Pittsburgh.  On the down side, the lunch special only saves you $0.50.  Score: 7/10.

Taste: This pizza’s taste is more than passable, but nothing really makes it stand out.  Score: 14/20.

The Final Judgment:

Of the many small pizza places in downtown Pittsburgh, Pizza Parma is one of them.  I found nothing horrific here but nothing particularly commendable either.  Pizza Parma is a passable quick lunch destination but nothing more.  Score: 54/80.