The Facts:
Pizza: Marco’s Pizza
Business Category: National Chain
Website: http://marcos.com/
Review Location: 1815 E. Greenville St. in Anderson, SC
Date of Review Visit: January 22, 2023
What I Ordered: Large (14”) Pepperoni Magnifico pizza (2 types of pepperoni plus extra cheese)
Price: $10.99 (on promotional special; includes pizza only with tax)
The Micro:
Crust: The standard crust on Marco's Pizza is the thickest standard crust of any national chain, but the thick crust is needed to support the large volume of cheese and toppings, as described below. Besides, the crust has a pleasant bready taste, and I like thick crusts. Score: 9/10.
Sauce: There is plenty of sauce on this pizza, and it has a thick texture with a robust tomatoey taste. The sauce tastes slightly overspiced to me, but that may be due to my preference for sweet sauces. Overall, this is a good sauce. Score: 8/10.
Cheese: The cheese is a little on the greasy side, but there is plenty of it. You can even see the cheese baked into the edge of the crust. This pizza is supposed to have extra cheese compared to their non-specialty pizzas, but I can't honestly say I could tell a lot of difference: their standard pizzas have plenty of cheese too. Score: 8/10.
Toppings: This pizza has plenty of pepperoni, as its name implies. The old world pepperoni comes in thin slices that cup as the pizza bakes, while the traditional pepperoni stays flat on the pizza. The old world pepperoni is slightly spicier than its traditional counterpart. I like the pepperoni combination here, but I like the sweet/spicy combination of Marco's ham and Italian sausage more. Score: 8/10.
The Macro:
Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The golden brown pizza looks great. Even the box is one of the best looking pizza boxes I have ever seen. Magnifico! Score: 10/10.
Value: The quality is quite high, and even at the regular menu price, the price is reasonable. Thus, the value is quite high. Score: 8/10
Taste: The robustness of the cheese and toppings are what really stand out with this pizza. This is hearty fare for the serious pizza-eater, not a light snack for the delicate among us. I like this pizza's taste, but you have to decide if it is what you want. Score: 18/20
The Final Judgment:
Marco's is my favorite national chain pizza. Even though I like one of their non-specialty pizzas more than the Pepperoni Magnifico, I would still recommend this pizza to pepperoni lovers. Score: 69/80
